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The Dirty Dozen [1967]


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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


Covert mission into the Nazi Heartland
Review date: 2008-01-30 Rating: 6 out of 10

This film features a special mission team in the thick of World War 2 before D-Day parachuted behind Nazi lines for a special destruction mission. The operation is fiction but there are similar covert missions during the war.The main strategy of the team is to deceive, shock and rapidly destroy the enemy. Similar tactics were also used by Nazis during the war in the European theatre. Nazi soldiers disguised as American soldiers tried to disrupt the logistics and supply lines.The film is shot with a wide range of stars sucj as Lee Marvin, Telly Salavas, John Cassevetes, Charles Bronson, Ernest Borgnine, Donald Sutherland et al. They do brilliant acting especially Slavas and Cassevetes. The whole chateu is constructed for the film and after 25 days of shootings it is destroyed! Very realistic using the latest technology of the 1960's, still watchable.The one moral aspect of the film worth underlining is the double dealing style of the US Army. It tries to use every kind of opportunity such as prisoners waiting to be executed, no matter what happens to them in the end. Soldiers realise this and the anti-hero Salavas understandably doesn't care about the mission at all!

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Reviews


martial courage is a dubitous virtue
Review date: 2007-12-11 Rating: 8 out of 10

This is a very good movie with a quality above the media of the abundant genre of commandos in WW II. It's long but one doesn't feel so. The personages, his crimes, his motivations, even his pathology, mostly social and mental. They are criminals with more or less justification, and compulsive recruitment of all young men by the armies until short times, made to live saints together with murderers.
And so, this is a film of war and action, and that objective is well attained. But as this movie has more pretensions than usual, I disagree with the philosophy at bottom, very common until now in cinema and literature. This is comradery, violence and war are values that redeem all men no matter what crimes they would have committed before. I don't discuss reasons to fought against the Axis in WW II, but these concrete values I believe are absolutely false, and that a man trained in killing I think has great possibilities to become unsuitable and even dangerous or antisocial people in peace times, in spite how many medals he would have won, and much more if he was yet a violent man before the battle. Much people thinks the contrary, usual ideas until now, but heroism under compulsion I believe is a very dubitable virtue. At past times, Legion española, which fought with great efficacy in Spanish Civil War and Morocco, effectively admitted criminals and fugitives without asking molest questions. Franco commanded this sort of troops during many times. Truly by then, a simple protest owing the quality of meal was sometimes punished by shooting and further defile of the troops before the corpse without any trial.
But the film is of course very good and actors are excellent in his roles.




A 60s classic; one of ALDRICH's finest + a great cast
Review date: 2005-03-29 Rating: 10 out of 10

Top Director Robert Aldrich's most commercially successful movie. Wartime action heroics from a motley bunch of hardcore death row convicts, led by a brilliantly cynical LEE MARVIN, a reluctant commanding officer for the gang. They're given a suicidal mission to destroy a key German command post in return for a chance of freedom after the war if they succeed. No brainer film fans!??

In a generally excellent ensemble cast of seasoned character actors (ERNEST BORGNINE, TELLY SAVALAS (KOJAK!!), JOHN CASSAVETES, CHARLES BRONSON et al), DONALD SUTHERLAND is a standout, quite superb in a smaller but crucial role.

Great action set-pieces and inspired, brutally appropriate direction from ALDRICH at his very best make this movie a fondly remembered 60s classic. Unmissable and unbeatable entertainment!

The Dirty Dozen
Review date: 2004-03-15 Rating: 10 out of 10

I don't know where to start praising what has to be the most exciting action adventure based on WWII. The story of 12 convicts chosen for what is best describes as a suicide mission is played out by one of the strongest cast every to be united on one film. The names Marvin, Bronson and Sutherland to name but three shows instant quality. To show this film doesn't age i am only in my early twenties so this shows quality isnt controlled by the special effects but by storyline and sheer excitement something sadly lacking in most modern films. I have been waiting patiently for this DVD release as in my opinion it is one of the most own titles for any self respecting action fan.

D.D
Review date: 2003-11-04 Rating: 10 out of 10

BRILLIANT. NO MATTER HOW MANY TIMES I'VE WATCHED IT.
LEE MARVIN EXCELLENT AS IS CHARLES BRONSEN, TELLY SALVALAS AS MAGGOT!! GREAT ACTION WITH SOME HUMOUR AS WELL. DON'T MISS IT.

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Lee Marvin
Ernest Borgnine
Telly Savalas
Charles Bronson
John Cassavetes

Creators:
Lee Marvin (Primary Contributor)
Ernest Borgnine (Primary Contributor)
Edward Scaife (Cinematographer)
Michael Luciano (Editor)
Kenneth Hyman (Producer)
Raymond Anzarut (Producer)
E.M. Nathanson (Writer)
Lukas Heller (Writer)
Nunnally Johnson (Writer)

Director(s):

Recording label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
EAN: 7321900650793
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: 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)

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