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The Eiger Sanction (film)

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The Eiger Sanction
Theatrical release poster
Directed byClint Eastwood
Screenplay byRod Whitaker
Hal Dresner
Warren Murphy
Produced byRobert Daley
Richard D. Zanuck
David Brown
StarringClint Eastwood
George Kennedy
Jack Cassidy
Vonetta McGee
CinematographyWilliam N. Clark
Frank Stanley
Edited byFerris Webster
Music byJohn Williams
Production
company
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
Release date
  • May 21, 1975 (1975-05-21)
Running time
123 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$14,200,000[1][2]

The Eiger Sanction is a 1975 American action thriller directed by and starring Clint Eastwood. Based on the novel The Eiger Sanction by Trevanian,[N 1] the film is about a classical art professor and collector who doubles as a professional assassin, and who is coerced out of retirement to avenge the murder of an old friend.[3]

Plot

Art professor and mountaineer Dr. Jonathan Hemlock (Clint Eastwood) is a retired government assassin called on to return to work for two more "sanctions", a euphemism for officially approved killings. During his career with a secret government agency called "C2", Hemlock amassed a private collection of 21 rare masterpiece paintings, paid for from his previous sanctions. The director of C2, Mr. Dragon (Thayer David), is an albino ex-Nazi confined to semi-darkness and kept alive by blood transfusions. Dragon wants Hemlock to kill two men responsible for the death of another government agent, codename Wormwood. Insisting he is retired, Hemlock refuses until Dragon threatens to expose Hemlock's art collection to the IRS. Hemlock agrees, and he travels to Zurich and carries out the first sanction for $20,000, twice his usual fee, and a letter guaranteeing no trouble from the IRS.

Returning from Europe, Hemlock meets C2 courier Jemima Brown (Vonetta McGee), who seduces him and steals his money and IRS exemption letter. Dragon agrees to return them if Hemlock completes another assassination. Hemlock is reluctant, but agrees when he learns that the C2 agent killed, Wormwood, was in fact an old friend of his named Henri Baq (Frank Redmond). He demands $100,000 plus expenses. He is told the target is a member of an international mountain climbing team which in the summer will ascend the north face of the Eiger in Switzerland. Hemlock will be the American member of the team, and must kill one of the climbers—C2 is unsure of the target's identity, and Hemlock is only told that the man walks with a limp.

Hemlock travels to Arizona to train at a climbing school run by a friend, Ben Bowman (George Kennedy), who whips him back into shape with the help of an attractive Native American woman called George (later revealed to be Bowman's daughter). Hemlock also encounters an enemy, Miles Mellough (Jack Cassidy), a former ally from the military who betrayed him in Southeast Asia. He tries to kill Hemlock by hiring George to drug him, but Hemlock survives. Later Hemlock lures Mellough and his bodyguard into the desert, where he shoots the bodyguard and leaves Mellough to die in the sun.

Hemlock travels to Switzerland with Bowman, the "ground man" or supervisor of the climb, and meets the other members of the climbing party at the Hotel Bellevue des Alpes at Kleine Scheidegg. After a brief conflict within the climbing team, mainly due to the headstrong German member, Karl Freytag (Reiner Schöne), the men begin their ascent of the Eiger North Face in poor weather conditions. The French climber is struck by falling rocks and dies. With Hemlock now leading, the surviving members retreat towards a tunnel window that connects to a railroad station inside the mountain, carrying the dead climber between them. At the last moment, Freytag and the Austrian Anderl Meyer (Michael Grimm) fall to their deaths when their anchors come loose. Hemlock is saved, dangling alone a few meters from the tunnel window.

Bowman and a rescue crew make their way through the Eiger to the tunnel window, where they attempt to throw a rope to Hemlock. Hemlock notices Bowman is limping, a sign that identifies him as Hemlock's target. Hemlock says, "You're limping, Ben," reluctant to trust that Bowman will rescue him. Bowman throws him the rope, and Hemlock attaches it, then reluctantly cuts his own rope. He falls onto Bowman's rope, and is pulled into the tunnel to safety.

