The eiger sanction

Not one of Eastwood's best but this 1975 thriller kicks Cliffhanger's arse. In recent years the film has gained something of a cult following and it really isn't a bad movie. Eastwood has made worse - Pink Cadillac, anyone.

The film had been in the planning stages long before Eastwood got hold of it. Originally it was to be a vehicle for Paul Newman, but the actor withdrew from the project.

Clint was then approached and he agreed to do the movie, but he wanted overall control. And so things moved forward with Eastwood as both star and director. Immeditely Clint decided that he would perform the climbs in the film for real. The actor booked himself in for an intense mountain climbing course with Mike Hoover, a renowned climber from Wyoming. The lessons started in Yosemite and culminated with Clint actually climbing Lost Arrow, a 1200-foot spire. It was decided that it would be possible to film Clint high up on the Eiger. In German the Eiger is known as morderwall or killer wall. The mountain is 13,041 feet and the North Wall is considered the most punishing climb in the world.

Now when you see Clint dangling from the mountains in the movie that really is the man. Now, of course, Clint didn't actually climb the mountain. The crew were all transported to the North Face by helicopter but once there Clint performed at heights of over 12,000 feet. One day while filming Clint lost his footing and fell down the mountain before his line caught. He immediately hauled himself back up and launched into a retake.

The film was not well received upon release and is generally considered one of Clint's lesser films. True the movie is no Dirty Harry, and it does drag in places but it's a damn fine movie all the same. Very underrated and not as widely seen as Eastwood's more well known movies. It's always worth viewing though and on a decent home cinema set-up the climbing scenes are truly spectacular.