Castle of the Eagles

Seamlessly and vastly improved.

The technicals are all spot on as are all the trims. The movie flows more fluidly and credibly. I'm going to have to dig out my Blu Ray and run these side by side to be sure...

The original suffers with a molases like trudge in places pepperred with some overlong shoot outs and it is why for me the original would rank a 7 in enjoyment. Now it's a 9 for me, and a big pick up for certain.

Outstanding work and highly recommended.

Second time viewing the film, first time was theatrical cut about 10 months ago and didn't particularly enjoy it.

Found it quite a bit better this time around though, probably a combination of actively choosing to watch the film in the right mindset for its particular brand of ridiculousness and robulon's trimming to make it a little less reminiscent of "Hot Shots! Part Deux". Didn't miss anything important as far as I can tell, new cuts too appear indistinguishable from the originals.

The only thing I can think of at the moment to make things better still would be matching the grading of some day-for-night shots, believe that there are a few instances where it is not applied. This is the source's fault though, so only a minor note.

Thanks robulon for doing this edit, makes me hope that MusicEd gets the chance to tackle "The Guns of Navarone" someday, maybe then I will be able to take it a little more seriously!

I'm a big fan of Where Eagles Dare, in fact it is my favorite man-on-a-mission WW2 action adventure movie. I watched the theatrical last about 2 years ago and I can honestly say I did not notice what was cut. Everything I remember is still in here except its 30 minutes shorter. Sometimes you dont notice something is broken until someone like Robulon comes along and fixes it. I cant ever go back and watch the theatrical again, the faster pace of this just improves a great movie and makes it a great GREAT movie.

What an improvement! Seamless trims, excellent sound (high-bitrate stereo) and picture quality. I didn't miss any of the cut bits. In this edit, shorter is clearly better.

MY biggest compliment is for the new pacing: it's obviously faster, but it doesn't *feel* fast. It still feels authentic for a movie from this era. I imagine the temptation to cut another 10+ minutes from the film, to speed up the story even more. That would no doubt have cut into the "meat" of the story, whereas Robulon succeeds in cutting the "fat" out of the story.

My only markdown is for several far-fetched turns in the plot. Nothing against the editor, simply acknowledging the imperfect material Robulon had to work with.

I've always loved these WWII action/adventure movies from the 60s. They may have little in common with how an actual war develops, but it's so incredibly fun to see our heroes outsmart the Nazis and then gun them down left and right! "Where Eagles Dare" may not be as brilliant as, say, "The Dirty Dozen", but it's always been a tremendously enjoyable ride, if indeed a slightly overlong one. I could live with the running time, but I admit the movie lost me a bit when the characters start firing rounds and rounds without ever reloading, to a point where it feels like watching someone play a videogame with the "god mode" cheat activated.

Well, this cut completely fixes that. Not only does it lose half an hour of footage without anything feeling missing and without giving up the narrative style of the 60s, but it also makes the action considerably more believable and much less over the top. The "narm" factor of the infinite ammo is gone; we still don't see much reloading, but the way it all develops flows the way it should. This is exactly the way this film should have played from day one. Pretty much perfection.

A special mention must go to the tweaked credits: Robulon is a master of those. They look completely undistinguishable from actual optically printed credits from the era (something highly difficult to achieve - I can only hope to ever get half as good at it as he is), and in this case overcoming the extreme difficulty of having had to erase the original title from over a moving background. In an era in which so many old film restorations are done in an obviously phony way (looking at you, Disney, and your visual cheapening of your animated library), they should look at this to see how it is properly done.

Another brilliant edit from Robulon, one of our finest new-ish editors whose work, sadly, doesn't seem to be getting half the attention it deserves. Very highly recommended!