Eagles Over London Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		2.5
Audio		2.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.5

Eagles Over London Blu-ray Movie Review

Endo Castellari's "other" World War II classic makes its Blu-ray debut with a less-than-stellar presentation.

Reviewed by Dustin Somner October 12, 2009

When I think of Italian filmmaking during the 1960’s, a laundry list of spaghetti westerns come to mind. We’ve all seen the “Man with No Name” trilogy that brought Clint Eastwood instant fame and jump-started his career, but up until my introduction to the war films of Enzo Castellari, I had no idea Italian filmmaking was so prevalent across a variety of genres. Making his directorial debut on the heels of Sergio Leone’s western classics, Castellari honed his skills on several western films, before branching into the war genre with La battaglia d’Inghilterra (Eagles Over London). Originally released in 1969, the film went on to become Castellari’s second most famous directorial effort behind The Inglorious Bastards, which found a new audience thanks to Quentin Tarantino’s recent adaptation (in truth, the two films are connected by title alone). I wouldn’t go so far as to say Italian cinema rivals anything produced by Hollywood during the same decade, but if the war films of Castellari are any indication, I’ve been missing out on some inventive features over the years.

Sprawling landscapes are common despite the film's low budget.

Set during the period leading up to the infamous “Battle of Britain”, the film picks up as Allied forces are evacuating from Dunkirk following the successful infiltration of France by Nazi forces. Having stolen the uniforms and papers of an Allied squadron, a group of SS commandos disguise themselves as British soldiers and accompany the retreating troops back to the safety of their island nation. One of the first British officers to encounter the spies is Captain Paul Stevens (Frederick Stafford), who befriends a German officer named Martin (Francisco Rabal), and unknowingly allows the SS officer to accompany his men and him back to Britain. From there, the story shifts to a Nazi plan to take out Britain’s newly-created radar system, which removes any hint of surprise from an incoming aerial assault. Martin and his German counterparts work from within to eliminate various satellites along the island coast in advance of a planned Nazi invasion. Steven’s begins to suspect the culprits have been acting from within, after a series of dead British soldiers turn up without their ID papers and uniforms (which matches a scene he stumbled onto during the evacuation of France). Fighting against time, he begins a personal crusade to unmask the German spies and protect Britain’s last line of defense against the Nazi onslaught.

I find it interesting that this film and the Hollywood-produced Battle of Britain were both released within a month of each other. They each present a much different focus on the same period in World War II history, taking plenty of liberties in historical accuracy to generate an interesting plot. I’d imagine Battle of Britain went into production long before Eagles Over London, but the quick-churn of the Italian film system still managed to get a finished product in front of Italian audiences a full two months before the American production landed on their shore. On the flipside, the higher budget and prevalence of top-billed American or British actors in Battle of Britain likely accounted for the lack of an American release for Eagles Over London prior to 1973. I know it’s futile to speculate about what went on behind closed doors in the filmmaking industry forty years ago, but at least the two entries in the war genre provide a contrasting take on the same event in World War II history.

Delving into the film we’re here to discuss, I came away with a mixed reaction to Eagles Over London. History buffs might take offense at the liberties taken in retelling a historical event, but if you can get past that one concern there’s actually a very interesting fictional story to be told here. We’re all accustomed to Allied troops infiltrating German bases or camps (Where Eagles Dare is still one of my favorite World War II films), but Eagles Over London provides viewers with a new spin. You could even go so far as to say the British soldiers and military are made to look a bit oafish (with the exception of the brave pilots in the Royal Air Force). Captain Stevens seems to be the only officer capable of getting to the heart of the deadly Nazi plot, and he ends up letting one of the primary spies live in the same house with him. On more than one occasion, we’re left with the impression that the Germans are far more intelligent than the British officers, managing to gain their trust and impose their will as they see fit. It’s never difficult to determine who the bad guys are, but Eagles Over London doesn’t shy away from giving the British military a steep uphill battle to overcome (especially when you consider the ending could have been far different if it weren’t for the actions of one German officer).

The production values are somewhat hit-and-miss, revealing the lower budget of an Italian studio system that focused more on quantity than quality. Castellari uses miniature models and camera trickery in an attempt to generate a large-scale in the bombing of Britain and the destruction of a bridge in the early stages of the film, but despite his best efforts, both sequences look less than convincing. Comparing this film with The Inglorious Bastards (1978), it’s clear Castellari learned a thing or two about directing during the course of his career (reeling back his aspirations to match the budget he’s afforded). Despite several sequences similar to those mentioned above, I was impressed with the large cast of extras utilized throughout the film, and several sets that show an eye for detail in capturing the period nature of the World War II setting. I also enjoyed Castellari’s knack for staging a decent gun-battle, and there’s one especially entertaining sequence where the SS guerilla’s fight off a horde of British officers as they attempt to take out a series of radar towers. It’s not surprising that Tarantino holds Castellari in such high esteem given they both exhibit a gravitational pull toward violent depictions in their films.