On the train back to Kleine Scheidegg, Bowman admits he became involved with "the other side" years earlier and had no idea there would be a killing. Bowman admits he had become involved with Miles Mellough because he owed a debt to him, that he had gotten his daughter George off drugs. Back at Kleine Scheidegg, Hemlock is approached by Bowman, who looks to mend his relationship with the assassin—wondering if he still counts Bowman among his "friends". After Hemlock is rejoined by Jemima Brown, he takes a phone call from Dragon who assumes Hemlock killed all three of the other climbers intentionally, to ensure he killed the target. Jemima wonders if Dragon is correct.

Cast

Production

Casting

The rights to the film were bought by Universal in 1972, soon after the book was published, and it was originally a Richard Zanuck and David Brown production. Paul Newman was intended for Jonathan Hemlock. After reading the script, Newman declined, believing the film too violent.[5] With concerns over early scripts, Eastwood contacted novelist Warren Murphy (known for his The Destroyer assassin series) in Connecticut in February 1974 for assistance despite his having never read the book or written for a film before.[6] Murphy read the novel and agreed to write the script but was not happy with the tone of the novel which he believed patronized readers.[6] A draft by Murphy emerged in late March and a revised script was completed a month later.[7] George Kennedy, who had recently finished filming Thunderbolt and Lightfoot with Eastwood was cast as Big Ben Bowman, Hemlock's friend and secret adversary, Jack Cassidy cast as Miles Mellough, and Thayer David as "Dragon." Vonetta McGee of Thomasine and Bushrod was cast as the African-American female C2 operative, Jemima Brown.[8]

Filming

The Eiger

In the summer of 1974, Eastwood travelled to Yosemite National Park where he was trained in mountain climbing by Mike Hoover, a mountaineering cinematographer, technical adviser, and an Academy Award-nominated professional mountaineer from Jackson, Wyoming.[9] Filming in Grindelwald, Switzerland began on August 12, 1974 with a team of climbing experts and advisers from America, England, Germany, Switzerland, and Canada.[8] The climbers were based at the Hotel Bellevue des Alpes at Kleine Scheidegg.[10] The Eiger at 13,041 feet is not as tall as other mountains in the Swiss Alps, but it is treacherous climbing.[N 2] Eastwood's decision to brave the mountain was disapproved by Dougal Haston, director of the International School of Mountaineering, who had lost climbers on the Eiger, and by cameraman Frank Stanley, who thought that to climb a perilous mountain to shoot a film was unnecessary.[10] According to cameraman Rexford Metz, it was a boyhood fantasy of Eastwood's to climb such a mountain, and he enjoyed displaying heroic machismo.[11]

A number of accidents occurred during the filming of The Eiger Sanction. A twenty-seven-year old English climber, David Knowles, who was a body double and photographer, was killed during a rock fall, with Hoover narrowly escaping with his life.[12] Eastwood almost abandoned the project but proceeded because he did not want Knowles to have died in vain.[13] Eastwood insisted on doing all his own climbing and stunts. Frank Stanley also fell but survived and used a wheelchair for some time.[14] Stanley, who completed filming under pressure from Eastwood, blamed Eastwood for the accident because of lack of preparation, describing him as a director and actor as a "very impatient man who doesn't really plan his pictures or do any homework. He figures he can go right in and sail through these things."[15] Stanley was never hired by Eastwood or Malpaso Productions again. Several other accidents and events apparently took place during the filming, but were hidden from the public by the producers.[13]

Speaking with Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times, Eastwood discussed the stunt in which he dangled from a mountain on the end of a cable:

I didn't want to use a stunt man, because I wanted to use a telephoto lens and zoom in slowly all the way to my face—so you could see it was really me. I put on a little disguise and slipped into a sneak preview of the film to see how people liked it. When I was hanging up there in the air, the woman in front of me said to her friend, 'Gee, I wonder how they did that?' and her friend said, 'Special effects.'[16]

Filming locations

Soundtrack

Untitled

Eastwood chose John Williams to compose the original music soundtrack for The Eiger Sanction—his only score in the spy genre. The music is centered around a main theme which is presented initially on piano evoking a sense of sophistication and mystery, then given a much jazzier or pop rendition reminiscent of Lalo Schifrin's material.[18]

