TxMike
I watched this on DVD from my public library. It is one of seven Eastwood movies released on a set of discs. For an older movie the picture and sound are pretty darned good.Clint Eastwood had bit parts in many movies and TV shows and by the time he became somewhat "known" he was almost 30. But then his career really took off. By the time this movie, "The Eiger Sanction", came out he was a movie star. The movie is based on a book and it is directed by Eastwood. His role required a lot of mountain climbing so Eastwood became a mountain climber for the role, reportedly because he thought it was too dangerous to hire a stunt double. So we actually see a lot of Eastwood doing his own mountain climbing, including the scene near the end where he was dangling off Eiger Mountain and encouraged to "cut the rope above you." Tragically one mountain climber in the movie died during shooting.The title reference to "sanction" is to impose a penalty on someone, in this case to assassinate someone during a scheduled mountain climb on Eiger Mountain in Switzerland. Eastwood plays Jonathan Hemlock, professor and art collector, supposedly retired as an assassin for a secret government agency but is pulled out of retirement to avenge the death of a friend. We later learn that everything was a set-up for a totally different reason.With the amount of time spent on climbing, in Monument Valley to prepare, then on Eiger Mountain for the "sanction", it is clear those responsible fr this movie wanted to focus on the scenery and the climbing. Otherwise the story itself is pretty plain vanilla. But Eastwood is a star, his movies are always fun to watch.SPOILERS: As Hemlock goes into the climb with three others he doesn't yet know which one is his target. he supposedly was looking for a man with a limp. But and accident kills one climber, then bad weather forces them to retreat, and descent incidents kill the other two. So, unwittingly, Hemlock gets rid of all of them yet the man with the limp turns out to be his friend, played by George Kennedy.
Jackson Booth-Millard
This was the third film Clint Eastwood directed and starred in, I had no idea what it would involve, and apparently it was rejected by Paul Newman, despite low ratings I was going to give it a try. Basically art history professor and collector Jonathan Hemlock (Clint Eastwood) is a retired government assassin, formerly of a secret government agency called "C2", since his retirement he has a collection of twenty-one rare masterpiece paintings, paid for by the previous assassinations he carried out. But he is forced into one last assignment by his former employee Dragon (Thayer David), an albino ex-Nazi confined to semi-darkness and kept alive by blood transfusions, he wants Hemlock to carry out to work on two more "sanctions", a euphemism for officially approved killings. The sanction is to avenge the death of another government agent, code name Wormwood (Frank Redmond), to kill the two men responsible, Hemlock refuses and insists he is retired, but Dragon threatens to expose his art collection to the IRS. Hemlock agrees to carry out the first assassination for $20,000, double his usual fee, but he refuses to do the second, and the money is stolen by C2 courier Jemima Brown (Vonetta McGee), who seduced him. Hemlock knows that Dragon sent Jemima, Dragon agrees to pay him back, $100,00 plus expenses, if he will complete the sanction, his target is a member of an international mountain climbing team that will attempt to climb the north face of the Eiger mountain in Switzerland. Hemlock tried to ascend the Eiger twice himself, but failed, Draggon cannot confirm the target's identity, but knows that he has a limp, to help Hemlock prepare, he travels to Arizona to train at climbing school, run by his old friend Ben Bowman (George Kennedy), there he gets back into shape, and also gets help from an attractive Native American woman named George (Brenda Venus), later revealed to be Bowman's daughter. There Hemlock also encounters his old enemy Miles Mellough (Jack Cassidy), a former ally from the military who betrayed him, Mellough tries and fails to have Hemlock drugged, Hemlock later lures Mellough and his bodyguard, the bodyguard is shot while Mellough is left in the sun to die. Hemlock is ready to ascend the Eiger, he joins a climbing party at the Hotel Bellevue des Alpes at Kleine Scheidegg, headstrong and condescending German member Karl Freytag (Reiner Schöne) has planned a route up the mountain. The men begin to ascend the mountain, but weather conditions become poor, a French climber is struck by rocks and dies, and later Freytag and the Austrian climber Anderl Meyer (Michael Grimm) fall to their deaths, Hemlock is saved while dangling alone. Bowman and a rescue crew make their way to help, Hemlock notices Bowman limping as he approaches, he recognises he is the target, despite his reluctance to trust him, Hemlock allows Bowman to pull him to safety. On the train returning to Kleine Scheidegg, Bowman to being involved with "the other side" years ago, and his involvement with Mellough, Bowman tries to mend the relationship between him and Hemlock, in the end Hemlock decides to lie to Dragon and tell him that all targets were assassinated, Jemima questions this, while Bowman leaves. Also starring Heidi Brühl as Mrs. Montaigne and Jean-Pierre Bernard as Montaigne. Eastwood does his usual grouchy act fine, Kennedy is alright, and David only seen in red coloured rooms is interesting, but I agree with critics, this is one of the weakest of Eastwood's self-directed films, the first half was sort of interesting, then it tries to be like a James Bond style adventure, some of the mountain climbing drama got my attention, but overall I found the film fairly boring and predictable, a dull and disappointing spy thriller. Adequate!
AaronCapenBanner
Clint Eastwood both directed and stars in this spy-type thriller as a classical art teacher, collector, and professional assassin(!) named Jonathan Hemlock who has been called upon to come out of retirement to avenge the death of a friend and former colleague, which leads him to a mountain climbing group as the prime suspects, helped by its guide(played by George Kennedy) who must climb the treacherous Eiger mountain to uncover the truth... Failed attempt at a thriller only has attractive scenery to compensate for the poorly plotted and overlong story that moves quite slowly, cluttered with too many bizarre characters. A real misfire from Eastwood.
