I was referred to this lesser known Clint Eastwood movie by a climbing friend I met in Japan, who said THE EIGER SANCTION had some of the best climbing scenes put on film. Being a big Clint Eastwood fan, both of his acting and directing, I was looking forward to seeing this “lost” Eastwood movie. It is a movie definitely of its time, 1972, but I liked how this spy movie turned into a mountain climbing movie.

Eastwood’s character, Dr. Hemlock, has a lot of talents, the first being an art professor, but also the top assassin for a super secret government organization, not to mention being a world renowned mountain climber! That is quite a trio of skills. Somehow, you never doubt Eastwood could be all three, after all, as my friend Chris who referred me to the movie said, Eastwood in real life was a real climber. There were no body doubles for Eastwood, he did all his own stunts.

One other piece of trivia, John Williams did the score.

The movie opens in a college classroom and ends on a mountain side, providing a fair bit of adventure, espionage, some plot twists all in a movie that does not take itself too seriously. THE EIGER SANCTION really shows the skill and talent and bravery it takes to even attempt to climb a mountain like the Eiger and just the knowledge one must have of ropes is almost unbelievable.

I thought I recognized an opening on the mountain where the tram stops used in EIGER, and I was right, I first saw it in the movie NORTH FACE which I watched in 2010 that also showed climbing on the Eiger. This pair of movies would make for a good double feature, but I would suggest watching NORTH FACE first.

Now about an hour after seeing THE AVENGERS I cannot say I feel any real emotion about the movie.  In bringing all the Marvel heroes together, something building over the course of several movies, I cannot say it lived up to expectations.  It was an entertaining movie for the most part, but a very unexpected one as well.

One comment about the movie I read is sticking in my mind, there was nothing at stake in the movie that the viewer cared about.  Of course according to the story the entire fate of the Earth was at stake, but the threat was not focused, not deadly enough to make me ever worry about the outcome.

Even though THE AVENGERS brings together four heroes that had their own movies focusing on their characters and their origin stories, THE AVENGERS itself feels like an origin movie as we are reintroduced to each character and we quickly find out they have no ability to work or fight together at a team.  That was perhaps most surprising, most of the first half of the movie they just spare with each other.  The enemy is not a threat at all during this.

Loki I thought was a very good villain in THOR, but as soon as he arrived on Earth alone I thought this seems really strange, is he that powerful he does not fear all the Avengers??  Most of the movie really though Loki is doing nothing, just waiting for some alien army to come through a portal.

I was really expecting a big series of massive battles, but really there was only one at the very end.  The “war” Nick Fury kept warning about never really happened.

The only character I can say I felt any emotion for was The Hulk.  I really felt empathy for him and cheered for him in the battle scenes.  He obviously looks CGI, but the way they can program emotions into his facial expressions, is the most, and for me, only emotional thing in the movie.  We he roars I felt it.  When he is battling to protect everyone I felt that.  When the aliens focused their attack on him I felt bad for him and wanted him to get out of it.  The other characters?  Not much, save for a little for Iron Man at the very end.

This kind of movie is still mostly just watching a video game, and it did not help that I saw it in IMAX 3D, there was no choice if I wanted to get a reserved seat, only 3D choices.  3D is a fail.  It does not make watching movies better, it just introduces glare and distractions because you are wearing glasses that have frames.  The action in a movie should not extend beyond the borders of the silver screen.

When the Avengers finally stopped fighting amongst themselves and organized for a planned attack at the end, it was great action to watch, but it remains just in theater entertainment only, you will not think about this movie much longer after the end credits.

A rare Sunday night movie viewing continued my civil rights marathon with the excellent IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT.  I really liked this movie that was as much quirky as it was serious about race relations in Mississippi in the 1960s.

The world of the 1960s in Mississippi really is hard to believe.  Just forty years ago you could assault and murder other people basically in public in police presence with no consequence.  I found that people were willing to talk about their involvement in a murder case without a lawyer present shocking, now being so well versed in how arrests and things go from modern crime movies and TV shows.

Sidney Poitier plays the iconic character Virgil Tibbs, a skilled homicide detective from Phili just unlucky enough to be passing through a small Mississippi town on the night a wealthy business investor is murdered.  He let’s himself be arrested with no cause and brought to the police station never revealing that he himself was a cop.  Only once he is only with the police chief does he pull his badge out.  He has a lot more patience than I have!  Then again, being a cop did not keep him from being a target at all.

The racism on the screen in HEAT I would almost say is not overt, at least not like in a movie like MISSISSIPPI BURNING.  The townspeople in HEAT really do not know how to treat the stranger in town who appears to be smarter than all of them combined.  It is great to see the tensions between the local small town cops and Tibbs and who really has the power, and how much.

The movie is not all serious, or at least with the recurring jingle soundtrack playing over transition scenes, and one very strange scene with a diner owner rocking out, there are smiles to be had by the viewer.

Then underlying all this is a very interesting murder mystery plot with numerous red herrings and keen evidence gathering by Tibbs, both physical evidence and his ability to read people.

If there is one criticism of HEAT, is that it never really appeared to be all that hot there!

I like to watch mini to large marathons of similar movies.  For a couple of years I have been watching westerns, last year I started film noir, and tonight continued a new theme started this year on civil rights movies by watching MISSISSIPPI BURNING.  This movie was yet another from my long held mental movie queue.  The title when I first heard it long ago made an immediate impression.

Now finally watching the movie, even though it was rated R, it felt somewhat muted, at least in comparison to just watching AMERICAN HISTORY X last night.  It was easy to tell the good guys from the bad guys, no one had any character arc, save maybe for Gene Hackman’s.  Everyone else was defined from their very first scenes and stayed that way, which is fine.  It makes for a movie that is itself just fine.  Perhaps the one thing BURNING helped show was how violence could be perpetuated and be unbridled when the police themselves participated in it and there was no greater authority around to appeal to for justice.

Indeed, for 4/5ths of the movie 100 FBI agents in a small town could not get any justice until they started using questionable tactics not by the book.  Until then, the viewer felt just as frustrated as the black townspeople about nothing getting done, and how brazen the perpetuators were about what they did.

It is hard to believe how things were just back in 1964, still seemingly like the wild west, with no real law around.  However, AMERICAN HISTORY X showed that plenty of white people still have the same violence toward non-white races even in the current day.  So much eager in so many people.

In this back-to-back night of movies it is making me think what good is anger toward anything really, and why is it so hard to let go of anger?