A great WWII secret mission behind enemy lines
Movie Reviewer, Action film aficionado, admirer of great storytelling
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APR
21
2008
The Dirty Dozen is a great caper flick starring an ensemble cast that makes it among the best of its genre. The fifties and 60s were the years of the WWII flick where nearly all story combinations were tried. Finally, they began to make fictionalized versions of fantastic missions like this one, The Guns of Navarone, Where Eagles Dare, and Kelly's Heroes. In my opinion, while all are good, The Dirty Dozen is the pick of the litter.
Lee Marvin is insubordinate Major Reisman, who, for punishment, is assigned to train the untrainable - a mob of convicted death row inmates - to do the impossible - be inserted behind enemy lines on a secret mission that they later learn is to invade a German R&R Chateau where high officers go to relax and simply kill all the officers they find and then, maybe, escape.
The prisoners are a memorable cast of kidnappers, rapists, killers, and arsonists who, for a possible commutation of their sentences agree to "volunteer" for Major Reisman's special squad. It's clear that nobody gives them much odds of getting back alive, and that includes Reisman. There are twelve selected "heroes" and several were young up and coming actors who went on to great careers, like Donald Sutherland, Charles Bronson, Telly Savalas, Jim Brown, and John Cassavettes, while many established actors added gravity to the movie through their supporting roles, like Ernest Borgnine, George Kennedy, Ralph Meeker, and Robert Ryan.
The brass has a good reason for wanting the mission to go through. It will serve as a diversion and also potentially kill off some German commanders and throw some confusion into the enemy shortly before D-Day is scheduled.
But first the vounteers must be trained. They are trucked to a remote site in the English countryside and dropped into a field where they are told they must construct their own prison camp in their spare time. Meanwhile they will rough it but under no circumstances will their training be curtailed. How they get to be called The Dirty Dozen is quite interesting and you'll want to see that.
Robert Aldrich directed and he spent a good amount of time developing the various characters, especially John Cassavettes who serves as the ringleader of the bunch as often as not. Charles Bronson, Telly Savalas, Clint Walker, and Donald Sutherland also have significant parts and offer credible performances that helped them win further roles. The characters have all established their traits and we already know who the troublemakers are going to be.
The men finally get on their plane to parachute into hostile territory and the mission begins in earnest. As an action set piece, the raid on the Chateau has to be among the most thrilling pieces of WWII fluff ever filmed. It will keep you on the edge of your seat and the killing seems to be endless.
By today's standards the violence is mostly tame but the story and performances redeem the movie and give it a place in the video collections of war movie fans to this day.
The Warner Bros DVD contains a pristine copy of the 145 minute color movie in 1.85:1 theatrical format.
The
The Dirty Dozen 1967 is recommended by GeorgeChabot
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