Overview

In Zona, Geoff Dyer—‘one of our most original writers’ (New York)—devoted a whole book to Andrei Tarkovsky’s cult masterpiece, Stalker. Now, in this warm and funny tribute to one of his favorite movies, he revisits the action classic Where Eagles Dare. A thrilling Alpine adventure headlined by a magnificent, bleary-eyed Richard Burton and a dynamically lethargic Clint Eastwood, Where Eagles Dare is the apex of 1960s war movies, by turns enjoyable and preposterous. ‘Broadsword Calling Danny Boy’ is Dyer’s hilarious tribute to a film he has loved since childhood: it’s a scene-by-scene analysis—or should that be send-up?—taking us from the movie’s snowy, Teutonic opening credits to its vertigo-inducing climax.

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9780525563082

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Reviews

Dyer's funniest book yet. --Michael Ondaatje Dyer can't help writing brilliant sentences. --The Guardian The magpie eclecticism of Geoff Dyer is something to wonder at. His books are like party turns, each one different from the last while all bearing his distinctly puckish signature. --Financial Times A short, eccentric, hugely enjoyable work that succeeds admirably in capturing the daft exuberance of Where Eagles Dare.' --The Literary Review Dyer's wry humour is everywhere evident. . . . 'There is never a dull moment in Where Eagles Dare, ' [Dyer] writes, and nor is there in this book. --The Sunday Times (London) A witty gem of personally inflected film analysis. . . . Dyer lovingly and obsessively dissects a film that's held a special place in his imagination ever since his first boyhood viewing. . . . [His] fleet work gives off a playful, often funny intellectual high. --Publishers Weekly (starred review) [Dyer is] funny and he's a very good writer. --The Times Literary Supplement Moreishly entertaining. . . . A brilliant, intellectually sparkling critic. --The Sunday Telegraph An embarrassment of belly laughs. . . . It's a sort of mash-up of mini-memoir and maxi-film-review. It is completely unjustifiable and delightfully apt. That's its charm: it's the strangest bird of a book you're liable to take up anytime soon. --Associated Press An erudite and amusing love song to a loved one. --Kirkus Reviews Dyer is that rare breed of creative nonfiction writer who can take almost any topic (jazz, yoga, D. H. Lawrence) and make it his own. . . . This insightful, funny, and wildly enthusiastic book is essentially the literary version of live-tweeting a film. --Booklist [A] freewheeling, rule-breaking, wholly original, scene-by-scene sprint through the crazy action film Where Eagles Dare. . . . I defy anyone not to laugh at Dyer's description of Clint Eastwood's talent for squinting. --Craig Brown, Daily Mail A delightful celebration. --The Irish Times Dyer is one of the most stylish writers alive. . . . [He] loved [Where Eagles Dare] as a child, but he doesn't make the fatal sentimental mistake of worrying over the gap between that affection and what it feels like to see the film today. Instead he just drops right in and begins describing it. Like all of Dyer's genres, it's a deceptively difficult stunt to pull off--recreating what it's like to watch a film in front of you, frame by frame. --LitHub [A] funny and profound tribute . . . a book I wish I'd written myself. --Aidan Scott, The Scotsman

This is Geoff Dyer's funniest book yet. --Michael Ondaatje This slim volume is a witty gem of personally inflected film analysis. . . . [Dyer] shows off an exquisite eye for visual detail. . . . The book complements a popcorn classic while functioning in quite a different register--in place of grandiose, visceral big-screen thrills, Dyer's fleet work gives off a playful, often funny intellectual high. --Publishers Weekly Dyer is one of our greatest living critics--not of the arts, but of life itself--and one of our most original writers. --New York Geoff Dyer's Broadsword Calling Danny Boy is an hilariously funny, freewheeling, rule-breaking, wholly original, scene-by-scene sprint through the crazy action film 'Where Eagles Dare.' --Craig Brown, Daily Mail Books of the Year [Dyer] is a brilliant, intellectually sparkling critic. . . . ['Broadsword Calling Danny Boy'] is a feast of snark throughout, but that is because Dyer is a comedian to his fingertips as well as a very serious man. He would not waste humour on something he didn't care about. . . there are some superb one-liners. . . and he really lets his imagination rip on the acting . . . moreishly entertaining. --The Sunday Telegraph Highly entertaining, and a fine excuse to watch the movie again. . . brilliant. . . Dyer can't help writing brilliant sentences. --The Guardian Dyer's wry humour is everywhere evident. . . 'There is never a dull moment in Where Eagles Dare, ' he writes, and nor is there in this book. --The Sunday Times Dyer is one of the most stylish writers alive, though, and he's great company. --Literary Hub A short, eccentric, hugely enjoyable work that succeeds admirably in capturing the daft exuberance off Where Eagles Dare. --Literary Review Dyer makes for a droll guide, combining a scene-by-scene breakdown of the film's silliness with gonzo riffs on its cultural legacy . . . this is less a work of film criticism than a jeu d'esprit. --Financial Times Dyer is at his best when giving glimpses of his childhood and adolescence, days of toy Lugers, Action Man and Airfix . . . --Sight & Sound

Author Information

Geoff Dyer is the award-winning author of many books, including But Beautiful, Out of Sheer Rage, Zona (on Andrei Tarkovsky’s film Stalker), and the essay collection Otherwise Known as the Human Condition (winner of a National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism). A fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Dyer lives in Los Angeles, where he is writer-in-residence at the University of Southern California. His books have been translated into twenty-four languages. www.geoffdyer.com

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