jovana-13676 This is almost like a Bond movie: beautiful women, crazy and somehow scarred villain, great fight scenes, INCREDIBLE climbing scenes, stylish costumes and luxurious locations. You want to see Eastwood as a bespectacled professor who is actually a spy. Why he needs to climb some mountain now escapes me, but I watch spy movies for all of the above reasons. When he climbs that Totem Pole FOR REAL, I'm almost about to faint FOR REAL. I love the scenery and how well the costumes match the scenery. Thanks to this movie, I learned about Brenda Venus. So, I would say the casting is great, too. I love all the sexist/racist slurs that actually poke fun at sexism/racism. No one would dare do that today. Or climb the Totem Pole FOR REAL.

johnrgreen 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.

AaronCapenBanner Clint Eastwood both directed and stars in this spy-type thriller as a classical art teacher, collector, and professional assassin(!) named Jonathan Hemlock who has been called upon to come out of retirement to avenge the death of a friend and former colleague, which leads him to a mountain climbing group as the prime suspects, helped by its guide(played by George Kennedy) who must climb the treacherous Eiger mountain to uncover the truth... Failed attempt at a thriller only has attractive scenery to compensate for the poorly plotted and overlong story that moves quite slowly, cluttered with too many bizarre characters. A real misfire from Eastwood.

Cheese Hoven The complete lack of political correctness seems to have endeared this film to some and made them overlook its obvious flaws. The characterisation is weak, the plot rambling and the action sequences largely confined to the last and most interesting portion of the film, the only part which actually takes place on the Eiger. It is a pity that the film takes so long to get here and with so many unnecessary digressions (and much silliness), for the mountain sequences (although not as compelling as they could have been) are easily the most convincing part of this so-so thriller.Clint Eastwood plays Hemlock a lecturer with a secret sideline in adventure. In this respect he is like a prototype for Indiana Jones only he's much darker. While Jones merely tries to redeem lost artifacts for the benefits of mankind (and therefore is an unreservedly good character), Hemlock murders people in cold blood to enlarge his own private hoard of expensive artworks. It is therefore difficult to really care whether he succeeds or fails.It actually becomes more difficult to relate to him as the movie progresses. After he leaves his former friend (a camp homosexual wonderfully played by the much missed Jack Cassidy) to die an agonising death in the desert, any sympathy I had for him disappeared. And of course there is the question left 'hanging' (sorry for the pun) at the end as to whether Hemlock has intentionally 'sanctioned' (ie murdered) several innocent people on the Eiger.Apart from such nastiness there is also a great deal of silliness of a formulaic kind. 'Dragon' is Hemlock's boss- he's an albino with an aversion to light who for some inexplicable reason is the head of the American spy network (how did that happen exactly?) He seems to belong to the world of Austin Powers. His sidekick is Pope another crudely drawn caricature. As indeed is Jemima Brown the sort of over-sexed black chick who were frequent in the early 70s blaxplotation cinema. The scenes where she beds Hemlock only to steal his money is one of the many unnecessary detours.