THE EIGER SANCTION

Rotten Tomatoes has this film at 70%, which I would say is rather generous of the critics.

Leaving aside the film's attitudes to women, and to gays, which I guess were par for the course at the time, the film suffers from a weak plot which fails to establish any meaningful stakes.

Dr Hemlock's mission, which brings him out of retirement, is to kill an assassin for no especially good reason, his motivation being a combination of greed and a desire to avenge the death of a friend. Unfortunately neither the screenplay nor Clint Eastwood's acting is able to inject any life into his character, so it's hard to care.

The only reason to watch this film is for the spectacular mountaineering photography, with Clint performing some of the stunts himself.  There is a training camp in the US which provides some breath-taking views, but the best visuals come at the film's climax when Hemlock is part of a team attempting the Eiger. One of the team (but who?)  is Hemlock's target but of course Hemlock himself has to be on his guard.

This is a promising setup but unfortunately it has taken us 90 minutes to get to this point (base camp, so to speak). And although some tension is generated during the climb it all dissipates quite rapidly in a disappointing conclusion, not helped by the fact that the real identity of Hemlock's target is no great surprise.

This is Eastwood's fourth outing as director, and coming after the promise of 'Play Misty For Me' and 'High Plains Drifter' it's very disappointing. 

RATING: x Find Something Better To Do