Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

The Eagle Has Landed Blu-ray Movie Review

One giant leap for German-kind.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 26, 2013

Jack Higgins may not be a name that rings many bells nowadays, but in 1975, Higgins (actually a nom de plume for one Harry Patterson) was riding high atop virtually every international bestseller list after a long but not overly successful career as a novelist. The book that put Higgins on the pop cultural map was the hugely popular The Eagle Has Landed, an improbable but incredibly exciting faux historical piece that posited a German plot to kidnap Winston Churchill at the height of World War II. Many people have pointed out some basic similarities between Higgins’ formulation and the classic 1942 film Went the Day Well? (based on a story by Graham Greene), but in 1975, more people may have been drawing comparisons to the thrillers of Frederick Forsyth, notably pieces like The Day of the Jackal. The film version of The Eagle Has Landed came a year after the book’s release, and had an all star cast and crew. Adapting the novel was screenwriter Tom Mankiewicz (son of legend Joseph Mankiewicz), who was then very famous for his James Bond screenplays (Live and Let Die). Helming the film was the iconic action director John Sturges (The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape), and the cast included a who’s who of major stars of the day, including Michael Caine, Robert Duvall, and Donald Sutherland. While the basic premise of the film is at the very least far fetched, Mankiewicz’s screenplay makes it all seem rather improbably possible (to coin a phrase), and Sturges directs with his customary flair and attention to detail. The Eagle Has Landed was a big hit in 1976 when it was first released, and this nicely appointed Collector's Edition Blu-ray presentation will certainly be welcome news to the film’s many fans.

It probably goes without saying that Adolf Hitler was a madman, but one of the interesting conceits The Eagle Has Landed indulges in is how Hitler’s upper command echelons were only too aware of his crazy tendencies. That’s front and center from virtually the first moment of the film, when Admiral Canaris (Anthony Quayle) relays instructions from Heinrich Himmler (Donald Pleasance) to Colonel (Oberst in German) Max Radl (Robert Duvall) that Hitler himself wants a plan developed to kidnap Winston Churchill from England in an effort to demoralize Britain and perhaps bring about a negotiated peace. Canaris himself is only too aware of how insane the plan sounds, and while he avers that Hitler will soon forget about it, he knows that Himmler “never will”, and so he commands Radl to at least make preparatory arrangements, even though he considers the entire idea something of a joke and certainly nothing that will ever come to fruition.

Things get decidedly more serious when Radl is informed that a German spy in England has passed along information that Churchill will be visiting a small unprotected coastal burg called Studley Constable. Suddenly the once unthinkable possibility seems most definitely possible, and Radl is soon summoned to Himmler’s office for a private confab where he’s not only given the go ahead, he’s presented with a personal letter from the Fuhrer himself which instructs anyone reading it to follow Radl’s orders without question.

Radl begins assembling a team for what will be a daring mini-invasion of one tiny corner of England. He brings in a philosophical Irishman named Devlin (Donald Sutherland, sporting a kind of weird red hairdo but a fairly authentic sounding brogue), an IRA activist who may not be totally in tune with Nazi ideology, but who yearns for an English defeat so that Ireland can be independent and unified. Devlin is selected to be an advance man of sorts, parachuting into England and making contact with the spy in Studley Constable, Joanna Grey (Jean Marsh of Upstairs, Downstairs fame) and then within mere moments falling for a local girl named Molly (Jenny Agutter). Meanwhile, Radl has found the perfect man to actually lead the soldiers who will make a land incursion, Colonel Kurt Steiner (Michael Caine), a much decorated soldier who has been court-martialed and officially deprived of his rank after coming to the aid of a Jewish refugee at a train station. Steiner is not fond of the Nazi movement, but he offers a near perfect concatenation of characteristics for this mission, not the least of which is his impeccable English.

An increasingly complex set of interwoven stories then unfolds, as the Germans do indeed make their way to Studley Constable but find their plan interrupted by an unlikely altruistic move which reveals their identities. A nearby group of American Rangers, including a “weekend warrior” named Colonel Pitts (Larry Hagman) is made aware of the situation, and a series of daring raids ensues, though the Americans find themselves outmatched as both strategists and actual combatants, at least in the early going. For a film which deals with something that obviously never happened, and which is built on such a farfetched idea, The Eagle Has Landed works up a rather incredible amount of suspense throughout this long section, to the point that some audience members may actually be rooting for the Germans to succeed.

The film perhaps unavoidably cheats a bit in its closing moments with a “nothing to see here, just move along” conceit that may make some viewers feels at least slightly misled. But Sturges is at the top of his game throughout much of this film, staging several great action set pieces beautifully and maintaining a consistent tone with a nicely suspenseful undercurrent running through the film once the Germans get to the bucolic little English town. The “history” here may be questionable, but the entertainment value of The Eagle Has Landed hasn’t been much diminished by the arrival of noisier, flashier fare in the intervening 35-plus years since the film’s original release.

The Eagle Has Landed Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Eagle Has Landed is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Shout! Factory with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.34:1. From a damage perspective, the elements used for this transfer are in more than adequate shape, with relatively few issues to report, and then only very minor ones like occasional flecks and the like. What may bother some videophiles more is the just slightly faded color, which tends to make flesh tones occasionally pallid and which also makes some of the nice location photography pop a little less vividly than might be hoped for. A couple of sequences are very soft when compared to the rest of this generally sharp looking release. One sequence is the train yard segment which introduces us to Steiner, and in fact the first shot of Steiner inside the train car looks like it was shot through a foggy lens (see screenshot 7). The other really noticeable sequence is the section where Steiner and his men are returning by boat after a mission where a couple of them have been killed, where what was perhaps second unit footage is notably softer than the bulk of this presentation. There are also some minimal issues with what appears to be telecine wobble throughout the film where eagle eyed viewers will be able to see very minute shifts from frame to frame. While there are some minor issues here, overall this is still a very nice looking high definition presentation. Grain is intact and very natural looking, the image does not suffer from any overt artifacting, and the general appearance of the film is quite sharp and well defined.

The Eagle Has Landed Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Eagle Has Landed features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix that boasts excellent fidelity, delivering both dialogue and Lalo Schifrin's exciting (if occasionally Mission: Impossible- esque sounding) score with precision and nuance. The last 45 minutes or so of the film, once the battles really begin breaking out, offers some substantial low end and extremely wide dynamic range.

The Eagle Has Landed Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The Eagle Has Landed Revisisted: Invading Mapledurham (1080i; 15:06) is a really fun and interesting piece which visits the village where the film was shot and includes interviews with residents and surviving members of the film crew.


• Tom Mankiewicz: Looking Back (1080i; 10:28) finds Mankiewicz (who sadly passed away in 2010) reminiscing on how he was assigned to write the picture and how he decided to adapt the best selling novel.


• ATV Today on Location (1080i; 9:14) is a vintage featurette detailing the filming in Mapledurham.


• Film Night Location Report (1080i; 5:16) is another vintage piece which includes interviews with John Sturges and Michael Caine.


• On Location in Norfolk (1080i; 3:27) is yet another vintage featurette with Sturges.


• On Location Interviews (1080i; 25:53) is a great compendium of vintage interviews with Caine, Sutherland and Sturges.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 3:00)

The Eagle Has Landed Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Eagle Has Landed takes a while to set its pieces in motion and its players in place, but once everything has shifted to the sylvan English countryside, things get very tense and very exciting in a big hurry. Performances are excellent throughout the film and Sturges keeps everything moving briskly, despite the somewhat padded running time. This Blu-ray comes with great supplements and features generally nice looking video and great sounding audio. Highly recommended.