Perfect cast and a good story

Boring

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

I read Jack Higgin' novel before watching the movie and thoroughly enjoyed this presentation. The character of Liam Devlin, a tough Irish nationalist, (played beautifully here by a 'young' Donald Sutherland), was one Higgins re-used effectively in a few novels. In this story, a mission to kidnap Winston Churchill is hatched by the German High Command. The specific plot, a pipe dream of Himmler and Hitler, is concocted by Col. Radl, played skilfully by Robert Duvall, as always. He recruits a team of crack German commandos led by Michael Caine's Kurt Steiner. He and his team have fallen into disfavour, explaining why they accept such a wild, suicide venture. Nonetheless, Radl plants Devlin in Northern England in the fictional town of Studley Constable, where a disillusioned female Boer descendant has indicated the PM will arrive for dinner, cigars and brandy. Intelligence? Check. Team of Kidnappers disguised as Polish Nationals? Check. Means of escape I.e. a Brit- looking patrol boat? Check. What could go wrong? Superb performances by a great cast. Just one change from the book that may cheer you up: Steiner & his men are condemned because they interfere with an S.S. operation to load Jewish captives onto a train headed to a Death Camp. The Jewish girl they load onto a different train gets shot anyway-in the book, she gets away Scot-free! Ponder that as you see how this one finally turns out.

What makes THE EAGLE HAS LANDED special to me is its slight deviation from traditional metrics and the unique feeling I receive when watching this film as a result. The first 35 or so years following the end of WWII saw many movies inspired by the events and or battles that took place in the European theater of war, and most of these flicks conform to traditional depictions of the Allies fighting the Nazis-- usually either a small Allied commando team on a fictitious mission to search and destroy Nazi targets, i.e. The Guns of Navarone, The Dirty Dozen, Where Eagles Dare, Force 10 From Navarone, etc. or cinematic interpretations inspired by actual events i.e. The Great Escape, Patton, Battle of the Bulge, To Hell and Back, A Bridge Too Far, etc.Based on the fictional novel written by Jack Higgins, THE EAGLE HAS LANDED takes a unique spin on the former through its portrayal of a Nazi commando unit dispatched to eliminate an Allied target. Because of this, several unique elements rise to the surface-- First, the unique setting in the English countryside rather than traditional European theater of operations in France, Italy, Belgium, Holland, and Germany. This provides a rather peaceful undertone to the movie as opposed to more traditional worn-torn areas portrayed in other WWII European theater war films. This creates a nice contrast during fight scenes and provides the viewer with a false sense of security.Second and most notably, this film actually makes me cheer for the traditional "bad guys" (to a certain extent), which is very unique in a Hollywood genre and period in which protagonist Allied characters are always supposed to be victorious, right? Okay, so the unique setting and antagonists make this movie special to me and sets it aside from other war films as previously mentioned, but third, the CAST is phenomenal-- Robert Duvall portraying a "Stauffenberg-type" Nazi officer, Donald Pleasence playing an impeccable 'Himmler', Donald Sutherland's character providing the laughs and light undertones, and of course Michael Caine at his best. These actors endear me to the film and provide enough sophistication to diminish less impressive performances seen at various points during the movie. Let's not forget Treat Williams ('Captain Clark') and John Standing ('Father Verecker'), as they execute their character's roles in the film wonderfully as well.This movie does have its slow points early on, but that is to be expected in a 2h 15min film in 1976. The movie also seems to lack a certain production quality if one decides to compare it to the following year's film, A Bridge Too Far, and two years later, Force 10 From Navarone, but this should not be a surprise nor a knock on the movie. All in all, this is a nice, feel-good WWII war movie with a unique, riveting plot and a solid cast.

Watch out for spoilers: It's a cliché to say "the book is better." Some books are, since they have more depth of character. This is not, however, universal. Many screenplays, for obvious reasons, streamline novels, cutting out extraneous characters and making the stories flow much more smoothly. I can point out lots of cases where the movie actually is better.Not here. "The Eagle Has Landed" does streamline the story, naturally. The entire Preston subplot is excised. So is a lot of the back-and-forth yo-yoing of Radl to Himmler. In fact, Canaris has so little to do in this flick, I'm surprised they left him in at all. (Anthony Quayle is wasted as Canaris; Donald Pleasence has a field day as Himmler, and he lets us know what Hamlet means when he says one can smile and be a villain).On the plus side, the screenplay telescopes the story nicely. The novel takes place over months, while the screenplay seems to cover just a few days.Michael Caine is perfect as the German soldier with a conscience, while playing his cards close to his chest. Donald Sutherland is fine as the wry Devlin (replacing Richard Harris, and it's too bad we missed that performance). Larry Hagman, never the world's greatest actor, plays a character who was an idiot in the book and manages to be even more stupid in the movie (so although he did the part well enough as written, he can't help coming off looking unpleasantly like a buffoon; I'm surprised they didn't hire a comedic actor to play the part). I've never been a fan of Jean Marsh so I'm happy with her performance as the faux-British traitor. Jenny Agutter is pertly pretty; that's all that is required of her and that's all she does.But when all the shooting is over, one has never really connected to the characters. In the book one is surprisingly drawn to the IRA assassin and all the men fighting for their German fatherland (or, in Steiner's case, his real father, who is in Himmler's clutches). Confronted, in the movie, with dumb Americans and Brits, angry churchmen, supposedly compassionate characters studded over with Nazi regalia, and a moonstruck girl who shoots an unwelcome suitor in the back with both barrels to keep him from betraying her hit-man lover, there is really no one here for the film-goer to sympathize with.This is where the book's depth of character makes it superior. In the book you even feel disappointed when the Nazis lose, which shows the author's mastery. In many ways the screenplay and the editing improve on the story. But overall, once the shooting starts it's a bore, when that should be the exciting part.

Nazies plot to kidnap Winston Churchill by landing a small task force in rural England.This is a moderately well-made and well-paced war action thriller, with a sturdy if uncomplicated plot, a very good cast, well-staged action, and various plot threads which are mostly - but not wholly - resolved as you would wish them to be.It is interesting in that it is one of the earliest tales from England/USA to put forward a point of view which shows Germans who are not part of high command as conscientiously patriotic soldiers.And thank heavens we had the Yanks over in England to sort it out for us, eh?