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The Dirty Dozen [DVD] [1967]
![The Dirty Dozen [DVD] [1967]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41DD7RT192L._SL160_.jpg)
RRP: £13.99
Our Price: £2.75 (subject to change)
Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review
A model for dozens of action films to follow, this box-office hit from 1967 refined a die-hard formula that has become overly familiar, but it's rarely been handled better than it was in this action-packed World War II thriller. Lee Marvin is perfectly cast as a down-but-not-out army major who is offered a shot at personal and professional redemption. If he can successfully train and discipline a squad of army rejects, misfits, killers, prisoners, and psychopaths into a first-rate unit of specialised soldiers, they'll earn a second chance to make up for their woeful misdeeds. Of course, there's a catch: to obtain their pardons, Marvin's band of badmen must agree to a suicide mission that will parachute them into the danger zone of Nazi-occupied France. It's a hazardous path to glory, but the men have no other choice than to accept and regain their lost honor. What makes The Dirty Dozen special is its phenomenal cast including Charles Bronson, Donald Sutherland, Telly Savalas, George Kennedy, Ernest Borgnine, John Cassavetes, Richard Jaeckel, Jim Brown, Clint Walker, Trini Lopez, Robert Ryan, and others. Cassavetes is the Oscar-nominated standout as one of Marvin's most rebellious yet heroic men, but it's the whole ensemble--combined with the hard-as-nails direction of Robert Aldrich--that makes this such a high-velocity crowd pleaser. The script by Nunnally Johnson and Lukas Heller (from the novel by E.M. Nathanson) is strong enough to support the all-star lineup with ample humour and military grit, so if you're in need of a mainline jolt of testosterone, The Dirty Dozen is the movie for you. --Jeff Shannon
Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review
A model for dozens of action films to follow, this box-office hit from 1967 refined a die-hard formula that has become overly familiar, but it's rarely been handled better than it was in this action-packed World War II thriller. Lee Marvin is perfectly cast as a down-but-not-out army major who is offered a shot at personal and professional redemption. If he can successfully train and discipline a squad of army rejects, misfits, killers, prisoners, and psychopaths into a first-rate unit of specialized soldiers, they'll earn a second chance to make up for their woeful misdeeds. Of course, there's a catch: to obtain their pardons, Marvin's band of badmen must agree to a suicide mission that will parachute them into the danger zone of Nazi-occupied France. It's a hazardous path to glory, but the men have no other choice than to accept and regain their lost honor. What makes The Dirty Dozen special is its phenomenal cast including Charles Bronson, Donald Sutherland, Telly Savalas, George Kennedy, Ernest Borgnine, John Cassavetes, Richard Jaeckel, Jim Brown, Clint Walker, Trini Lopez, Robert Ryan, and others. Cassavetes is the Oscar-nominated standout as one of Marvin's most rebellious yet heroic men, but it's the whole ensemble--combined with the hard-as-nails direction of Robert Aldrich--that makes this such a high-velocity crowd pleaser. The script by Nunnally Johnson and Lukas Heller (from the novel by E.M. Nathanson) is strong enough to support the all-star lineup with ample humor and military grit, so if you're in need of a mainline jolt of testosterone, The Dirty Dozen is the movie for you. --Jeff Shannon
Masterpiece!
Review date: 2010-07-20 Rating: 10 out of 10
This has to be one of my all time favourite war movies. I watched it for the first time (i wasn't around when this was first released) and i must say this movie has an amazing cast with great energy and a crazy storyline that kept me incredibly interested throughout. This film was definitely made to be a good fun movie rather then an exact account of ww2 (as it seems negative reviewers were expecting). If you want too see a fun, energetic movie with great characters, you should love this.
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Reviews
THE DIRTY DOZEN DVD
Review date: 2010-06-15 Rating: 10 out of 10
EXCELLENT DVD, GOOD VALUE AS YOU WOULD EXPECT SHOPPING AT
AMAZON. CO. I WOULD RECOMMEND THIS SHOPPING SITE TO ANYONE
WHO LOVES DVD,S R TREWHELLA,
Brilliant stuff
Review date: 2010-03-17 Rating: 10 out of 10
Could watch this film over and over, well acted, good story, and full to the brim with gripping scenes, and spendid acting.
Good film
Review date: 2010-03-16 Rating: 8 out of 10
Excellent cast and a good story line. A couple of light moments really take your emotions up and down.
Dismal
Review date: 2010-01-13 Rating: 2 out of 10
This popular war film from the 1960s epitomises all that is bad about the standard type Hollywood war film: jingoism, implausible plot, an enemy that is evil/stupid and falls down dead at the first blank, violence for its own sake.
The star-studded cast slogs through the thin and absurd plot (could a bunch of criminals really pull off a daring commando mission in enemy territory?) for all of 143 minutes, although everything that this film 'accomplishes' could really have been achieved in 80 or so.
The 'grand finale' of the film comes when the US squad manage to trap a large number of German officers and their wives/gilrfriends in a cellar and douse them with petrol before dropping hand grenades on them.
I think it is worth reflecting for a moment on what the American reaction would have been if a German or Japanese director had made a similar film which showed his own country's troops treating American soldiers and their womenfolk in the same way...
I really don't know which is sadder: that films like this are made - or that people still enjoy them.
Product Details/Specifications
Actor(s):
Charles Bronson
John Cassavetes
Jim Brown
Ernest Borgnine
Lee Marvin
Creators:
Lee Marvin (Primary Contributor)
Ernest Borgnine (Primary Contributor)
Director(s):
Recording label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
EAN: 7321900650793
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: Colour, PAL,
Release date: 2005-04-18
Number of discs: 1
Audience rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 143 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1967-06-15
Language: English (Original Language)
Language: French (Original Language)
Language: German (Original Language)