The Eagle Has Landed

This week we're going back to WWII with the movie:

The Eagle Has Landed (1976).

More often than not I have the problem that I can't talk too much about a movie without spoiling it. This time that is not a problem.

The Eagle Has Landed is all about a Nazi plan to kidnap Sir Winston Churchill and bring him back to Germany. To no ones surprise this does not succeed since they didn't and still don't make movies where the Nazis get a strong win.

This movie has an amazing cast with Michael Caine, Donald Sutherland, Robert Duvall, Jenny Agutter, Donald Pleasence. Treat Williams, Larry Hagman, even the famous Swedish actor and singer Sven-Bertil Taube. Two of the actors went on to play Indiana Jones villains. I found so many familiar faces it became impossible to keep track of them all. The Eagle Has Landed is directed by legendary director John Sturges (The Great Escape and The Magnificent Seven) and it was in fact his final movie.

Inspired by the rescue of Benito Mussolini, Hitler wants German military intelligence chief Admiral Wilhelm Canaris to plan the kidnapping of Churchill. He turns the operation over to Colonel Radl (Duvall) who recruits paratrooper Colonel Steiner (Caine) and his men. They also have the help of IRA man for hire Devlin (Sutherland) who goes in first to prep the way for the paratroopers. Predictably enough things go wrong and the German paratroopers find themselves in a fight against US Rangers led by the hysterical Colonel Pitts (Hagman).

The Eagle Has Landed is weird movie to watch. It has so many actors that I like and admire that play Nazis and I found myself wanting the actors to succeed and their characters to fail. It was a confusing movie to watch on an emotional level. Despite that, this is a good movie. It feels very real from start to finish. All the actors are incredibly good, especially Donald Pleasence who plays Heinrich Himmler and gives a terrifying performance.

Michael Caine stated that he was excited to work with the legendary John Sturges but was very disappointed that for Sturges it was only a paycheck. He took the job to make more money for his deep sea fishing hobby and left as soon as his job was done. This makes the editing a bit wonky at times which does show from time to time. He later stated: “The picture wasn't bad, but I still get angry when I think of what it could have been with the right director. We had committed the old European sin of being impressed by someone, just because he came from Hollywood."

The Eagle Has Landed is over two hours long and for a movie like this it is a bit long, but it never got boring. In fact, I wanted more, especially with Devlin as he infiltrates the sleepy English village.

Fun Fact, there is a water mill in the village where the action happens that is pretty famous. It is the same mill that is featured on the cover of Black Sabbath's first album, Black Sabbath, which is considered by many to be the first metal album of all time.

So, do I recommend this movie? Oh yes, I really do. It's an unusual WWII movie but very good. Sure, it's the actors that make it good, but any fan of war movies that haven't seen it really should.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great week!