DR. HEMLOCK (pre-senile Clint Eastwood) teaches art and
freely tells his students that most of them are too dense to appreciate
it. One pretty coed says she'd do
anything for a good grade. He asks if
she has plans for the night, and if she'll be alone. She is delighted to say yes. He then tells
her to go home and study her ass off for the finals.
Unfortunately, this is the best line in the movie.
Hemlock has an extensive collection of art originals. How, you might ask, on a professor's salary?
It turns out Hemlock is also a retired governmental assassin, a profession that
pays well. His former boss, DRAGON, an ex-Nazi albino who needs transfusions to
survive, wants him for two more 'terminations', and, with judicious use of
enticements, bribes and threats, manages to persuade him.
The main enticement is that one of the hits will be on the Eiger Mountain. Hemlock has already tried and failed to climb
it twice, and the excuse for a third attempt is more than he can resist. An old
friend, BEN, trains him and gets him back into mountain climbing shape. After a
couple of seductions, a few fights, a murder and other incidents, the movie is
half over and Hemlock is finally ready to start ascending the slopes. He has three
companions, one of whom is his putative target, but he doesn't know which.
Will he identify his target? Will his target identify him
first? Will he hook up with one of the pretty women he's slept with? Will he
die on the mountain? Will anyone die on the mountain? It's not hard to guess the answers, so there
isn't much overall suspense, though there is an interesting plot twist near the
end.
The movie has some beautiful mountain photography, and
director Eastwood has chosen interesting shots of commonplace scenes like
stairwells. He deserves credit for that. Unfortunately, the film displays racism,
sexism and homophobia to an extent one can't excuse by saying the attitudes
were typical for that era (1975).
Though Hemlock is a man of many talents, his personality and
the personality of the others is pretty flat.
In spite of the predictability, there is a lot of action,
and, even though you can guess what will probably happen, the pace still pulls
you in. As a cinematic production, it's strictly second rate, but as a workout
movie, it deserves ++++ - it will usually get your pulse up to a run.
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