{"id":4255,"date":"2024-09-30T03:35:46","date_gmt":"2024-09-30T03:35:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=4255"},"modified":"2024-10-12T20:54:31","modified_gmt":"2024-10-12T20:54:31","slug":"the-dirty-dozen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/09\/30\/the-dirty-dozen\/","title":{"rendered":"The Dirty Dozen"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Dirty Dozen <\/strong>(1967)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 MGM\/Action-Adventure\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 150 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No MPAA rating (intense sequences of wartime violence, some language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Robert Aldrich\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Nunnally Johnson and Lukas Heller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Frank De Vol\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Edward Scarfe\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 15, 1967 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, George Kennedy, Richard Jaeckel, Charles Bronson, John Cassavetes, Telly Savalas, Jim Brown, Donald Sutherland, Clint Walker, Tom Busby, Ben Carruthers, Colin Maitland, Stuart Cooper, Al Mancini, Trini Lopez, Ralph Meeker, Robert Webber.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $45.3M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ****<\/p>\n

\u00a0My passion for movies began early in life; in the womb, to be precise. My mother was pregnant with me when my father took her to see The Dirty Dozen<\/strong> and I\u2019m told that I kicked whenever there was shooting. My theory is that I wanted to kick my way out so I could watch the movie too. I guess good taste starts in the womb too.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The Dirty Dozen<\/strong> is a GREAT movie! Directed by Robert Aldrich (The Flight of the Phoenix), it stars Lee Marvin (Point Blank) as an individualistic Army Major training and leading a commando squad on a suicide mission. The catch? The twelve men assigned to him are convicts either awaiting execution or serving lengthy sentences. Those who survive the mission will be granted pardons and returned to active duty at their former ranks. I\u2019ll tell you now, that number is low.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Major John Reisman (Marvin) is seen as a rebel by his superior officers which makes him the ideal choice to lead an unusual top-secret mission from which nobody is expected to return.\u00a0 He\u2019s to lead a dozen men in the infiltration of a chateau in Brittany during a party at which many high-ranking German officers will be present. They\u2019re to kill as many of them as possible as it will disrupt the chain of command and weaken their ability to respond to the upcoming Allied invasion of Normandy- aka D-Day.<\/p>\n

\u00a0His team, pre-selected by Major General Sam Worden (Borgnine, From Here to Eternity), consists of murders, rapists and psychopaths. Among them are Maggott (Savalas, Kelly\u2019s Heroes), a racist, misogynistic, Bible-quoting psycho; Jefferson (Brown, Slaughter), a black soldier who hates white people; Franko (Cassavetes, Rosemary\u2019s Baby), a slimy psychopath; Wladislaw (Bronson, Death Wish), a killer who can speak German and Posey (Walker, Cheyenne), a laconic sort with a violent temper when provoked. The other squad members are Pinkley (Sutherland, Kelly\u2019s Heroes), Vladek (Canadian actor Busby), Gilpin (Carruthers, Riot), Sawyer (Maitland, The Bedford Incident), Lever (Cooper, Subterfuge), Bravos (Mancini, Miller\u2019s Crossing) and Jiminez (singer Lopez).<\/p>\n

\u00a0Reisman starts his men\u2019s training by forcing them to build their own living quarters and not allowing them to put up doors or windows until they earn the right to be comfortable. His main objective is to teach them to work together as a unit; it\u2019s the only way the mission will succeed. For six weeks, he trains them intensively. Then he has to prove to Worden and his chief of staff Brigadier General Denton (Webber, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia) that his guys are capable of carrying out their mission. Upon proving themselves during practice maneuvers, they get the go-ahead to begin \u201cOperation Amnesty\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Once the mission starts, The Dirty Dozen<\/strong> goes from great to awesome. This section of the film is violent and exciting. Some, however, have described it as sadistic, especially with the way many of the German officers are dispatched at once. I say it\u2019s a war movie, anything goes. I have to be honest, I didn\u2019t like The Dirty Dozen<\/strong> the first time I saw it (in \u201996). It was because of the ending. I guess it\u2019s not a plot spoiler to say that almost the entire \u201cDirty Dozen\u201d (named such after Reisman takes away bathing and shaving privileges for incessant complaining about certain conditions) dies. I shared my opinion with a friend (the one who gave me the VHS for Christmas that year) who patiently explained that it was a suicide<\/em> mission and as such, it was the only possible outcome. It made sense but I was still bummed. I put off rewatching The Dirty Dozen<\/strong> for a long time, but I finally succumbed to temptation last week. I was in the mood for a classic WWII action-adventure from the 60s. I made the right choice.<\/p>\n

\u00a0When it comes to ensemble casts, it\u2019s hard to beat The Dirty Dozen<\/strong>. It has a line-up as impressive as The Magnificent Seven. Lee Marvin is an old school bad ass. They don\u2019t make action stars like him anymore. He ranks right up there with Steve McQueen, John Wayne and Clint Eastwood. There\u2019s no shortage of tough guy actors in The Dirty Dozen<\/strong>. Besides Marvin, you get Charles Bronson, Jim Brown, Telly Savalas, Clint Walker and Ernest Borgnine. The cast also includes George Kennedy (Airport) as Reisman\u2019s friend and main supporter Major Armbruster, Robert Ryan (The Wild Bunch) as Reisman\u2019s chief rival Colonel Breed and Richard Jaeckel (The Devil\u2019s Brigade) as head MP Sgt. Bowren.\u00a0 They all do a great job.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Besides being a great kick-ass action flick, The Dirty Dozen<\/strong> also has a fair amount of humor. In one of the movie\u2019s most famous scenes, Reisman orders Sutherland\u2019s character to pose as a general in order to gain entry to Breed\u2019s parachuting school. Reisman teaches him the art of inspecting troops by instructing him to \u201cwalk slow, act dumb and look stupid\u201d. According to a friend that served (thank you!), it sounds about right.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The bottom line is this; The Dirty Dozen<\/strong> is great fun! It\u2019s a very well-made movie. It tells a cool story. It moves at a nice pace even with its two-and-a-half hour running time. It looks authentic to time and place. It\u2019s exciting and funny. The cast has a great rapport. It never feels overcrowded with the actors vying for screen time. There\u2019s a reason it\u2019s an enduring classic. I now count The Dirty Dozen<\/strong> among my all-time favorite WWII flicks.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Dirty Dozen (1967)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 MGM\/Action-Adventure\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 150 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No MPAA rating (intense sequences of wartime violence, some language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Robert Aldrich\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Nunnally Johnson and Lukas Heller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Frank De Vol\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Edward Scarfe\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 15, 1967 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, George Kennedy, Richard Jaeckel, Charles Bronson, John Cassavetes, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5411,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-these-are-some-classic-flicks","category-kick-ass-actioners"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/The-Dirty-Dozen-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4255"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5414,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4255\/revisions\/5414"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}