‘The Eagle Has Landed‘ concluded John Sturges‘ directing career in 1976. Over the course of 30 years, the American director has made 44 films, achieving some remarkable successes in the western genre (‘The Magnificent Seven’, ‘Last Train from Gun Hill’). Action films, some of which were inspired by events during World War II, were another of his specialties, including ‘The Great Escape’. ‘The Eagle Has Landed‘ brings to screen a Jack Higgins novel depicting an imaginary behind-the-lines action in which a German commando allegedly tried to kidnap Winston Churchill. Benefiting from a select cast, the film manages to be even today, at a viewing after 45 years since its premiere, a reasonable entertainment, a more than honorable end of career and a kind of epilogue that makes visible the limits of a genre of productions very popular in the 60’s and 70’s.
We know from history that Winston Churchill was not abducted by the Germans during World War II. What is original in the script of this film is that, unlike most of the war films we know, ‘The Eagle Has Landed‘ is told from the point of view of the Germans. The main hero, Colonel Kurt Steiner, played by the very British Michael Caine, is a hero paratrooper, a devotee military, decorated with the Iron Cross. Steiner does not adhere to Nazi ideology, he is even punished for trying to save the life of a Jewish woman in the occupied countries, but on the other hand he proudly carries the Iron Cross and proceeds without moral hesitation in an action that, if successful, could have changed the fate of the war. None of the Germans, except Heinrich Himler (played by Donald Pleasence), is a negative character. Steiner’s ally in this action is the Irishman Liam Devlin, an IRA activist and an enemy of the British (played by Donald Sutherland) a picturesque character, who commits a few bad things before he falls in love with a young Englishwoman. This ‘humanization’ of the enemy would probably not have passed today without causing controversy, but in 1976 it seems to have been accepted without much dispute. The plot has quite a few unbelievable aspects, but we are in the territory of historical fiction and action movies, so the historical reality must be treated more like a pretext.
As an action movie, ‘The Eagle Has Landed‘ largely meets expectations. He has a good sense of humor, and the action is fast-paced, although the situation is not very credible. The feeling is that we are watching a film written in the ’50s but made in the’ 70s. The characters are well defined, and some of the acting performances are remarkable. In addition to Michael Caine and Donald Sutherland, I enjoyed Robert Duvall‘s acting as the German officer planning the whole action, although he is aware that the war is lost. John Sturges avoids caricature and the choice is correct, at least from a cinematic point of view, the risk being that the approach will be considered too idealized. The soundtrack is composed by Lalo Schifrin, a composer whose music career spans nearly six decades, including the soundtracks and music themes of over a hundred movies and television series, some famous (‘Mannix’! – does anyone remember? and ‘Mission Impossible’, among others). I recommend the movie, it’s a more than acceptable entertainment, and a good starting point for discussions about ‘action movies from another time’.