“The Eagle
Has Landed” is an action/adventure war movie released in 1976 It is firmly in the suicide mission subgenre. It was directed by John Sturges ("The Great Escape") and was his last film. It is
based on the novel by Jack Higgins. It
opens with a reference to Otto Skorzeny’s daring rescue of Mussolini from
captivity. This inspires Hitler to try
to capture “his greatest enemy” – Churchill.
The head of military
intelligence, Admiral Canaris (Anthony Quayle), is assigned the task of
implementing Hitler’s dream. He meets
with an officer named Radl (Robert Duvall), but denigrates the whole fantasy
and wants to just go through the motions.
However, Himmler (Donald Pleasence) gets involved and green-lights the
project. Radl warms to the possibilities
when information arrives that Churchill will be visiting an isolated British
village. Radl chooses a decorated war
hero named Steiner (Michael Caine) to lead the mission.
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| Steiner does not like Nazis |
We meet Steiner (the same
Steiner who appears in "Cross of Iron") as he bucks authority by trying to save
a Jewish woman from the S.S. Steiner is
insubordinate, anti-Nazi, anti-brass, cynical, and worshiped by his men. He ends up getting court-martialed and he and
his men are sent to a penal colony.
Similar to the plot of “The Dirty Dozen”, they are promised forgiveness
if they undertake the suicide mission.
Radl also recruits an IRA operative named Devlin (Donald Sutherland) to
participate. He considers himself an
Irish patriot, not a traitor.
Devlin goes on ahead and makes
contact with a sleeper agent, a woman named Gray. He also meets and charms a lass named Molly
(Jenny Agutter) who inexplicably falls so hard and so quickly that she kills
her beau when he is going to rat out Devlin.
Granted, he was a lummox, but her treason for love is a bit too pat.
Steiner and his men parachute into England
dressed as Polish soldiers. The sleepy
villagers are welcoming and then grateful when one of the Germans saves the
life of a local girl. Unfortunately, the
gratefulness is short-lived as the incident results in discovery of their true
identities. The populace is quickly
rounded up and held hostage in the local church. One of the townspeople manages to escape and
goes up the road to inform an American Rangers unit led by a buffoonish Colonel
Pitt (Larry Hagman) His daddy must be a
general. He looks at the situation as a
chance for glory and disregards the sane Capt. Clark’s (Treat Williams) advice
to go slow.
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| a bazooka in a cemetery - shame |
Pitt does his Custer imitation
resulting in a nicely staged fire-fight that features graphic wounds and lots
of fireworks including some nifty bazooka work.
It’s a disaster and Pitt can’t even defeat Mrs. Gray. His encounter with the spy has a twisted
ending that almost compensates for the tomfoolery.
Capt. Clark arrives with
reinforcements and a brain, so now the German’s are trapped with the hostages
in the church. Steiner, being a human
being, not a Nazi, releases the hostages.
Molly shows him a secret passage out of the church so he can go kill
Churchill (the things a British girl will do for an Irish spy she just
met). Steiner’s crew offer to stay
behind to delay the Rangers and provide us with more violence. Devlin also escapes.
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| the last thing Churchill saw? |
Steiner, now disguised as an
American, manages to get to Churchill.
Does he win the war for Germany?
Hey, if the Inglorious Basterds can kill Hitler, why not?
“The Eagle Has Landed” is not on
a level with “Guns of Navarone” or “Where Eagles Dare”. It is even more implausible than most of the
suicide mission subgenre. The romance
that is thrown in is ridiculous as well.
The acting is a strength. Caine
ably fills James Coburn’s shoes as Steiner.
He has a lot of charisma and it is easy to see why his superiors are
enraged by him and his subordinates are willing to die for him. Paired with “Cross of Iron”, Steiner is one
of the great anti-heroes of war movies.
Quayle is good as Canaris and accurately portrays his disgust with Nazi
schemes. Although the movie is pure
imagination, Canaris was a leading figure in the resistance against Hitler and
even collaborated with the Allies. His
involvement in the plot to assassinate Hitler cost him his life. Devlin is a nice addition and offers a
different perspective. Sutherland plays
him as a charming rogue. The one false note
is Hagman as Pitt. The sudden injection
of comic relief is a bit jarring in an otherwise serious movie.
The movie was filmed in an
English village, so the setting is picturesque.
The action set pieces are well done, but too brief. The weapons appear authentic except the bazooka is a later model.. The score is typical for this type of
movie. It is satisfactory, but does not
stand out like in “Where Eagles Dare”.
The intrigue is also inferior to WED.
It lacks real suspense. You know
Steiner will not hurt the hostages, for instance. One questionable element is the introduction
of American Rangers into a story that should have been limited to Germans and
British. This seems to be a marketing
decision to help with the box office. It
is reminiscent of Sturges’ “The Great Escape” where three Americans characters
were inaccurately added. Can’t the
British defend their own Prime Minister?
I suspect American’s would have been upset if a plot against FDR was
foiled by British forces.
In conclusion, "The Eagle Has Landed" is entertaining, but certainly not one of the 100 Best War Movies. Kurt Steiner will have to be content with his "Cross of Iron" making the list. But then again, he probably would not give a damn about such a list.
Rating
- 6/10
Here is my
updated ranking of the great suicide mission movies:
2. Kelly’s Heroes
3. Inglorious Basterds
4. The Dirty Dozen
6. The Eagle Has Landed
