I think a part of watching any film based on a classic novel is to determine how well they edit the narrative to fit to the available time. This lack of time robs the story of much of its tension as elements are hurried towards a faster resolution, but I think the choices made were good ones, allowing many of the well loved lines to be placed into the mouths of the actors and for the emotional beats to breath.
In the case of this tale the Gothic elements are well served by the black and white cinematography; together with some melodramatic thunder and lightening.
This version has been adapted to overcome the central coincidence, something of which the Victorians seem to have been remarkably tolerant. Here rather than run to the unknown cousins Jane returns to her aunt, who is given the grace to resolve things with her neice.
Of the versions I have I think this is my favourite movie, only surpassed by the Timothy Dalton BBC series with his bravura performance.
Not what I was expecting, and SOOO close to be really rather good, but it dodged that bullet, twice.
I was expecting this film to be a Hollywood Spaghetti Western. In fact it is more an examination of law in the old west, and the drive to move from being a Territory to becoming a State. Along this journey it veered from being a serious character piece towards being a more old fashioned morality tale, and then ended up in the drink as it fell between both those horses. That said I still felt it was worth the time I spent watching it; it is just that it came sooooo close to being genuinely good, perhaps even noteworthy.
For me the best ending would have been after Eastwood arrived back in the Territory capitol to fall out with the Judge. Walking past the gallows he ends up having a drink in the whore house bar, here he is gunned down by three criminals who has earlier set him on his path. If he had died there it would have been very powerful. But no, he is found and improbably nursed back to health to reach the final denouement. He strikes up a relationship with the women who helps him recover, and here we might have had a FAR more old fashioned Western ending, but no, lets avoid that satisfactory, if hackneyed, ending.
This film is not at all simplistic and there is little in the way of cartoon villainy. If, like me, you like the genre then I would certainly recommend it.
This, despite appearances, is NOT really a war movie; it is a boys own Ripping Yarn, and on that level I love it. Like a souffle it cannot be clumsily manhandled by applying ANY analysis. As long as you go along for the ride it is superb fun with Richard Burton delivering some well honed words with aplomb.
The screenplay was written by the books’ author, Alistair Maclean. I am convinced that Maclean started with the central scene in the Schloss and then worked backwards from there to come up with the improbably series of events that bought all of the actors together in that scene.
One final warning, it probably helps to have been bought up with more, shall we say, ‘traditional’ views in order to enjoy this to the full.
I bought the BR second hand for £3, but even at that cut price I don’t think it is particularly worthwhile on a larger HD screen. As processed by an Oppo 105D I think my DVD rip gets close enough. As with the SD picture the opening scenes are full of crawl. The snow sequences are so poorly lit as to almost look like back projection, and nothing on the BR mends this. The studio and daylight scenes are undoubtedly cleaner.
My main hope had been the DTS-HD soundtrack, but little work had been done to enhance it over the 5.1 DVD track.
A spiffing tale told with lots of fizz, you’ll know if this is your cup of tea; it certainly is mine.
Where Eagles Dare is a classic that immediately captured the imagination of yours truly when I first watched it on the big(ish) screen as an 8 year old. Frankly you could pair up Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood reading the football scores and it would captivate you from the off.
I agree that the Blu-ray doesn’t add much to the DVD, which in turn didn’t add very much to the widescreen VHS - indeed I think the widescreen VHS perhaps worked best in that it successfully masked many of the flaws that must lie with the source material. However, the Blu-ray does look very nice in parts, and frankly, it’s such a great film in its way that you’ll not really care about the dodgy picture in places.
Geoff Dyer’s book, ‘Broadsword Calling Danny Boy’, which is essentially a love letter, is a brilliant read and an excellent companion to the film.
fwiw… reading ‘Alistair Maclean’ books in the 60’s, grammar/high school was a real treat and was happy to see a few along the way make it to the big screen.
Some how this passed me by at the time (1978) and in subsequent years. Browsing through HMV’s collectors Blu-Ray section today I needed something in the 2 for £15 to go with Bad Day at Black Rock so settled on this. Great film with some spectacular action photography.
