The Dirty Dozen

The Dirty Dozen
1967 - MGM
Directed by Robert Aldrich



SYNOPSIS

Major Reisman (Lee Marvin) has been assigned a dangerous mission. He must select a group of dangerous military prisoners, train them, and lead them in a daring suicide raid against high-ranking Nazis at the height of World War 2.



MY THOUGHTS

There are chick flicks and there's guy flicks. There's guy flicks and there's guy flicks. This is the latter of the three.

The film displays a real dry and often hilarious sense of humor which balances the the horrors of war equally well. Those horrors are very evident in the film's final scenes. Those scenes with the Nazis in the bunker are extremely brutal and violent for the time and still have great shock value today.

Robert Aldrich's direction clearly steers this film towards an epic. His choice of camera angles are occasionally unusual but show a creative mind at work that is looking for something above and beyond the norm.
He also includes many lengthy, but never boring, training scenes that lead up to the big finale really add much to the audience's understanding of the characters.

Lee Marvin is simply amazing in this film. His character could kick the ass of anyone in the film and hold his own against most of the bad-asses of other films. Despite his military rank, you can see him as a rebellious anti-hero, like his 12 prisoners-turned-soldiers. They quickly learn to respect him. He turns in an iconic performance that is one of his best.

John Cassavetes got a deserved Oscar nomination for his role as one of the most rebellious of the dozen.

Jim Brown, Donald Sutherland, Charles Bronson, Telly Savalas and Clint Walker are just some of the tough guys that make up the dozen. They each bring something unique and different to the table. Their characters are each given many moments to shine and much of the humor derives from their interactions with each other. You really seem to get to know them, so when some of them don't make it you feel their loss. Few war films (that I've seen anyway) achieve this as well as the Dirty Dozen.

George Kennedy, Robert Ryan and Ernest Borgnine also provide memorable supporting roles.

If you're in the mood for a war film with lots of action and humor, you can't do better the The Dirty Dozen.