THE EIGER SANCTION: Blu-ray re-issue (Universal/Malpaso, 1975) Kino Lorber

 As a director/star, Clint Eastwood would have his least successful venture with The Eiger Sanction (1975), a shamelessly transparent, turgidly scripted and not altogether efficacious homage to the James Bond franchise, after reportedly being offered, but turning down the opportunity to replace Sean Connery as agent 007. Aside: there are all sorts of rumors as to who was offered the part of Britain’s most amiable spy after Connery ‘officially’ retired from the role upon completion of Diamonds are Forever (1971). It seems everyone except for Max Von Sidow, Topol and Marty Balsam were up for consideration at one time or another, leaving the future of Bond – James Bond in grave jeopardy of being Americanized. But The Eiger Sanction, with its mountain-climbing cloak and dagger, at least on paper, seemed like genuinely valiant competition to the Bond franchise, even if its plot can be summarized in one sentence: a classical art professor and collector, Jonathan Hemlock (Eastwood) doubles as a professional assassin to avenge the murder of an old friend. Okay, so we aren’t going to cinema for realism.  But even under the impossibly liberal logic of movie-land lore this one spins a fairly fanciful web of dumb show and deceit and, in hindsight, not altogether to obfuscate or even marginally obscure the cracks in its narrative clumsiness.  

The Eiger Sanction is an impossibly silly little yarn at best; California college prof/ex-military/black market art junkie meets positively weird vindictive albino of spurious means, the leader of secretive organization C-2, appropriately nicknamed Dragon (Thayer David), who offers a king’s ransom for something Jon – on a good day - would do for free - get the man who killed his buddy. The catch: he has to join a climbing party of which the murderer is a part, preparing to scale the Eiger Mountain in the Alps. Is it Freytag – which sounds an awful lot like the German word for Friday, ‘Freitag’ (Reiner Schone), Meyer (Michael Grimm), or Montaigne (Jean-Pierre Bernard)? Hmmm. A lot of ‘training’ follows, Hemlock turning to fellow ex-military, Ben Bowman (beefy George Kennedy, who, despite his consummate professionalism, I really could not take seriously as the go-to guy for health and fitness). Pressure mounts as a tempestuous lover, Jemima Brown (Vonette McGee), and rival, Miles Mellough (Jack Cassidy, playing bisexual, while owning a dog named ‘Faggot’), press Jon into a dangerous game of cat and mouse as he embarks to scale this craterous peak, forcing Jon to place his faith and trust in a fellow hunter of men.

Although beautifully photographed by Frank Stanley, The Eiger Sanction lumbers along with a screenplay by Hal Dresner, Warren Murphy and Rod Whitaker, cribbing from Whitaker’s best-selling novel of the same name, written under the nom de plume, Trevanian. Eastwood is a classics prof like I’m Noam Chomsky, almost immediate recognizing his noblesse oblige approach to crime-solving will have to take a backseat to his more readily ensconced persona as a rough n’ tumble brute, belting baddies and giving every disposable gal pal he encounters a light crack on the butt with equal contempt. This multilayered tale of misfiring intrigues gets bogged down by Eastwood’s rather laconic directorial style, diffusing the elemental quality of suspense essential for any superspy thriller. Instead, we get a lot of travelogue footage cobbled together with flashes of mystery and intervallic fits of violence. The Eiger Sanction definitely suffers from James Bond penis-envy, making the not altogether challenge to squeeze Eastwood’s particular brand of big screen brawn into the more cultured shoes of the elegant spy awkward at best and severely trying at times. Wrong size. Bad fit. There is a disconnect between the movie’s opening scenes, where Eastwood is still amiably endeavoring to do the whole jaunty academic thing, and the latter half of the picture, where he simply discards this bookish Ricco Suave façade in favor of the more familiar ‘Go ahead…make my day’ earthy brand of male machismo he obviously is much more comfortable at playing.

Our story opens with Hemlock as a retired government assassin recalled for two more ‘sanctions’ - a euphemism for officially approved killings. The organization, C2, is helmed by Dragon, an albino ex-Nazi kept alive by blood transfusions. Dragon wants Hemlock to murder the men responsible for the death of another government agent, Wormwood. Begrudgingly threatened with exposure to the IRS, Hemlock travels to Zurich, where he carries out the first sanction for twice his usual fee and a letter guaranteeing no trouble with the IRS. Next, Hemlock hooks up with C2 courier, Jemima Brown who seduces him but then steals his money and exemption letter while he sleeps. Dragon barters with Hemlock for the second sanction. Shortly thereafter, Hemlock realizes Wormwood was, in fact, his old friend, Henri Baq. Dragon informs Hemlock his target is part of an international mountain climbing expedition set to scale the Eiger in Switzerland. The only clue Hemlock has to the man’s identity is he perhaps walks with a limp. Training in Arizona for the climb, with Ben Bowman and his sultry daughter, George, Hemlock also encounters an old enemy, Miles Mellough. Somehow, Miles is too well-informed about Hemlock’s dark purpose. To ensure the integrity of his mission, Hemlock lures Mellough and his bodyguard into the desert, kills the bodyguard, leaving Mellough to bake in the sun.