Jean Renoir is the greatest of all movie directors and La Grande Illusion of 1937 is – along with its companion piece, La Regle Du Jeu of two years later – his greatest picture. Much more than a POW or war film, it’s a deeply felt and hugely successful call for peace and simple human understanding, delivered with flair and without the slightest hint of cloying sentiment.
More than anything, it’s a critique of the extreme nationalism of the 1930s, seen through the prism of the Great War, suggesting that mankind’s common experiences should prevail above political or national divisions. It’s a film of nuance and features a wonderful cast, comprising the cream of French acting talent – Jean Gabin, Dita Parlo, Gaston Modot, Julien Carette, Marcel Dalio and Jean Dasté. Most striking of all are Pierre Fresnay and Erich von Stroheim as the upper class artisto French and German officers who have far more in common than it might at first seem. Both are constrained by etiquette and tradition, and both know that their class is doomed, and that the end of the conflict will only hasten their demise.
A masterpiece that bears endless re-viewing, and which only gets richer and deeper with time.
Hitler and Goebbels both hated the picture and tried to have all the negatives destroyed after the fall of france in 1940.
My wife and I enjoyed this last evening at home. French with English subtitles and was an excellent film.
Brief Description: This is the true story of two young Jewish brothers in German occupied France who, with a mind-boggling mix of mischievousness, courage and ingenuity, will be forced to fend for themselves in order to survive the enemy invasion and try bring their family back together. The heartwarming adaptation of Joseph Joffo s enduring memoir tells the story of the Nazi occupation through the eyes of the two young Jewish boys. Paris, 1941: Joseph and Maurice are the sons of Roman, the local barber. At ages 10 and 12, the boys have so little understanding of the persecution of Jews that Joseph thinks nothing of swapping his yellow star for a bag of marbles.
Brilliant movie semi-spin off from The Thick Of It, again featuring Peter Capaldi as the fearsome spin doctor Malcom "Pol Pottymouth’ Tucker. Other TTOI cast members – Chris Addison, Olivia Poulet, James Smith, Alex McQueen, Tom Hollander, Paul Higgins – appear, but in roles completely different from those they played in the original TV series.
Ther are also appearances from Steve Coogan, Gina McKee, Anna Chlumsky, Mimi Kennedy and, most strikingly, David Rasche and the late James Gandolfini. Political comedy/satire at its best.
After seeing this thing I can now understand why studios didn’t want to make The Irishman. He turned to Netflix in the end and they gave this self-indulgent filmmaker the money and too much freedom to make this 209 minute long outright bad movie…
If you like Star Wars, Blade Runner, Buffy and other sci-fi type stuff then this is a must watch IMV. It has many echoes of the former & other films in it and appears to be the starting piece for the franchise although, it seems, the film wasn’t critically acclaimed.
It’s a visual treat, the storyline isn’t at all challenging and changes/developments are well-signalled. It’s violent and not in that non-injurious way some films manage - here it’s murder & destruction but with some re-creation. I must be old-fashioned as a ‘12 cert.’ seems quite generous.
A tad long at 116mins and some of the elements were slow to play out but it gets there.
It’s one of the few films I’ve watched lately where the CGI blends well and my eyes accepted the enhancement this process brings.
Even the BFI bods think this is a corker – it’s on their “100 Best British Movies of All Lime” list. Talbot Rothwell managed to squeeze an impressive (and probably unprecedented) number of groansome puns into his script, and for Sid there was his ideal role in Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond, the governor of the British colony of Kalabar. But let’s not forget the other CO regulars – Kenneth Williams as Randy Lal, the Khasi of Kalabar; Bernard Bresslaw as Bungdit Din of Jacksi, feared leader of the Burpas; Terry Scott as Major McNutt; Charles Hawtrey as Pte Widdle; Peter Gilmore as Pte “Ginger” Hale; Joan Sims as Lady Ruff-Diamond; the great Peter Butterworth as Brother Belcher; and Snowdonia as the Khyber Pass (the furthest from Pinewood the Carry On team ever ventured).
