The concept of the movie is both great and original but however the execution of it is not exactly done in the best way possible.
The movie starts of very slow and even perhaps a bit boring. Thankfuly the second halve of the movie is much better once the action and story really start and take more pace and form. It might not be as entertaining and good as other WW II/action movies, meant as entertainment, such as "Where Eagles Dare", "Kelly's Heroes" and "The Guns of Navarone" but it does have some great moments in it which still helps to make "The Eagle Has Landed" a bit of a must see for the fans of the genre.
The story is just great and its interesting to see a movie for once from the perspective of the German side. For once the Germans are not portrayed as ruthless villains but as soldiers with valor and courage instead. The movie is perhaps a bit moralistic in the first halve of the movie (basicly every German soldier shown in the movie openly hates Hitler and is against the deportation of Jews to the concentration camps. It feels too forced all) but nevertheless the perspective the movie is told from is great and works good for the movie. It's too bad that the movie is told needlessly slow at times, while it could had been a great fast paced action-movie.
The movie has a great cast but this is not really an actors movie, meaning that the movie wouldn't had been any better or worse with some other lesser known names in it. It was weird to hear Donald Sutherland talking in an Irish accent and Robert Duvall with a German one. Also Treat Williams in one of his first movie roles was horrible as the American soldier Capt. Clark. On the other hand, it was great to see Donald Pleasance as Heinrich Himmler. Other big names in this movie are Michael Caine, Anthony Quayle and Jean Marsh.
The action sequences are good and definitely the best part of the movie. The movie is somewhat entertaining to watch and it does have some well placed humor at times but its not quite enough to truly uplift this movie to a level of greatness.
This last movie from director John Sturges is a memorable but not perfect one.
7/10
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