Hemlock and Bowman arrive in Switzerland, introduced to the other members of the climbing party at the Hotel Bellevue des Alpes at Kleine Scheidegg. The German member, Karl Freytag is an arrogant piece of work whose proposed route up the mountain is adopted by the team. The party ascends the Eiger’s north face but are imperiled by hellish weather. Tragedy strikes when Montaigne is hit by falling rocks and dies. With Hemlock now in charge, the survivalists retreat into a tunnel window that connects to a railroad station inside the mountain. At the last moment, Freytag and another climber, the Austrian, Anderl Meyer (Michael Grimm), fall to their deaths. Hemlock is saved, dangling a few meters from the tunnel. Bowman and a rescue crew make their way through the Eiger to rescue Hemlock, who now takes special notice Bowman possesses a limp. Spared certain death, Hemlock confronts Bowman who confides he has been a double agent for some time, but had no idea Hemlock’s friend, Wormwood, would die as a result. Instead, Bowman became indebted to Miles Mellough for getting George off drugs. Back at Kleine Scheidegg, Bowman sincerely looks to mend his relationship with Hemlock who takes a phone call from Dragon. Dragon is convinced Hemlock murdered all three climbers intentionally to ensure he killed his target. Hemlock informs Bowman C2 believes their target died on the mountain. Even though both men know better, there is no reason to tell the truth now. As Bowman departs, Jemima reunites with Hemlock, but wonders if Dragon was correct.

The Eiger Sanction is more than a bit of an oddity. Eastwood insisted on doing his own stunt work – admirable, I suppose – although proven exceedingly dangerous when 26-yr.-old professional climber and stunt coordinator, David Knowles died during production. The Eiger Sanction has much going for it. So, its ultimate failure as a thriller is just depressing. It takes too long to get to the mountain – the focal point of our narrative – and when we finally arrive, after only a handful of breathtaking mountain-climbing sequences, the movie is over. As such, the big build-up does not dovetail into a satisfactory conclusion. Budgeted at $9 million, the picture earned only $14,200,000 at the box office. Paul Newman was originally set as the star, but withdrew when neither of the early drafts of the screenplay presented to him seemed to satisfy. Eastwood, while possessing no stomach for spy thrillers, was attracted to The Eiger Sanction merely to fulfill his quota at Universal in order to relocate his base of operations for Malpaso to Warner Bros. But Eastwood was determined his character should have more of a motivation to partake in this perilous mountain climb than a paycheck, as was Hemlock’s sole driving factor in the novel. To this end, Eastwood hired novelist, Warren B. Murphy to work on the script; also, to tone down its condescending attitude. Eastwood also hired Mike Hoover – a noted and highly skilled climber to advise during the shoot. Reportedly, during one sequence on the actual mountain, Hoover informed Eastwood he had no choice but to continue the climb, despite Eastwood’s protestations he could not go on. As Hoover later explained, “He (Eastwood) reacted characteristically—he got pissed off. He pulled in his chin and gritted his teeth and with absolutely no technique at all, just blood and guts, he mossed his way up. No skill, no brains, just pure muscle.” 

At 13,015 ft., the north face of the Eiger, (‘ogre’ in German) was well known for its dangers. Indeed, 41 climbers had lost their lives on it – a tally to add one more name when Hoover, toting a handheld camera, and Brit-climber, David Knowles abseiled down to a ledge, gathering their gear. At this precise moment, a huge boulder broke free, instantly killing Knowles and leaving Hoover with a fractured pelvis and severely bruised muscles. Following the shock of the incident and its unprepared wake for Knowles, Eastwood contemplated canceling the shoot. Persuaded by the other climbers to carry on – as a tribute to Knowles, the crew took extra precautions to complete the picture on time, on budget, and without further incidents. Even so, Eastwood’s decision to shoot on the actual mountain met with resistance from his cameraman, Frank Stanley who sustained his own injuries that forced him to use a wheelchair for some time thereafter. Stanley blamed Eastwood for his lack of preparation, publicly admonishing him as “a very impatient man who doesn't really plan his pictures or do any homework.” Recognized for its actual mountain footage – something of a breakthrough in its time – today, The Eiger Sanction plays as little more than footnote to the spy genre, and certainly, even less beyond a blip in Eastwood’s movie career. At the time of its release, Playboy Magazine described The Eiger Sanction as a “James Bond reject” and, with minor umbrage taken in comparing any part of this movie to that otherwise illustrious and long-enduring film franchise, in hindsight it is rather easy to make such a comparison, either as an erroneous attempt to steal Bond’s thunder or ride its tuxedoed coat tails.

Yep – you guessed it: another Kino Lorber reissue of a Blu-ray still readily available as part of Universal’s 7-pack Clint Eastwood Collection. Don’t be fooled. There is nothing ‘new’ about this 2K master. Image quality here is virtually identical to the Uni disc from 2015 – solid, bright colors, excellent contrast, a light smattering of film grain, and only an occasional age-related artifact. The 5.1 DTS is the same also. Kino’s compliment does add a new-to-Blu commentary from Nick Pinkerton, and, a new interview puff piece with Reiner Schöne, plus an archival interview with Heidi Brühl and 8-min. promo reel and theatrical trailer, radio and TV spots and a poster gallery.  Thanks, but again, reversible artwork and a cardboard slipcase do NOT constitute extra features. It’s swag – and barely that! Kino’ stand-alone disc currently retails for just under $20. You can own this movie, plus 6 more Eastwood offerings from his Universal tenure in identical 1080p transfers for only $25! Do the math. This one’s not a smart decision, especially for a so-so movie. Bottom line: pass, and be glad that you did.

FILM RATING (out of 5 – 5 being the best)

2.5

VIDEO/AUDIO

3.5

EXTRAS

2