Snow Set Movie 8: The Eiger Sanction (1975)


Another movie in the Snow Set Movie Marathon, and another climbing of a mountain.  The Eiger Sanction is the current movie to be discussed and it involves assassination, mountain climbing, and, sadly, minimal snow.  It took an hour and thirteen minutes for me to even see any snow.  That was a disappointment.  What about the rest of the movie?

Before I answer that question, I guess I should say what it is.  This is always the case.  The Eiger Sanction is directed by and stars Clint Eastwood.  His character is hired to kill two assassins.  After killing one, he discovers that the other assassin is involved in a climbing of a mountain known as Eiger.  Clint Eastwood must now climb that mountain, kill the assassin, and not get killed himself.

Was the movie a disappointment?  Why yes, it was.  I was looking forward to a Clint Eastwood movie that had to do with assassins and mountain climbing and crazy tense situations on Eiger.  The majority of the movie ended up being training to climb, talking with the people that hired him, and not really doing anything to finish his job.  I know it’s not a solid argument to say what I wanted and compare it to what I got, but it is part of my disappointment.

The biggest problem with this movie for me was in the dialogue.  A lot of the dialogue was stiff and felt forced from the actors.  This is no more apparent than in any of the school set scenes near the beginning of the movie.  Actually, thinking about it, the scenes where Clint Eastwood’s character is talking to his “boss” are just as stiff.  I don’t like most of the delivery.

If I had seen this movie when it came out I wouldn’t have ever expected Clint Eastwood to be a director considered for Oscar contention.  Nothing about this movie makes his direction seem to be good enough for that.  I can say that he has improved.

One thing I can say was fairly good about the movie was the music.  I kind of liked how the music fit with what was going on.  I didn’t see who performed the music for The Eiger Sanction, but I would say that it’s my favourite part of the entire movie.  If I were to only have heard the music and not seen the movie I think I would have been fairly pleased.

The Eiger Sanction is by no means a bad movie.  I’m not going to say that it is.  It’s an okay movie.  The problem I had was getting my hopes up and setting the bar too high.  That caused me to be disappointed in the movie.

Next movie up in the Snow Set Movie Marathon is The Shining.  Following that will be the final movie, Dreamcatcher.  Two Steven King based films round out this marathon.  It’s going to be an interesting one.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is "Real Steel" Like "Over the Top"?

When I was going through my weekly movie binge a couple weeks ago, I stumbled upon two movies that I had never seen before that tackled a very similar story.   It was an odd thing to have happen because I didn’t know of any similarities between the two movies.   The first was Real Steel, a movie about a man who participates in robot boxing while bonding with the son that he had left years before.   The second was Over the Top, a movie about a man who participates in arm wrestling while bonding with the son that he had left years before.   Similar?   I think so. Let’s begin with Real Steel.   I watched this one because, why the hell not?   I quite enjoyed the movie and by the end I was rooting for Hugh Jackman’s character to help his robot, Atom, to a victory.   The thing to point out about Real Steel is how good the visual effects were.   I wasn’t expecting too much going in, but I thought they masterfully crafted each robot in a way that it entirely fit its surroundings and didn’t
Read more

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Season 2, Episode 8: The Power Stealer

Image
Last time we sat down with the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers , Tommy was going through some serious stuff.   His powers were running low because Lord Zedd was targeting him.   He felt hopeless.   His friends were comforting him.   There was also a Robo Goat trying to take a powerful sword and use it against the Earth.   There were fights all over the place and an emotional hook that was unmatched in any episode that wasn’t in a multi-part arc. This episode, there might be follow-up to the Tommy storyline.   It would be nice to see more of the struggle with his powers.   Right now, that’s the one throughline that has been playing out.   II hope this episode continues to have some sort of meaning to the overall story, instead of being a self-contained and meaningless.   The show needs to grow and evolve, with a storyline that builds to something significant.   Having episodes that keep the story at a standstill is boring.   The story needs to move forward.   Will this episode d
Read more

A Short Description of how Baby's Day Out (1994) is a Live Action Cartoon

Image
Animated movies have been a large fixture throughout cinematic history.   There is currently an Academy Award category devoted entirely to animated features.   They are an important part of the cinematic landscape.   Movies would be completely different if not for the animated films that have been popular throughout the past century. Children have always been a large part of the popularity of cartoons.   This has not been solely a movie based genre.   Television also thrives on animated shows.   As a child, I can remember watching cartoons on Saturday mornings.   In the children’s cartoons, characters could be forced into dangerous predicaments, get injured or nearly killed, and continue on with their lives as if nothing ever happened to them.   This was the way of cartoons such as Looney Toons , where Elmer Fudd, Wile E. Coyote, Daffy Duck, and Yosemite Sam would always suffer great physical trauma, then return to their normal selves in the next scene. This is probably
Read more