Product Description

Commandos, posing as German soldiers, parachute into a city to rescue a supposed allied general from a Nazi hideaway fortress that can only be reached by cable car.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2615 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-09-02
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English, French, Spanish
• Dubbed in: French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 155 minutes

Amazon.com
Scorned by reviewers when it came out, this concentrated dose of commando death-dealing to legions of Nazi machine-gun fodder has acquired a cult over the years. In 1968 Clint Eastwood was just getting used to the notion that he might be a world-class movie star; Richard Burton, whose image had been shaped equally by classical theater training and his headline-making romance with Elizabeth Taylor, was eager to try on the action ethos Eastwood was already nudging toward caricature. Alistair MacLean's novel The Guns of Navarone had inspired the film that started the '60s vogue for World War II military capers, so he was prevailed on to write the screenplay (his first). The central location, an impregnable Alpine stronghold locked in ice and snow, is surpassing cool, but the plot and action are ultra-mechanical, and the switcheroo gamesmanship of just who is the undercover double (triple?) agent on the mission becomes aggressively silly. --Richard T. Jameson

Customer Reviews

Where Eagles Dare
A great and often forgotten about WW II movie from the 60's that stars Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood. The plot involves a team of Allied special ops forces attempting to infiltrate a German fortress deep in the Alps to rescue a captured American general. Where Eagles Dare is full of plot twists, tense moments and some of the best action scenes of any war movie, including an epic hand-to-hand battle on a gondola hundreds of feet above a frozen Alpine river. The movie provided much of the inspiration for the acclaimed PC game Return to Castle Wolfenstein.

High Octane Adventure
Based on the Alistair Mclean novel (author of the GUNS OF NAVARONE), this terrific mix and action and intrigue showcases Richard Burton as an undercover operative sent with a team to rescue from a Nazi fortress and American general before he can spill the plans for D-Day. Clint Eastwood plays an American Ranger on the team and Mary Ure as Burton's love interest. When making this movie Eastwood figuring that Burton would (acting-wise) steal the show, reportedly told director Brian Hutton, "Just give ME a gun and let me do my thing."

THE BEST MAN FOR THE JOB
IF YOU WISH TO SEE THE MAGNIFICENT ACTING ABILITIES OF RICHARD BURTON EVEN WHEN FACED WITH A MEDIOCRE ROLE THIS MOVIE IS FOR YOU.