In 1944, an American General is shot down over a heavily defended German fortress and imprisoned within. A rescue attempt is at once launched by British Intellegence, since the General must be liberated before being made to reveal Allied plans for an invasion of France. As the mission unfolds, however, double and triple agents begin to appear in the ranks of the rescue team with the added mystery of an American Lieutenant assigned to the mission for reasons unknown. During WW2 a British aircraft is shot down and crashes in Nazi held territory. The Germans capture the only survivor, an American General, and take him to the nearest SS headquarters. Unknown to the Germans the General has full knowledge of the D-Day operation. The British decide that the General must not be allowed to divulge any details of the Normandy landing at all cost and order Major John Smith to lead a crack commando team to rescue him. Amongst the team is an American Ranger, Lieutenant Schaffer, who is puzzled by his inclusion in an all British operation. When one of the team dies after the parachute drop, Schaffer suspects that Smith's mission has a much more secret objective. As SS-Standartenführer Kramer says during the movie: Preposterous! I am a BIG fan of war movies - especially WWII adventure movies - but it seriously took me three tries to make it through this movie without falling asleep (it helped that the third time I watched it during the day). Sure there is plenty of action in it and a couple of great actors (though not here) but there is something about the movie that just didn't grab me. It think it has to be the story line. There are just too many unbelievable elements: from the far fetched plot, to the fact they must have carried about a ton of explosives around, to the innumerable scrapes the good guys just barely get out of. That and I think the characters are too one dimensional.<br/><br/>Other reviewers have compared WED to Guns of Navarrone, but IMO Guns is a far superior movie largely because it doesn't have all the plot twists and because it strikes me as far more believable. The characters have a lot more depth in Guns as well. This movie is a classic! The music is great and so is the performances. Clint Eastwood gives his usual cool, quiet, all American, good guy stuff from his westerns - and it works just as good! I'm not going to dig deep into the plot, but it's essentially about a team of military experts who are supposed to get into one of the most heavily guarded German castles and rescue a very important general who holds crucial information about the allies second front. The castle can only be reached by cable-car, or helicopter and has earned the nickname "The Castle of the Eagles", since only an eagle can get to it. The team travel on top of the cable cars to the castle, and it is also on a cable car, one of the best scenes take place. The German spies in the car find out that Richard Burton is tagging along on top, and a spectacular high-altitude fight takes place. Richard has rigged the car with dynamite and manages to jump over to the other cable car in mid air, just before it blows up - great scene!!<br/><br/>If you are still in doubt, just take my word for it and go and rent it - pronto!!!
Roserm replied
347 weeks ago