Where Eagles Dare

Where Eagles Dare (1968)

Right up there as one of my favorite movies is the 1968 action adventure “Where Eagles Dare”. Even after multiple viewings since first watching the movie at my grandfather’s farm on British TV in the 1970s the film never gets old, never outstays its welcome. While some might argue that “The Guns of Navarone” or “Ice Station Zebra” are the best Alistair MacLean screen adaptations, an equal number of similar-minded fans of MacLean’s work rank the Richard Burton/Clint Eastwood actioner as the zenith of MacLean’s filmed adventures. All the elements seem to work seamlessly.
Still, the backstory behind precisely how the movie came into existence is unusual in its execution. Normal practice was for MacLean to write a novel which was then optioned by a movie company for a screen version. However, following the success of “The Guns of Navarone” MacLean was increasingly approached to produce screenplays. At around the same time as “Where Eagles Dare,” MacLean had been commissioned by producer Carl Foreman to put together a screen treatment for a sequel to Navarone (stuck in development hell that ultimately became MacLean’s 1968 novel “Force 10 From Navarone”)
So, in the 1960s the sons of Elizabeth Taylor approached their step-father Richard Burton with a rather strange and unorthodox request. As Burton related to the Los Angeles Times in 1968, ” “I decided to do the picture because Elizabeth’s two sons said they were fed up with me making films they weren’t allowed to see, or in which I get killed. They wanted me to kill a few people instead.” We owe a debt of gratitude to these two because the resulting movie “Where Eagles Dare” is now deservedly considered a classic of war cinema, and the favorite for many a movie buff and casual viewer alike.
Burton approached Hollywood producer Elliott Kastner with the request and Kastner thought immediately of Scottish author Alistair MacLean. Most of the novels produced by MacLean had already been adapted for the screen or were optioned already by other companies. Kastner approached MacLean with a fresh idea. Rather than adapt one of his existing novels, would MacLean first write a screenplay for a Boys Own adventure movie with mystery, suspense, and action. Typical to form MacLean returned six weeks later. Kastner loved everything about the screenplay except the title “Castle of Eagles” and taking inspiration from William Shakespeare’s Richard III: “The world is grown so bad, that wrens make prey where eagles dare not perch” he proposed the title we know the movie by today. And what a great title it is.
That MacLean wrote a screenplay before the novel might be one of the key reasons that make the story so cinematic. We have lots of explosions, shoot-ups and not one but two beautiful female spies. Clint Eastwood reportedly hated the script for containing what he felt was too much exposition, so many of the lines originally written for Clint’s Lt. Morris Schaffer went to Burton’s character instead. The result was easily one of the highlights of the movie in the castle’s Great Hall which sees Burton crossing, double- and triple-confusing everyone in sight. Originally, the lines were fairly evenly split between Burton and Eastwood, but director Brian G. Hutton wisely chose to play to his actor’s strengths and classically trained Burton delivers a tour-de-force performance.
The plot, well without giving too much away Burton and Eastwood are members of a commando unit sent into Bavaria to rescue a downed American General. It seems the General is one of the planners of the second front and rather understandably the British don’t want him revealing all the plans to the Germans. To reach the General they will have to penetrate the Schloss Adler, roughly translated as Castle of the Eagles, hence MacLean’s original title. However, as is usual with MacLean, not everything is as it appears.
Some reviewers have commented on the fact that Burton’s character is essentially a bully, barking orders at everyone within earshot. But, this actually makes the movie more enjoyable and if perfectly in-keeping with the top-level agent that Burton is portraying. To make the Great Hall scene work we must believe that the character could hold the attention of a room of German officers, British spies and American officers. Still further critics have noted that the movie starts rather slowly. While this may be true, the movie heats up following the Great Hall scene and I would argue has more action in the latter half of the movie than most fit into their entire length and the first half is hardly boring, ratcheting up the tension and suspense that pays off in spades as the movie reaches its signature scene.
All in all, a rousing action adventure movie that has since assumed the moniker of classic. A true Boys Own adventure that undoubtedly made Burton’s stepsons pleased. Highly Recommended.