Eagles Over London Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in 1080p utilizing the AVC codec (at an average bitrate of 20Mbps), the visual presentation on Eagles Over London won't knock your socks off, but considering this is one of many Italian productions from the 1960's, I'm surprised the original film elements have held up this well over the years. As expected, fine object detail remains hazy during the majority of the runtime, creating an image that appears smooth yet non-distinct. This isn't related in any way to DNR application, since there's still a heavy layering of film grain in almost every scene. Beyond the presence of grain, there's a disappointing level of print damage in a handful of scenes, which are likely a result of poor storage methods during the past 40 years. Intermixed with the film elements captured specifically for this film, we have rough archival footage of actual war planes in action (typically shown in a split screen method), which show absolutely zero benefit in the step up to high-definition. The coloring of the film appears largely natural, though there are several scenes that appear slightly washed out or exhibit a push toward blue. The overly bright appearance from time to time results in a lack of black level depth, but contrast still manages to create a nice level of differentiation. There's still a slight loss of shadow detail in some of the low light scenes, but the frequency of this problem is kept to a minimum.

Although I didn't notice the presence of artifacting or digital anomalies in the transfer, there's a strange visual problem that becomes more and more apparent as we approach the conclusion. Just prior to switching from one scene to another, the top half of the picture will shift slightly to one side. I can't imagine what would create this problem, but it's definitely noticeable in the scenes that take place around the radar room portion of the film (the last 20 minutes or so).

Eagles Over London Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

I know we can't turn apples into oranges, but this Dolby Digital 2.0 audio track is far from impressive. I'm always a proponent of not tampering with the original audio recording of classic films (or at least offering the original track as an option), but it would've been nice to hear the audio presentation without a high level of compression. After all, the bitrate of the audio track registers a dismal 192kbps. Digging into the particulars of the track, I found the dialogue to be a bit on the tinny side, with a tendency to exhibit a degree of crackle during sequences where a character raises their voice to shouting levels. There's also a noticeable drop in volume from time to time, making it difficult to understand the lines delivered by the characters. Equally annoying, is the lack of volume or richness in the musical numbers, which are always drowned out by the dialogue or sound effects. Moving along to the sound effects, Castellari demonstrates a knack for staging some highly impressive action sequences, but the lack of bass in the mix coupled with generic audio effects tends to dampen my enthusiasm for the overall entertainment value of the large-scale scenes. As an example, listen for the sounds generated during the punches thrown in a fist-fight. Each strike results in an identical slapping noise, dulling the impact of the fight sequence. In the end, this isn't a bad audio experience on a dated production, but I'm sure it could have sounded significantly better with the inclusion of a lossless mix.

Eagles Over London Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Before I describe the supplements included on the disc, I want to briefly mention a technical glitch with the pop-up menu, which has a frustrating tendency to remain on the screen after you've selected the "play movie" option. I had to hit the pop-up menu button on my remote multiple times before it finally disappeared (despite the fact that the film was already playing).

Conversation with Enzo Castellari and Quentin Tarantino, Part 2 (1080p, Dolby Digital 2.0, 14:15 min): If you currently own the Blu-ray edition of Inglorious Bastards, this interview segment is the second portion of a recent sit-down between the two directors, who conduct an in-depth discussion of Italian filmmaking and Castellari's prior directorial efforts. More than anything, this is an opportunity for Tarantino to ask his hero some obscure questions that most of us don't have the frame of reference to fully understand.

Eagles Over Los Angeles (1080p, Dolby Digital 2.0, 16:34 min): This extra contains footage of Quentin Tarantino's introduction to a special screening of Eagles Over London in Los Angeles. Castellari eventually appears after a geek-out session by Tarantino, but the bulk of his role comes after the screening when he participates in a Q&A session about the film.

Deleted Scene (1080p, Dolby Digital 2.0, 00:32 sec.): Running a mere 32 seconds, this scene shows a Nazi commander briefing his men on a planned air offensive against London.

Rounding out the extras, we have a high-definition trailer for Eagles Over London and Inglorious Bastards. It appears the Eagles Over London trailer made it past Severin's quality department, since it only fills the top half of the screen (with a severely stretched aspect ratio). If you select the pop-up menu during the trailer, it appears on the portion of the screen with the trailer, rather than showing at the bottom of the screen like it should.

Eagles Over London Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

While Eagles Over London doesn't deserve a spot next to other cinema classics in the war genre, it's still a fine way to spend two hours of your time. The plot might seem a bit convoluted at first as you try to differentiate between the similarly dressed British and German officers, but once you have an idea of who's on each side, you'll be taken in by the game of cat and mouse that plays out. From a technical standpoint, this is a fairly disappointing release that's desperately in need of a major restoration. Since this will likely never happen given the lack of popularity the film's generated over the years, this is probably the best we can expect both now and in the future.