The Eiger Sanction [Blu-ray]

Director: Clint Eastwood Clint Eastwood

Overview

Clint Eastwood both directed and starred in this thriller based on a novel by Trevanian. Dr. Jonathan Hemlock (Eastwood) is a professor of art history who formerly had a deadly secret life; he was a hired assassin working with an international intelligence organization. Normally content to collect and study art, Hemlock is forced by blackmail to perform one last hit, or, as the organization euphemistically calls it, a "sanction." The victim will be one of three men attempting a dangerous ascent of the Eiger, a beautiful but punishing mountain range in Swiss Alps. While Hemlock is an experienced mountaineer and willing to make the climb, he's troubled to discover that he does not know which of the other three men scaling the Eiger is his true target. The supporting cast includes George Kennedy and Jack Cassidy; the latter earned enthusiastic reviews for his over-the-top performance as a flamboyantly gay secret agent.

Product Details

Release Date:	11/10/2020
UPC:	0738329251598
Original Release:	1975
Rating:	R
Source:	Kl Studio Classics
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[DTS 5.1-Channel Surround Sound]
Language:	English
Time:	2:09:00
Sales rank:	25,645

Special Features

Audio commentary by film critic Nick Pinkerton; Interview with actor Reiner Schöne; Archival interview with actress Heidi Brühl; Vintage 8-minute promotional reel; Poster and Image gallery; 4 TV spots; 5 Radio spots; Theatrical trailer; 1920x1080p

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Clint Eastwood	Dr. Jonathan Hemlock
George Kennedy	Ben Bowman
Vonetta McGee	Jemima Brown
Jack Cassidy	Miles Mellough
Thayer David	Dragon
Heidi Brühl	Mrs. Anna Montaigne
Reiner Schoene	Karl Freytag
Michael Grimm	Meyer
Jean-Pierre Bernard	Montaigne
Brenda Venus	George
Gregory Walcott	Pope
Candice Rialson	Art Student
Elaine Shore	Miss Cerberus
Dan Howard	Dewayne
Jack Kosslyn	Reporter
Walter Kraus	Kruger
Frank Redmond	Wormwood
Siegfried Wallach	Hotel Manager
Susan Morgan	Buns
Jack Frey	Cab Driver
Reiner Schöne	Freytag
Heidi Bruhl	Actor
John Williams	Composer

Technical Credits

Hal Dresner

Warren Murphy

Rod Whitaker

Warren B. Murphy

Clint Eastwood	Director,Executive Producer
Hal Dresner	Screenwriter
Warren Murphy	Screenwriter
Rod Whitaker	Screenwriter
David Brown	Executive Producer,Producer
Richard D. Zanuck	Executive Producer,Producer
Robert Daley	Producer
Ben McMahan	Special Effects
Warren B. Murphy	Screenwriter
Jennings Lang	Producer
Jim Alexander	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

An extremely silly movie, at least partially by design, Clint Eastwood's adaptation of best-selling suspense author Trevanian's novel is his attempt at an over-the-top adventure in the James Bond mold. From Eastwood's casting of himself as an art professor/assassin (someone from the Indiana Jones camp must have been taking notes) to a camp parade of villains and sexpot femme fatales, the tone here is one of implausibility on a grand scale. Up to an anti-climactic mountainside finale, however, Eastwood wrings great fun from the unwieldy enterprise (the outdated, if not actually mean-spirited, attitudes toward women, minorities, and gays now only contribute to the mixture of intended and unintended comedic appeal). Savvy as usual, Eastwood tempers the silliness with some handsome desert climbing sequences and paces his film like the page-turning potboiler that inspired it. He may be out of his element and The Eiger Sanction a curious sidestep in his career, but it still offers enough guilty pleasures for several movies.