Dr. Jonathan Hemlock is a professor of art, a highly skilled mountain climber and a former assassin for the US government. He is lured out of retirement when a former colleague is murdered. The targets: the men who killed his friend. One catch: killing one of them will require him to climb his nemesis, the mountain that he has twice failed to scale: the Eiger.Directed by Clint Eastwood, scenic and action-filled but poorly written and hammily acted. Clumsy script with contrived plot developments, one-dimensional characters and dialogue that is ridiculous at times. Had a few moments when I thought "Did they just say that?". Yes, things were different 40+ years ago but some of the dialogue would have been pretty odd even for the 70s. Going with the one-dimensional characters, some pretty hammy acting. Even Clint Eastwood seems quite unconvincing. He can't blame the director - he was directing himself! This all said, the clumsiness and weakness of script mostly occurs in the first half of the movie - it gets better as it goes along. The cinematography is good, with some great Alpine scenes. Despite the generally badly-written dialogue, there are some good one-liners in there too.Overall, beneath Eastwood's abilities as both director and actor and not worth watching.

It's a 'one last job,two actually'plot.The 'job' ,Eastwood plays an ex mountaineer and art loving teacher with a class full of teenage girls, will feed his art obsession. He gets seduced on a plane by a hostess.I swear he says something about raping her as a demonstration of his desire.She's an agent.He's hired to bump off one of the mountaineering team.He doesn't know which one yet.This is a giant hole in the plot but a way to keep you guessing. The team is comprised of an older one with a nympho wife and 2 other Germans or Austrians.One is nice and one is nasty. Clint has to train with an old friend.Tough guy actor Burt Kennedy who spends the whole film angry,shouting obscenities and drinking beer.It's only 70s American beer though. He trains him with the help of a dark haired woman.At this point Clint starts a bizarre set of racist insults.It appears she is Native Indian.David Cassady's dad plays a 70s gay man.All safari suit,cravat,small dog.. The weather on the Eiger turns nasty.Clint survives of course and Burt turns out to be the target. A male fantasy.

"The Eiger sanction" reminds me a little of a Bond movie. Eastwood plays here a spy who looks for a murderer of his friend . Every woman in this movie is attracted to him . He's making smart-ass comments . He likes good art. He's quite independent . The difference between him and Bond is that he's much deeper character . He's aware of the two-faced nature of his job . His bitter towards his bosses . And he actually makes mistakes (unlike Bond) which makes it easy to relate to him.The main reasons to watch this movie are Eastwood , very enjoyable dialogues , naturally looking fights scenes , humor and interesting characters. "TES" isn't too heavy on plot and the action scenes aren't really spectacular. It's quite long (2 hours) and I think that as a book this story is much better.The music by John Williams is cool . The ladies are sexy . The actors and actresses give solid support to Eastwood : Vonetta McGee (secret agent Jemima) , George Kennedy (friend Ben) , Jack Cassidy (homosexual Miles) , Thayer David (boss Dragon). There are some nice twists near the end.Overall , it's a fun and kinda forgotten movie in Eastwood career . I give it 5/10.

"The Eiger Sanction" (1975) starring Clint Eastwood is a spectacular "mountain movie" of the sort big in 1920's German classic cinema.The famous 1929 German movie titled "The White Hell Of Pitz Palou" (1929 Germany) starring young Leni Riefenshahl directed by Joseph Pabst is an example of German "mountain movies" which always included spectacular camera work recording breathtaking icy mountain scenes, most often in the European Alps.World audiences were very enthusiastic about "mountain movies" but few were made after sound movies replaced silent movies."The Eiger Sanction" (1975) is an exception, and a spectacular one.About 50 percent of the movie is taken up with incredible and spectacular camera work of breathtaking and hair raising mountain scenery both in the USA's famous Monument Valley terrain, and also in the Swiss Alps.The Richard Shickel authored biography of Clint Eastwood titled "Clint" reports that a stunt man doubling for the actor-climbers in the Swiss Alps part of the movie was accidentally killed during the shoot, and the entire production was almost shut down as a result."The Eiger Sanction" (1975) shows both the beauty and the danger of monster mountains, and must be counted as among the best outdoor photography ever provided for a Hollywood feature movie.The movie is historically interesting because it mirrored its times (the middle 1970's), which were still part of the counter-cultural revolution and sympathies usually called collectively "the 60's," but actually a period comprising the last half of the 1960's and first half of the 1970's (the 1970's was also "counter-cultural," but doesn't get credit for it when the while era is referred to as "the '60's").Heterosexual interplay and enthusiasms between Clint Eastwood and various attractive actresses part of the movie are part of the show, and are of a sort which later disappeared from movies after the "Sexual Revolution" of the those "counter-cultural times" faded away.The anti-CIA, anti-government sympathies and mentality of counter-cultural times are also seen in "The Eiger Sanction" (1975), which proposes cynically that CIA ordered and staged assassinations were not always necessary or justified."The Eiger Sanction" (1975) is a CIA agent movie which, unlike most others of its type, does not have a final scene where the good guy and the bad guy duke it out at the end, and the bad guy "gets his." The main interest of the movie is the wonderful photography....the movie is sort of an ultimate travelogue of spectacular mountains seen in vivid color and from astonishing angles, with camera work done from helicopters and small airplanes which "gets in close" in almost a surgical way."The Eiger Sanction" (1975) did not go on to become a famous or honored movie listed among the "classics" of its time, but it deserves to be."Jaws" (1975) was made the same year (1975) as "The Eiger Sanction" (1975), and was also produced by Richard Zanuck and David Brown (Helen Gurley Brown's husband!), and also included music composed by composer John Williams."The Eiger Sanction" (1975) included heavyweight support talent, and the result was and still is a true winner.----------------- Written by Tex Allen, SAG Actor.Email Tex Allen at [email protected] Visit WWW.IMDb.Me/TexAllen for movie credits and biography information.