In The Eiger Sanction, Clint Eastwood plays art history professor and collector. He's your typical pipe smoking scholar who has at least enough character to fend off advances from amorous coeds. If those coeds only knew that he's a retired assassin from a CIA like agency. I'm betting that danger factor would be one real big turn on.
Anyway he's called back to service by his former boss, a truly loathsome character that both Clint and the audience hate, Thayer David. They want him to take out a couple of guys who killed another agent who had saved Clint's life once. There even giving him a bonus, a chance to get the guy who betrayed him back in the day.
Why is Clint's services so necessary? Because one of the two men is going to be on a mountain climb, a mountain called the Eiger in the Swiss Alps. Back in the day Clint was also a climber, but he's kind of rusty. It's off to George Kennedy's mountain climbing school to chip off the rust and get back into shape.
The film kind of drags during the first half and really does itself no service when the really loathsome villain is killed off halfway through the movie. That would be Jack Cassidy who is an international man of intrigue, gay as well. After the Stonewall Riots gays became more open as film characters, but as often as not were made villains. Cassidy is a truly evil man and they really should have saved his demise until the end.
The location cinematography in John Ford's Monument Valley and in the Swiss Alps is breathtaking. The climax is the climb up the Eiger and is done well. It must have been a rugged shooting location for Clint and the cast.
Another truly loathsome character is Eastwood's fellow agent Gregory Walcott. He makes up for skill on the job with braggadocio. Vonetta McGee plays a Grace Jones type agent as well who gets to kanoodle with Clint, lucky girl.
The story of The Eiger Sanction drags in spots, but picks up at the end with the mountain climbing in the Alps. Eastwood fans will like it, others may or may not. It would help if you're into mountaineering.
Anyway he's called back to service by his former boss, a truly loathsome character that both Clint and the audience hate, Thayer David. They want him to take out a couple of guys who killed another agent who had saved Clint's life once. There even giving him a bonus, a chance to get the guy who betrayed him back in the day.
Why is Clint's services so necessary? Because one of the two men is going to be on a mountain climb, a mountain called the Eiger in the Swiss Alps. Back in the day Clint was also a climber, but he's kind of rusty. It's off to George Kennedy's mountain climbing school to chip off the rust and get back into shape.
The film kind of drags during the first half and really does itself no service when the really loathsome villain is killed off halfway through the movie. That would be Jack Cassidy who is an international man of intrigue, gay as well. After the Stonewall Riots gays became more open as film characters, but as often as not were made villains. Cassidy is a truly evil man and they really should have saved his demise until the end.
The location cinematography in John Ford's Monument Valley and in the Swiss Alps is breathtaking. The climax is the climb up the Eiger and is done well. It must have been a rugged shooting location for Clint and the cast.
Another truly loathsome character is Eastwood's fellow agent Gregory Walcott. He makes up for skill on the job with braggadocio. Vonetta McGee plays a Grace Jones type agent as well who gets to kanoodle with Clint, lucky girl.
The story of The Eiger Sanction drags in spots, but picks up at the end with the mountain climbing in the Alps. Eastwood fans will like it, others may or may not. It would help if you're into mountaineering.