It’s a long time since I last saw the film Where Eagles Dare – it was probably a rainy Sunday afternoon in the 1980s – but Geoff Dyer’s new book made me want to watch it all over again. His love for the film, formed when he first saw it as a boy, is everywhere evident in his scene-by-scene description, though he doesn’t take it too seriously. He admits that the plot is at times preposterous, with the rucksacks carried by the main characters seemingly bottomless and carrying endless supplies of explosives. He’s very funny too on the two lead actors, Clint Eastwood and Richard Burton, describing the trademark Eastwood squint as he lays waste to hordes of Nazis, and quoting Burton’s diaries, in which he wonders why he agreed to appear in such blockbusters when he could be winning Oscars instead. Read my Sunday Times review here
Ian Critchley 