Why are we so in love with the Second World War? The reason is simple...

This month the BFI is showing ‘Where Eagles Dare’ on its 50th anniversary, which raises the questions ­– what makes this film endure and what is the source of its ‘obdurate power and ageless magic’. Andy Martin reckons it's all about our love affair with the Second World War

Clint Eastwood, Mary Ure, Ingrid Pitt and Richard Burton on the set of ‘Where Eagles Dare’ (Getty)

In January 1969, Geoff Dyer, aged 10 and a half, and studying for his 11-plus exam, went to see Where Eagles Dare at the ABC in Cheltenham with his mum and dad. He had been too young for the Summer of Love, but he was just the right age for the Winter of War. He had already roughly tossed aside Beatrix Potter and Enid Blyton in favour of The Victor and The Valiant, boys’ comics full of tales of derring-do in the Second World War.

He had found an advert in one issue for a Luger, and had sent off for it, and it was his favourite toy (although made out of metal, it was, after all, only a toy gun). He also loved his Action Man figure (with dedicated ski patrol outfit) and his Airfix models of the Lancaster bomber and the American B-17 “Flying Fortress”.

He was the perfect audience. Where Eagles Dare (director Brian G Hutton, starring Richard Burton, Clint Eastwood and Mary Ure) completely bewitched and bedazzled the young Dyer. From the opening shots of a Junkers Ju-52, camouflaged, flying over snow-clad Bavarian mountains, to the strains of a quintessentially Second World War soundtrack (composed by Ron Goodwin), he was convinced: this was what war was (or should be) like. Roguish and ruthless heroes pitting their wits against the might of the Third Reich.