Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Although fictional, Jack Higgins' novel, and, this movie, is very believable, and, could have been very possible."Send a detachment of highly-trained and seasoned German paratroopers to England disguised as Polish 'Free' paratroopers and into a town that is nearby where Winston Churchill is expected to be...and, assassinate him."SEAL TEAM Six did this same thing with Osama Bin Laden.This is a great movie (and, a great novel)! I remember the evening that my Dad (EN1(SS) US SUBMARINE SERVICE ETERNAL PATROL...RIP) brought me to see this after a family get-together in 1976...and, also feeling badly for my cousin who didn't get to go with us after talking about wanting to see this movie. His dad was a military failure (US Submarine Service 'drop-out' and life-long zero and sworn sissy); and, he just wouldn't let my cousin join us!?!?However, this movie is great - a detachment of German paratroopers, in disguise; lead by a Luftwaffe Oberst (Colonel), and, a Luftwaffe Hauptmann (Captain), who are both fluent in English...work an operation to assassinate Winston Churchill. This is a great and ambitious endeavor.Yet, SADLY, this movie (and, novel) also shows the corruption and cowardice of the Nazi High Command - in-and-how they cover-up their own failures and deeds by blaming and executing those whom they've ordered to follow through with this operation!?!? This is a great operation lead by a great group of 'real' soldiers who are loyal to their country; but, the operation is overseen by cut-throats and corrupt government sleezes who are only looking out for themselves.If you're a World War II buff...this is for you! :)

To lovers of movie curiosities, THE EAGLE HAS LANDED offers the unique experience of watching actors speak in funny accents, whether it be Michael Caine's Cockney German, Jean Marsh's English Afrikaans, Robert Duvall's impeccable RP English, or (best of all) Donald Sutherland's Irish blarney. Beneath such superficialities, however, there lies a movie that makes some important points about human behavior during wartime. In one important sequence at the beginning, Caine's Col. Steiner is shown saving a Jewish girl from the clutches of the SS, even though he risks almost certain punishment as a result. Confronting the Obergruppenfuhrer (Joachim Hansen), Steiner makes an important point about showing humanity - even to one's sworn enemies. When a young girl falls into the jaws of a water-wheel, he sanctions one of his officers to go and rescue her, even if by doing so the officer reveals his true identity as a Nazi agent Steiner shows the same concern for the welfare of his men during their daring raid on England, and expects the same in return. When a wounded officer refuses to board the tug-boat taking him to safety, Steiner reminds him of his responsibilities as a human being, as well as being a member of Steiner's force: the officer has to go, even if he doesn't want to.Steiner's concern for others renders him a highly ambiguous character. On the one hand we should fear his ruthlessness, his obsessive desire to carry out the mission to capture Churchill (Leigh Dilley), even if the odds are stacked against him. On the other hand we admire him for his enduring loyalty to his men. Sutherland's Liam Devlin, a collaborator in the plan, proves equally ambiguous, his ruthlessness as a fixer and fighter has to be balanced against his concern for young Molly (Jenny Agutter), a nineteen-year-old villager who finds the kind of inspiration in Devlin that she could never discover in her long-term English boyfriend Arthur (Keith Buckley). Even Duvall's Colonel Radl is not entirely evil - while sanctioning the plot to kidnap Churchill in the first place, he realizes the risks involved, both to Steiner and his men, as well as himself. At one point he advises a junior officer to return home from the Channel Islands back to Berlin, so as to avoid the inevitable punishment that will result from the failure of the entire operation.While John Sturges' film contains some exciting action sequences - the final shoot-out between the Nazis and the Americans is particularly dramatically handled, with the chocolate-box English village forming a backdrop - the main focus of interest centers on the characters. Even though the Americans are portrayed as 'good' characters, rescuing the terrified villagers from Nazi captivity, their leader Col. Pitts (Larry Hagman) is both inexperienced in combat and entirely selfish, refusing to listen to the (good) advice of the men he commands. As a result he leads his troops into dangerous situations that could have been avoided if he had been a little more meticulous in his planning. Compared to Steiner, he seems rough-and-ready, the kind of man to avoid rather than admire. We are left to reflect on the nature of leadership, a quality that transcends national loyalties. The film itself stands up very well after forty years, even though its basic subject-matter was not new, even at the time of release. Alberto Cavalcanti's WENT THE DAY WELL (1942), based on a Graham Greene story, offers a chilling account of what might have happened if the Nazis had landed in the United Kingdom. THE EAGLE HAS LANDED sketches an equally convincing portrait, even though the British villagers seem remarkably sanguine about the presence of invaders in their midst. One of them (John Barrett) sardonically remarks: "Bloody foreigners again." Nonetheless its story remains highly plausible with a good surprise ending. Definitely worth looking at more than once.

