Directed by:
Robert AldrichCinematography:
Edward ScaifeComposer:
Frank De VolCast:
Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, Jim Brown, John Cassavetes, Richard Jaeckel, George Kennedy, Trini López, Ralph Meeker, Robert Ryan (more)VOD (1)
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World War II. An impossible mission. The fate of the Allied invasion hanging in the balance. Twelve men with nothing left to lose. Now the fate of the free world depends on a group of convicted murderers, thieves and thugs: The Dirty Dozen. Twelve American military prisoners are offered parole - if they complete a suicide mission behind enemy lines just before D-Day. After weeks of grueling training, they are dressed in German uniforms, dropped deep behind enemy lines and left on their own to complete their mission and try to get out alive. (Warner Bros. AU)
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Reviews (3)
A famous war film that later saw several weaker imitations. It relies on charismatic actors, skillful direction, and its distinction from other war films of its time. With all due respect to its creators, the "dirty dozen" is merely a highly idealized view of war reality from a film studio. The combat action is naive and exaggerated. If German units were as clueless as depicted, Poland alone would have been enough to defeat them. Combat units similar to the "dirty dozen" were used by all Axis and Allied countries. They typically had lower combat morale but significantly higher brutality, especially on the German and Soviet sides, where they were used for the dirtiest tasks. Overall impression: 50%.
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A good old war movie where a dozen convicts get the unique chance to escape the noose. The casting is excellent, with Lee Marvin and Charles Bronson in the leading roles. Lots of snappy one-liners and funny situations. I really had great fun watching this.
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Ingeniously simple subject matter and charismatic actors. That's all it takes to make one of the best classic war films. The action itself is irrelevant here. The strongest passages are the training and the relationships within the unconventional unit. This movie has always been (and will continue to be) widely paraphrased, but probably never again will any of its (un)acknowledged variations achieve such "genre purity".
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