During World War II, the prisoners of a German camp on a Greek island are trying to escape. They don't want only their freedom, but they also seek for an ineffable treasure hidden in a monastery at the top of the island's mountain. A World War II adventure, involving a group of Allied POWs, Nazis, black market priceless art treasures, Greek resistance, a Greek monastery, and a secret German rocket base. If one asked why does the press and critics hate "this movie" and they would have loads of different answers on whether it has a rather poor plot and its either silly or overdone and this World War II adventure titled Escape to Athena is no exception being among the worst films to be premiered during 1979 and there is every possibility that this movie almost looked a bit like a remake of The Guns of Navarone classic due to similarity of filming locations supposing centred around the Mediterranean. Even so, the casting of Roger Moore, Telly Savalas and David Niven plus many more clearly seemed to be totally wasted in this utterly inept movie where they seem to be enjoying the roles they should never have played until they realise it when this one crashed in the Box Office and by look of it, has World War II crept into the computerised security era of 1979 some 34 years after it supposed to have ended? At the same time as well as starring as James Bond in Moonraker, Roger Moore had also filmed another failure movie, this one being North Sea Hyjack. Either Moore didn't take film roles seriously enough and can't act or was he typecast as Simon Templar or James Bond and seemed to parachute helplessly into unsuccessful films. I remember seen the movie when I was a kid and didn't like it then much. So when I tried a second viewing, as an adult, my opinion worsened considerably. The inspiration for this comment is the credit shot of the movie. It starts as a traveling from the sea towards the island and ends in a medium shot of man killed (irrelevant to the story) after we have watched him trying to escape from his predators. This aerial single shot which lasts for several minutes, includes many difficult framings within the shot and incredible timing, is one of the best helicopter shots ever being filmed. The movie although totally uninspiring has other well crafted aerial shots and a very good motorcycle chasing in very narrow streets. Everything else just falls apart after the first 10 minutes. A failed effort to advertise the beauties of the Greek island of Rhodes.
Byaovert replied
367 weeks ago