The Eiger Sanction (1975)    Universal/Action-Thriller    RT: 129 minutes    Rated R (violence, language, nudity, sexual content)    Director: Clint Eastwood    Screenplay: Hal Dresner, Warren B. Murphy and Rod Whitaker    Music: John Williams    Cinematography: Frank Stanley    Release date: May 21, 1975 (US)    Cast: Clint Eastwood, George Kennedy, Vonetta McGee, Jack Cassidy, Heidi Bruhl, Thayer David, Reiner Schoene, Michael Grimm, Jean-Pierre Bernard, Brenda Venus, Gregory Walcott, Candice Rialson, Elaine Shore, Dan Howard, Jack Kosslyn, Walter Kraus, Frank Redmond, Siegfried Wallach.    Box Office: $14.2M (US)

Rating: ***

 If you ever wondered what it would be like to see Clint Eastwood play James Bond, wonder no more. He plays a Bond-like character in The Eiger Sanction, an entertaining but dumb action-thriller that combines espionage and mountain climbing. It’s entertaining in that it offers up good action scenes and thrilling climbing sequences that clearly aren’t faked. It’s dumb in that the plot makes no sense and ultimately doesn’t matter. Yes, there is a MacGuffin, but nobody seems to care about it too much by the end.

 Eastwood, who also directs, plays Jonathan Hemlock, an art professor who also happens to be a retired assassin for a sinister government agency headed by Dragon (David, Dark Shadows), an albino ex-Nazi with an aversion to light. He wants Hemlock to “sanction” (i.e. kill) the two men who killed another agent in the field. If he agrees to take the job, Dragon will see to it that the IRS never finds out about his private art collection, one he couldn’t possibly afford on a teacher’s salary. Talk about an offer you can’t refuse, right?

 The first target is an easy one. The second will be a greater challenge. Dragon isn’t exactly sure who it is. All he knows is that he walks with a limp and he’s a member of an international mountain-climbing team that will soon attempt to ascend the north face of the Eiger Mountain in Switzerland. It’s a climb Hemlock has already attempted twice and failed both times. For his service, he’ll receive $100,000 and the promised tax exemption letter to the IRS. First thing, he has to get back in shape. To do that, he goes to an Arizona climbing school run by his old friend Ben Bowman (Kennedy, Airport). While there, he runs into former friend turned foe Miles Mellough (Cassidy, Bunny O’Hare). Might he know something about Hemlock’s assignment?

 So I’d like to talk about a major plot hole in The Eiger Sanction. At least I think it’s a plot hole. It involves Hemlock’s second target. The agency head Dragon is supposedly an all-knowing omnipresence with connections everywhere. How does he NOT know the identity of the second target? Now I could be wrong here. It’s intimated at one point that the whole job is a set-up, so it could be he’s just sending Hemlock on a wild goose chase by sending him up that mountain. I’m not clear on this aspect of the story. Like I said, the plot doesn’t make a lot of sense. I guess it’s fine since it ends up taking a back seat to the mountain-climbing stuff.

Now about the mountain-climbing scenes in The Eiger Sanction. They’re some of the best I’ve ever seen. They’re genuinely thrilling thanks to the brilliant cinematography of Frank Stanley (Magnum Force) who was injured during the shoot. It led to a falling out with Eastwood and Bruce Surtees becoming his regular cinematographer. He shoots the sequences in such a way that we know its Clint doing all the climbing and hanging off ledges, not some stunt double. It makes the danger feel more real.

 I first stumbled across The Eiger Sanction while browsing the shelves at West Coast Video one Friday night in summer ’89. I never heard of it until that moment, but it starred Clint and I generally like his movies. This was no exception. Although it wasn’t quite what I was expecting, it was a great way to wile away a couple of hours on a night when I had nothing else going on. Clint is always great. Okay, so his character here isn’t all believable, but neither is James Bond. To his credit, he doesn’t take the role or the plot too seriously. It looks like he’s having fun actually. He receives ample support from a talented supporting cast, especially Cassidy who camps it up mightily as the kind of gay villain that’s now seen as an offensive caricature. Vonetta McGee (Blacula) is good as Jemima Brown, fellow C2 agent and romantic interest. Props also to Brenda Venus (Foxy Brown) as a Native American who assists in Hemlock’s training. Let’s just say she knows how to motivate her trainees.

 I wouldn’t describe The Eiger Sanction as fast-paced, but it is thrilling and compelling. It has Clint Eastwood in the lead which is always a strong selling point. Now I’m really going to throw you for a loop. I’m all for a remake. Although there is no substitute for Clint, I can think of a couple of actors that would fill the role nicely. I only hope if it happens, the makers opt for practical stunts instead of CGI or green-screen. Until then, the original will do just fine.