I was aware that there is an excellent war movie called “Where Eagles Dare” for a long time. In recent past, I came across the astonishing information that the movie is based on a book. Long story short, I came across the book couple of weeks back. So, after reading the book, I raced to get and watch the movie.

For all those people who hadn't watched the movie and didn't know or haven't read the book, here's a short summary of the story:

An American Lt. General is brought down near Germany, and luckily (for Germans) he carries the entire plans for upcoming Operation Overlord in his head. He comes down near the southern combined HQ of German Secret Service and Gestapo (again, as luck would have it), and taken to the Schloss Adler, when his Mosquito crash-lands. 4 British agents and one American are pressed in service to get him back before he can open his mouth. Not surprisingly, Schloss Adler stands on a volcanic plug in a valley surrounded on 3 sides by high mountains (including highest peak in Alps) and is only accessible by cable-car. Also, the valley is the location for training HQ for Alpenkorps (supposedly elite troops). The plot then follows true espionage story traditions, and ends with a maybe not-so-expected climax.

The book: definitely worth a read. The movie: Good war movie, but could’ve been made better. By that I mean a little more attention could have been paid on the details in action shots. And secondly when you read the book, you don’t picture Clint Eastwood as Lt. Schaffer. Lt. Schaffer of the book is the true American, there for comic relief. I wonder why they made Schaffer in the movie such a serious person. Can you imagine Clint Eastwood mouthing lines like “I hate horses” and “I fall off them everywhere”?

But still, the movie is not as bad as I am making it (call it a reader's indignation). The movie is a classic, and if I can make a suggestion that the movie be considered in current era of remakes, it is only that the moving backdrop (state-of-art in 1968) kind of intrudes on your Matrix-trained eyes circa 2006. Otherwise, there is almost nothing in this movie to improve on (except maybe to make it true to the book).