The Dirty Dozen (1967)

User Rating:

7.8/10   

Director:

Robert Aldrich

Writers:

Nunnally Johnson (screenplay) and
Lukas Heller (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

15 June 1967 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Drama | War

Tagline:

Train them! Excite them! Arm them!...Then turn them loose on the Nazis!

Plot:

A US Army Major is assigned a dozen convicted murderers to train and lead them into a mass assassination mission of German officers in World War II.

Plot Keywords:

Mission | Suicide Mission | Behind Enemy Lines | Nazi | Prisoner

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 5 wins & 6 nominations

Cast

Lee Marvin	...	Major Reisman
Ernest Borgnine	...	General Worden
Charles Bronson	...	Joseph Wladislaw
Jim Brown	...	Robert Jefferson
John Cassavetes	...	Victor Franko
Richard Jaeckel	...	Sergeant Bowren
George Kennedy	...	Major Max Armbruster
Trini López	...	Pedro Jiminez (as Trini Lopez)
Ralph Meeker	...	Captain Stuart Kinder
Robert Ryan	...	Col. Everett Dasher Breed
Telly Savalas	...	Archer Maggott
Donald Sutherland	...	Vernon Pinkley
Clint Walker	...	Samson Posey
Robert Webber	...	General Denton
Tom Busby	...	Milo Vladek

Runtime:

150 min

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English | French | German

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.75 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo | 70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints)

Certification:

USA:Approved (certificate #20802) | Iceland:16 | UK:12 (2006) | West Germany:16 (f) | Netherlands:12 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M (DVD rating) | Australia:PG (cable rating) | Finland:K-16 | Norway:15 | Norway:16 (1968) | Singapore:PG | Sweden:15 | UK:15 (video rating) (1986) | UK:X (original rating)

Filming Locations:

Aldbury, Hertfordshire, England, UK

Company:

MKH

Trivia:

The scene where one of the dozen pretends to be a general inspecting Robert Ryan’s troops was initially written for Clint Walker’s character. However, Walker was uncomfortable with this scene, so Robert Aldrich decided to use Donald Sutherland instead. The scene was directly responsible for Sutherland being cast in MASH (1970), which made him an international star.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: In the beginning when Major Reisman is being given his mission, one of the officers speaking to him wears the ribbon for the Army Commendation medal (green with white stripes). The scene is set in 1944, yet Congress did not institute this medal until 1945.

Quotes:

[Kinder has just finished a psychiatric evaluation of Reisman's troops]
Major John Reisman: So what does that give you?
Capt. Stuart Kinder: Doesn't give me anything. But along with these other results, it gives YOU just about the most twisted, anti-social bunch of psychopathic deformities I have ever run into! And the worst, the most dangerous of the bunch, is Maggott. You've got one religious maniac, one malignant dwarf, two near-idiots... and the rest I don't even wanna think about!
Major John Reisman: Well, I can't think of a better way to fight a war.
Capt. Stuart Kinder: These people don't know their enemy is the Germans. They think the enemy is their own United States Army!
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "The A-Team: Water, Water Everywhere (#2.10)" (1983)

Soundtrack:

The Bramble Bush

A good old fashioned war film with no hidden agenda.

A generally entertaining war film with no real political axe to grind or patriotic flagwaving getting in the way. Its very dangerous trying to humourise war in the movies, because that would be offensive to all those that had served & died in real life. Kelly's Heroes and 1941 probably went a little too far, pretending that war is really fun & cool when you've got people like Clint Eastwood in charge. But then you have other war films that are black in its humour but manage to keep into focus the cruelty & horrors of war at the same time - M*A*S*H and Catch 22 are the best examples. With Dirty Dozen we have something of a go-between; the humour amongst the characters is light & welcoming but never falls into farce or bad-taste; and Aldrich quickly pulls us back into the fold with some tight scripted scenes of drama & mass murder (throwing petrol & grenades into that German bunker to name but one. I often wonder about that scene, and whether it was some kind of metaphor for the gas chambers & concentration camps in Belsen) But unlike MASH & Catch 22, Aldrich resists the temptation to openly politicise the effects of war, after all this film was made in '67 near the height of the Vietnam war/protests. Instead he takes a straight line course of action and lets us be moved & entertained by the convicted GIs doing their duty. Marvin is excellent as the hardnosed but disobediant Major. He plays the anti-hero far better than Eastwood in Kelly's Heroes. Marvin just looks the type who'd give the top brass as well the Germans a real hard time. But special mention must go to Cassavettes as Viktor Franko, the trouble-maker's trouble-maker. His character is so refreshing & wild amongst a relatively mild cast of supporting extras, with the exception of Savalas. Franko is the Joker of the pack but you soon feel an attachment for him in spite of his crimes. Sutherland & Bronson, don't really add much. The former plays a slightly naive man who hasn't really grown up and Bronson just smirks & mumbles a lot. The only other character worthy of a mention is the truly terrifying Savalas, who is a Christian through & through, yet hates all women as much as the Germans; and has a most spine chilling laugh! Difficult to believe this man later became Kojak! The film is a tad overlong; the first & last 40 minutes hold the interest but the middle section (the War Games scene), is far too long and generally detracts. All the same, DD is a very good movie, especially for those who don't want to be politically moralised too. ***/*****