My wife wanted to see The Eiger Sanction for the rockclimbing scenes. Then she fell asleep waiting for them. Well, it is a long movie.
Based on a story by Trevanian, this was 1975 movie was Clint Eastwood's directorial debut. He also stars as Dr. Jonathan Hemlock, art historian, mountain climber, government assassin. He was also a rock star and brain surgeon, but they cut that part. He is blackmailed out of retirement to kill one of an international team climbing the Eiger. But first he has to do some training in Monument Valley with George Kennedy and some hot chicks.
In re: Chicks - some shockingly racial and sexual stuff. That Clint is seduced by Vonetta MacGee as "Jemina Brown" might start to give you some idea.
The climbing, on the other hand is awesome. Some amazing zoom shots: From the full mountain, to a part of the trail, to a few small dots, who turn out to be the climbers. Clint clearly does a lot of the stunts, climbing chimneys and ropes, and traversing ice. Gripping stuff, if you could stay awake for the build up.
The politics of the Eiger climb seemed a lot less realistic.The other climbers all seemed like nuts - reckless, egotistical, poorly prepared - I wouldn't have wanted to climb with any of them, even if just to kill one of them.
Final gripe: for some reason, the DVD we got was letterboxed on all 4 sides. We really needed a big theater screen, but we didn't even get the full 32" from our home tv. Closer to 27". But who's counting?
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Inspirations and Obsessions
Podcasts
Movie Time!
Blog Archive
About Me
- Beveridge D. Spenser
- I'm Beveridge D. Spenser, but you can call me Cool Bev. Or Fruity Bev. I'm 6'2", so Tall Bev also applies.
3 comments:
I must admit, I've read The Eiger Sanction twice, and then found out that it was supposed to be a spy/assassin novel spoof, only not everybody got that, including me. This maybe helps explain "Jemina Brown." There was even a "Randy Knickers," I believe (or maybe she was in The Loo Sanction). The mountain climbing in the book is excellent, too. Never saw the movie though. (For some reason I thought Jon Voight was in that one.)
Incidentally, in my opinion, the best Trevanian book is The Main.
OK, I admit I love Trevanian on the strength of 1 book, "Shibumi". The hero's specialties were assassination, spelunking, Basque language, Go, and Volvo repair. Also, kinky razor sex.
Ah, yes, Shibumi. I enjoyed that one, too. I never knew you could kill someone with a magazine before.
I just wanted to report that I did wind up seeing the movie. It follows the book very closely. The main character had a completely cynical view of the world, basically dividing it into 3 groups: fools, hypocrites, and a small circle old trusted friends who are destined to be exposed as either fools or hypocrites. To sum up, Jonathan Hemlock is the only living person to ever have it all figured out. And he's great at parties, too.
I think in the book he never forgave Jemima, but I could be wrong.
Post a Comment