The Dirty Dozen (1967)
Country: US/SP
Technical: col/70 150m
Director: Robert Aldrich
Cast: Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, Charles Bronson, John Cassavetes, Clint Walker, Telly Savalas, Robert Webber, Ralph Meeker
Synopsis:
Prior to the Normandy landings the US military instructs an unpopular Major to train twelve killers awaiting execution of sentence so that they can parachute behind enemy lines and wipe out elements of the German high command.
Review:
The central conceit of the film - that war demands the worst of men but brings out the best in them - is deployed by the director in a cynically humorous fashion, and there are indulgences in sentimentality and slapstick which are wholly out of keeping with the material. Nevertheless this provided the template for the 'pick 'em, train 'em and send 'em to almost certain death' scenario that would be endlessly imitated in the decade that followed, though really it had already been done in The Guns of Navarone, and a lot better. Aldrich got his dream team of a cast and no doubt lapped up the macho atmosphere on set. The pictures are great but it does take a heck of a while to get going, and the brutish finale is as cynical in its callous despatch of the enemy, as it is sentimental at the loss of each of its own: the expected critique of war movie violence does not come.
Country: US/SP
Technical: col/70 150m
Director: Robert Aldrich
Cast: Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, Charles Bronson, John Cassavetes, Clint Walker, Telly Savalas, Robert Webber, Ralph Meeker
Synopsis:
Prior to the Normandy landings the US military instructs an unpopular Major to train twelve killers awaiting execution of sentence so that they can parachute behind enemy lines and wipe out elements of the German high command.
Review:
The central conceit of the film - that war demands the worst of men but brings out the best in them - is deployed by the director in a cynically humorous fashion, and there are indulgences in sentimentality and slapstick which are wholly out of keeping with the material. Nevertheless this provided the template for the 'pick 'em, train 'em and send 'em to almost certain death' scenario that would be endlessly imitated in the decade that followed, though really it had already been done in The Guns of Navarone, and a lot better. Aldrich got his dream team of a cast and no doubt lapped up the macho atmosphere on set. The pictures are great but it does take a heck of a while to get going, and the brutish finale is as cynical in its callous despatch of the enemy, as it is sentimental at the loss of each of its own: the expected critique of war movie violence does not come.
Country: US/SP
Technical: col/70 150m
Director: Robert Aldrich
Cast: Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, Charles Bronson, John Cassavetes, Clint Walker, Telly Savalas, Robert Webber, Ralph Meeker
Synopsis:
Prior to the Normandy landings the US military instructs an unpopular Major to train twelve killers awaiting execution of sentence so that they can parachute behind enemy lines and wipe out elements of the German high command.
Review:
The central conceit of the film - that war demands the worst of men but brings out the best in them - is deployed by the director in a cynically humorous fashion, and there are indulgences in sentimentality and slapstick which are wholly out of keeping with the material. Nevertheless this provided the template for the 'pick 'em, train 'em and send 'em to almost certain death' scenario that would be endlessly imitated in the decade that followed, though really it had already been done in The Guns of Navarone, and a lot better. Aldrich got his dream team of a cast and no doubt lapped up the macho atmosphere on set. The pictures are great but it does take a heck of a while to get going, and the brutish finale is as cynical in its callous despatch of the enemy, as it is sentimental at the loss of each of its own: the expected critique of war movie violence does not come.