Watch out for spoilers: It's a cliché to say "the book is better." Some books are, since they have more depth of character. This is not, however, universal. Many screenplays, for obvious reasons, streamline novels, cutting out extraneous characters and making the stories flow much more smoothly. I can point out lots of cases where the movie actually is better.Not here. "The Eagle Has Landed" does streamline the story, naturally. The entire Preston subplot is excised. So is a lot of the back-and-forth yo-yoing of Radl to Himmler. In fact, Canaris has so little to do in this flick, I'm surprised they left him in at all. (Anthony Quayle is wasted as Canaris; Donald Pleasence has a field day as Himmler, and he lets us know what Hamlet means when he says one can smile and be a villain).On the plus side, the screenplay telescopes the story nicely. The novel takes place over months, while the screenplay seems to cover just a few days.Michael Caine is perfect as the German soldier with a conscience, while playing his cards close to his chest. Donald Sutherland is fine as the wry Devlin (replacing Richard Harris, and it's too bad we missed that performance). Larry Hagman, never the world's greatest actor, plays a character who was an idiot in the book and manages to be even more stupid in the movie (so although he did the part well enough as written, he can't help coming off looking unpleasantly like a buffoon; I'm surprised they didn't hire a comedic actor to play the part). I've never been a fan of Jean Marsh so I'm happy with her performance as the faux-British traitor. Jenny Agutter is pertly pretty; that's all that is required of her and that's all she does.But when all the shooting is over, one has never really connected to the characters. In the book one is surprisingly drawn to the IRA assassin and all the men fighting for their German fatherland (or, in Steiner's case, his real father, who is in Himmler's clutches). Confronted, in the movie, with dumb Americans and Brits, angry churchmen, supposedly compassionate characters studded over with Nazi regalia, and a moonstruck girl who shoots an unwelcome suitor in the back with both barrels to keep him from betraying her hit-man lover, there is really no one here for the film-goer to sympathize with.This is where the book's depth of character makes it superior. In the book you even feel disappointed when the Nazis lose, which shows the author's mastery. In many ways the screenplay and the editing improve on the story. But overall, once the shooting starts it's a bore, when that should be the exciting part.

Michael Caine is outstanding as Colonel Steiner, an untamed German paratroop commander, who's covert mission is to go to Great Britain and kidnap Winston Churchill whilst on a retreat. The Germans are helped by Irishman Liam Devlin, played by Donald Sutherland, who essentially paves the way for their operation at a coastal hamlet (shot in Cornwall and Berkshire, England). Jenny Agutter plays Devlin's near-jailbait romantic interest in the quaint village, while Larry Hagman and Treat Williams play American officers, the former foolishly gung-ho. Robert Duvall and Donald Sutherland are also on hand as German officers.As you can see from the plot, this is an unconventional WWII picture. It doesn't feature the typical major battles or stereotypical characters and situations of most war flicks. Both Caine and Sutherland shine in their roles, especially Caine as the fearless Steiner. Many memorable moments abound.The film runs 131 minutes but feels shorter.GRADE: B+