Snow Set Movie 8: The Eiger Sanction (1975)


Another movie in the Snow Set Movie Marathon, and another climbing of a mountain.  The Eiger Sanction is the current movie to be discussed and it involves assassination, mountain climbing, and, sadly, minimal snow.  It took an hour and thirteen minutes for me to even see any snow.  That was a disappointment.  What about the rest of the movie?

Before I answer that question, I guess I should say what it is.  This is always the case.  The Eiger Sanction is directed by and stars Clint Eastwood.  His character is hired to kill two assassins.  After killing one, he discovers that the other assassin is involved in a climbing of a mountain known as Eiger.  Clint Eastwood must now climb that mountain, kill the assassin, and not get killed himself.

Was the movie a disappointment?  Why yes, it was.  I was looking forward to a Clint Eastwood movie that had to do with assassins and mountain climbing and crazy tense situations on Eiger.  The majority of the movie ended up being training to climb, talking with the people that hired him, and not really doing anything to finish his job.  I know it’s not a solid argument to say what I wanted and compare it to what I got, but it is part of my disappointment.

The biggest problem with this movie for me was in the dialogue.  A lot of the dialogue was stiff and felt forced from the actors.  This is no more apparent than in any of the school set scenes near the beginning of the movie.  Actually, thinking about it, the scenes where Clint Eastwood’s character is talking to his “boss” are just as stiff.  I don’t like most of the delivery.

If I had seen this movie when it came out I wouldn’t have ever expected Clint Eastwood to be a director considered for Oscar contention.  Nothing about this movie makes his direction seem to be good enough for that.  I can say that he has improved.

One thing I can say was fairly good about the movie was the music.  I kind of liked how the music fit with what was going on.  I didn’t see who performed the music for The Eiger Sanction, but I would say that it’s my favourite part of the entire movie.  If I were to only have heard the music and not seen the movie I think I would have been fairly pleased.

The Eiger Sanction is by no means a bad movie.  I’m not going to say that it is.  It’s an okay movie.  The problem I had was getting my hopes up and setting the bar too high.  That caused me to be disappointed in the movie.

Next movie up in the Snow Set Movie Marathon is The Shining.  Following that will be the final movie, Dreamcatcher.  Two Steven King based films round out this marathon.  It’s going to be an interesting one.

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