Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Dearie me, what was Clint Eastwood thinking when he directed/slept-walked his way through this load of tat?? This film is all about the endless rock-climbing scenes and precious little else. Those scenes in question are impressive in themselves and clearly are exceptionally dangerous to film (before the dreaded CGI effects began their invasion). For a start, "The Eiger Sanction" is on for far too long and needed about half an hours worth of footage removed before being unleashed upon an unsuspecting public! The plot hardly makes any sense after the opening 10 minutes and would barely last the running time of one of those B film programmers. The material that there is, tends to stretch credibility somewhat. I really couldn't believe that Clint Eastwood's character could be either a teaching professor or an operative for the C.I.A. Someone should have told the man that such vocations require something resembling intelligence! I rest my case your honour. Regarding the supporting cast, Jack Cassidy is completely wasted in what amounts to an extended cameo and who isn't connected to the plot in any way. The way he tries to cosy up to Eastwood, he wasn't exactly acting! It is George Kennedy who gives by far the best performance, he is like a rock. His loyal and affable character breaths some much needed life into the proceedings. Like a true professional, Kennedy makes the most out of poor material. "The Eiger Sanction" may have rather lavish production values but that doesn't change the fact that this film offers no intrigue or interest of any kind. Eastwood's direction is digestable but nothing more.

(Originally reviewed: 18/03/2017) This is a picture that is most entertaining and very funny, it doesn't need to retort to crude antics, and it's simply well made, and features some of the most realistic cliff climbing sequences ever put on film. Eastwood fans will lap this up, and as a definite fan myself, I was satisfied, despite this not exceeding his best work, but then again it's hard to out-do your own work, when you have such classics like Dirty Harry and The Good the Bad and the Ugly on your filmography. The story here is fairly simplistic and it probably isn't as smart as it could be, but as a comedy it soars, and for something that has a running time of approximately two hours, it really kept me interested throughout.The humour is consistent and not everything land's, but most does and some real good lines include "Don't forget your trench coat, how will anybody recognise you without your disguise", and "but she's a girl" to which Eastwood's buddy replies "a lot of people notice that, and a rather funny sequence where one man says "You think I can't handle it, to which Eastwood replies "Not even in a locked closet with a grenade". Which are simply a few really funny lines, in a picture that should have been deemed a comedy, because that's how I personally viewed it, and found it extremely enjoyable. Clint is of course excellent as Jonathan Hemlock and the supporting cast are adequate, though I didn't like this two faced, homosexual, I felt his character was rather unnecessary but actor's like George Kennedy who play's Eastwood's friend Ben Bowman, and Vonetta McGee who plays a sort of love interest to Eastwood's character are rather good and have some really solid chemistry on screen with Eastwood himself.The picture looks good, is well shot, competently directed by Eastwood, and has some great cinematography, including scenery of the mountains; it never takes itself too seriously, and it's a lot of fun and has a solid amount of strong comedic value. Overall: The Eiger Sanction is a very good addition to the great Clint Eastwood's body of work.

Wonderfully photographed story dealing with betrayal , secret agents action , greed and killings . A classical art professor and collector called Jonathan (Clint Eastwood went on a three-day climbing course in Yosemite National Park, then practiced at home for several months) , Hamlock (it is a venom , no less) who doubles as a professional assassin, is coerced out of retirement to avenge the murder of an old friend . He is assigned by Dragon (Thayer David) to discover a killer during a dangerous mountain climbing (in which Clint Eastwood preformed the sequence where his character hangs off the side of a mountain by a cable himself without the use of a stunt doublé) . Meanwhile , a treacherous , gay spy (Jack Cassidy) deceives Hamlock , but the latter seeks vengeance . The premise is the following : one of his team is a killer but who? This thrilling film has suspense , noisy action , outrageously overblown roles , tension and extraordinary climbing images . Beautiful Swiss Alps scenery falls to partially compensate for several dreary lapses , faults , ungodly length (128 minutes) and script's shortcomings . Based on novel by Trevanian , though novelist Rod Whitaker (Trevanian) scorned the film as "vapid" and blamed the production for "the death of a promising young climber" . The shoot marked the last time that anyone was allowed to climb the "Totem Pole" in Monument Valley , in return for permission to film there, climbers with the production had to remove all of the pitons, which had accumulated from years of climbing, on their way down. Exciting final climax does not make up for movies's various gaps and flaws . Clint is pretty good as a college professor by day and superagent by night sent to expose a murderer during a risked mountain climb . Clint Eastwood did all of his own stunts, including the scene where he cuts his safety line over a drop of at least one thousand feet ; the only stunt he did not perform was a 2500-foot drop, for which a dummy was used . He is well accompanied by George Kennedy because of the friendship that they had formed on their previous picture, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974). Good as well as international support cast playing brief interpretations and with silly names , such as Vonetta McGee , Jack Cassidy , Heidi Brühl , Thayer David , Reiner Schöne and special mention to Gregory Walcott as Pope . Very real climbing images as well as perfectly staged scenes , being marvelously photographed in Panavisión by Frank Stanley , he fills the screen with excitement and suspense ; showing outrageously mountain outdoors . Atmospheric and evocative musical score by the great John Williams , pre-Spielberg collaboration .This pseudo-James Bond flick was professionally directed by Clint Eastwood , though being overlong and contains some faults . Filmmaker Eastwood better known for his ¨Dirty Harry¨ series such as : The enforcers , Sudden impact , Deed pool ; he subsequently directed his overtly personal movies such as Unforgiven , The Bridges of Madison County , Mystic River , Million Dollar Baby , Changeling and Gran Torino . The Eiger sanction results to be one of just a handful of Clint Eastwood movies in the spy / espionage genre , the films include Firefox (1982), Absolute power (1997 , and Open fire (1993) . Here Eastwood contribute to create an acceptable film , plenty of opportunities for Clint to strut his climbing skills , it's all in good fun and often unintentionally funny .

Someone really has to explain to me how they got George Kennedy to hang out at the top of that rock pillar. That looked just a little too real, didn't it, with him and Eastwood surveying the landscape? Today you could probably pull it off with some cool CGI, but man, that shot was outrageous.So even with a side career as an elite assassin, I couldn't figure how David Garner (Eastwood) could afford all that high priced art. There were the twenty one Pissarro's of course, but also a Monet and a Rembrandt, so right there the film's premise lost a bit of credibility for me. Actually, I thought the name Pissarro was made up for the picture until I just googled it, and it turns out he was a Danish-French impressionist of the late 1800's.Interestingly, this might be the first movie I've seen in which the hired assassin doesn't fulfill his mission, even if the contact who hired him winds up believing that he did. That was kind of a cool twist actually, and made sense after Ben Bowman (George Kennedy) explained things to his former protégé and climbing partner. Kennedy really let loose in this picture, and I got a kick out of his character when he first came on the scene to pick up Garner in the desert. But come on, how is it this limping man managed to keep pace with Eastwood on that first training run and later on climbing up The Tower? The only time I ever saw him limp was when Eastwood's character did.You know, I was so intrigued by Eastwood's "Screw Marlon Brando" line I had to look it up. Back in 1973 when Brando sent an actress using the alias Sacheen Littlefeather to refuse his Oscar for "The Godfather", his action was widely condemned. During the same awards ceremony, Eastwood, who was presenting the award, remarked he didn't know whether he should dedicate it to all the cowboys shot in John Ford's Westerns. Apparently Clint carried the grudge over to this film, though to viewers who aren't in the know, the line coming out of nowhere won't make any sense at all.