The Second World War was a conflict involving tens of millions of participants, but for the cinema audience in the second half of the 20th Century it was often reduced to stories about relatively small groups of individuals doing something spectacularly dangerous behind enemy lines. One of the films to use this concept was The Eagle Has Landed, a 1976 war adventure directed by John Sturges.
The plot, based on the novel by Jack Higgins, is set in November 1943, at a time when the fortunes of war had turned against Nazi Germany and its leaders needed new strategies to prevent defeat. Inspired by the famous raid of SS commandos who rescued Hitler’s ally Benito Mussolini from captivity a few months earlier, SS Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler (played by Donald Pleasence) and Admiral Canaris (played by Anthony Quayle), chief of the Abwehr, develop a plan for a similar operation which is to take place in England. The target is British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and the task of capturing the top Allied leader is given to a small elite unit of Fallschirmjäger paratroopers led by Colonel Kurt Steiner (played by Michael Caine). They are parachuted into a village near Norfolk wearing uniforms of Free Polish paratroopers. There, former IRA member Liam Devlin (played by Donald Sutherland) helps them interact with the locals in order to avoid suspicion. Everything goes according to plan until an accident reveals the paratroopers’ true identity to the village inhabitants. Steiner reacts by rounding them up except for one who flees and alerts a nearby unit of US Army Rangers led by the incompetent Colonel Pitts (played by Larry Hagman).
The Eagle Has Landed is one of the rare WW2 action films that uses the basic plot of a small group of individuals facing danger behind enemy lines while having the Axis instead of the Allies as protagonists. The problem of the audience possibly lacking sympathy for history’s ultimate ‘bad guys’ is solved by a script featuring a loveable Irish rogue as part of their team, who is charming enough to seduce a local English girl (played by Jenny Agutter) in the film’s obligatory romantic subplot. Just to be on the safe side, the film also clearly shows that Steiner is not a Nazi, using a scene where he tries to protect a Jewish girl from the SS in occupied Poland. Those aren’t the only clichés in this film. Larry Hagman, in what was arguably his best-known role before starring as the legendary J.R. in the Dallas TV series, delivers a parodical portrayal of US military incompetence and the audience would probably root for the Germans to win if not for the character of his no-nonsense subordinate Captain Clark (Treat Williams in one of his early notable roles) who ultimately gets things right.
John Sturges, a director known for westerns like Bad Day at Black Rock and Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, as well as the WW2 classic action film The Great Escape, seemed a good choice for this sort of film. However, most testimonies from the set tell that he showed little interest in the project, which would ultimately be the last title in his filmography. The audience doesn’t see that, though. A complex plot with a large number of characters unfolds in an audience-friendly way and in the end it all culminates in a spectacular gun battle that wrecks a quiet English village. What ultimately rescues this film from mediocrity is one of the most unexpected and ironic plot twists, providing one of the most memorable endings in the history of the WW2 action genre.
RATING: 7/10 (++)
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