The most impressive sections of the score are the grand orchestral cues composed for the mountain scenes. Pieces such as "The Icy Ascent" and "The Top of the World" capture both the beauty of the alpine surroundings and the inherent dangers. The latter title presents the kind of rapturous orchestral celebration now commonly associated with Williams' music.[18] The pseudo-baroque piece "Training with George" presents a lovely string arrangement "demonstrating Williams's remarkable versatility while retaining that musical signature that makes all of his scores so recognisably his." The main theme is reprised in "George Sets the Pace" as a guitar solo with flute harmony. "Microfilm" is a low key action piece, and "Up the Drainpipe" is pure suspense music, different in tone from the rest of the album. The album concludes with "The Eiger", a triumphant and beautiful finale.

Although not considered among Williams' finest scores, The Eiger Sanction soundtrack has a certain stylish allure different from anything else he's done, and is "memorable in some places, beautiful and orchestral in others."[18] The original soundtrack album was released in 1975 on the MCA label, and in 1991 it was issued as a CD on the Varèse Sarabande label.[19]

  1. "Main Title" (2:24)
  2. "Theme from The Eiger Sanction" (2:53)
  3. "Fifty Miles of Desert" (2:50)
  4. "The Icy Ascent" (3:41)
  5. "Friends And Enemies" (3:01)
  6. "The Top of the World" (3:05)
  7. "Theme from The Eiger Sanction" (2:09)
  8. "Training With George" (2:13)
  9. "Theme from The Eiger Sanction" (2:07)
  10. "George Sets The Pace" (2:39)
  11. "The Microfilm Killing" (2:04)
  12. "Up The Drainpipe" (3:18)
  13. "The Eiger" (2:14)

Reception

The Eiger Sanction was panned by most critics on its release in May 1975. A number of critics criticized Eastwood's performance, short of the sophistication of the character in the book. Playboy described the film as "a James Bond reject."[20] Joy Gould Boyum of the Wall Street Journal remarked that, "the film situates villainy in homosexuals and physically disabled men."[20] Several critics did not understand the plot and Pauline Kael of New York Magazine described the film as "a total travesty."[20] The film was a commercial failure, taking $23.8 million at the box office.[20] Eastwood blamed the production company for poor earnings and publicity and left Universal Studios.[21]

See also

References

Notes
  1. ^ Trevanian is a pseudonym used by the American author Dr. Rodney William Whitaker.
  2. ^ The name "Eiger" means ogre in German. The Eiger's north face has earned the German nickname Mörderwand or Mordwand meaning murder wall or death wall.[10]
Citations
  1. ^ Hughes (2009), p.174
  2. ^ "The Eiger Sanction, Box Office Information". The Numbers. Retrieved July 7, 2012.
  3. ^ "Eiger Sanction". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved March 12, 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  4. ^ "Full cast and crew for The Eiger Sanction". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved March 12, 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  5. ^ McGilligan (1999), p.241
  6. ^ a b McGilligan (1999), p.242
  7. ^ McGilligan (1999), p.243
  8. ^ a b McGilligan (1999), p.244
  9. ^ Schickel (1996), p.314
  10. ^ a b c McGilligan (1999), p.245
  11. ^ McGilligan (1999), p.248
  12. ^ Eliot (2009), p.161
  13. ^ a b McGilligan (1999), p.247
  14. ^ McGilligan (1999), p.249
  15. ^ McGilligan (1999), p.250
  16. ^ Ebert, Roger (December 14, 2011). "Mission: Impossible—Ghost Protocol". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved March 12, 2012. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  17. ^ "Filming locations for The Eiger Sanction". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved March 12, 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  18. ^ a b c Southall, James. "The Eiger Sanction: Climb every mountain". Movie Wave. Retrieved March 13, 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  19. ^ "The Eiger Sanction". Allmusic. Retrieved March 13, 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  20. ^ a b c d McGilligan (1999), p.253
  21. ^ McGilligan (1999), p.256
Bibliography


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