Directed by Robert Aldrich
Written by Nunnally Johnson and Lukas Heller from a novel by E.M. Nathanson
1967/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/MKH/Seven Arts Productions
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
[box] Major John Reisman: I never went in for embroidery, just results.[/box]
Remains a fun action adventure after all these years, largely due to a collection of the best character actors of the 50s and 60s.
Maverick US Army Major John Reisman (Lee Marvin) seems to General Worden (Ernest Borgnine) to be the best man to lead a suicide mission to slay as many of the German High Command as possible. He will be given a unit composed of twelve convicts sentenced to long prison sentences or death for violent crimes. The survivors will be given a reprieve if they perform the mission as ordered. Colonel Breed (Robert Ryan) will be a thorn in his side during the entire training period.
We follow the dozen’s arduous training which converts a few of them to soldiers, war games, and finally the mission itself, complete with MANY explosions. With John Cassavetes, Telly Savalas, Jim Brown, Charles Bronson, Clint Walker, Donald Sutherland, Trini Lopez, etc. among the dozen.
This is simply a very entertaining war movie. It’s not that easy to get these things right. It’s about perfect for what it is.
The Dirty Dozen won the Academy Award for Best Effects, Sound Effects. It was nominated in the categories of Best Supporting Actor (Cassavetes), Best Sound, and Best Film Editing.
Exactly. For what it is, it gets it pretty much right. Watching it again I loved how the collection of excellent actors got to shine rather than stealing the scenes from each other.
Cast was the best thing about the movie to me. Seeing Lee Marvin and Robert Ryan go mano a mano in the tough guy department was great!
Definitely one of the best war films for pure entertainment – although as has been pointed out, the entire mission is actually a war crime (although they’re not doing anything the Nazis didn’t do … )
I read the book years ago – it’s interesting but felt very dated. It’s all about the training. The actual mission takes place off-page – there’s just an open-ended epilogue describing the aftermath. And there’s a serious twist about the Major’s background that isn’t in the movie – I still can’t tell if the writer was trying to be satirical about war or the military, or if he just thought it was clever!
That’s interesting about the book. Thanks for commenting!
One of my favorites! I finally got my own copy on DVD and I watched it every six months for a while, roughly 2000 to 2010.
There are no movies more than 100 minutes that I’ve watched as many times as I’ve seen The Dirty Dozen!
Among its many good qualities is sustaining interest for 2 1/2 hours! This is no small thing.