De l'or pour les braves

Kelly's Heroes is an exciting World War 2 capers film. The cast led by Eastwood, Sutherland, Rickles and Sevalas create a group of likable, if slightly unorthodox, WW2 GI's who set out to secretly steal 16 million dollars worth of Nazi gold held in a French bank behind enemy lines. The WW2 setting hides the fact that this film is really more of a caper/adventure film than anything else. The film succeedes in captivating and thrilling the audience with it action,while humoring it with its tongue and cheek and irreverent style. In this way the Kelly's Heroes shares much in common with films like Ocean's 11. To its credit, while Kelly's Heroes is anti-establishment,it is not some shallow, preachy anti-war film so typical of later films of the 70's and 80's. While it shares some traits of anti-war films(incompetent leadership and wasteful tactics) it doesn't ever really take an over moralizing "war is hell" stance. Indeed, while the "heroes" do rebel against the "establishment"(their officers) ,their rebellion is motivated by plunder and personal profit, not because they feel war is morally wrong or unjustified. Likewise while Sutherland's Oddball has many hippie traits as has been pointed out, his tactical skill as a tanker and willingness to kill for profit are hardly "hippie" in nature. While the anti-establishment stance of the film is indeed motivated by the time in which it was made(1970), the film could have just as easily been set in any place or time period, with or without a war as a background. The setting of the film in world war 2 however helps the audience immediately elicit sympathy with the main characters(American soldiers), despite the illegal/unauthorized action which they undertake and the neccesarily violent methods which they use to accomplish their task(killing Nazis). Despite this the film's portrayal of world war 2 tactics and equipment are excellent,and gives the film a sense of realism,excitement and seriousness that it wouldn't otherwise have. All in all, Kelly's Heroes one of my favorite heist films and one of the better looks at the irreverent and rebellious side of soldiers in war.

Kelly's Heroes does not try to trivialize war. It portrays a comedy within the boundaries of war's absurdity. (Quite frankly, I did not like the film MASH because I felt it did try to trivialize war).

What makes Kelly's Heroes a success is that the director never forgot that the point of comedy is to make us laugh. There's no message here; just pure entertainment.

The film is believable because it stretches, but never steps over, the line of plausibility. The story is preposterous, but in the confusion of war we can believe something like this could happen. Those who have served in the military have all met characters like the ones in Kelly's platoon, even Oddball. Yes, Donald Sutherland was clearly cast out of time, from the 60s, but he somehow personified the rebel in all of us, and that spans generations. If anything, Oddball subliminally told us it was okay to view the film from our vantage point of 1970. His character worked. And so did all the others.

On top of that, the filmmaker spent the extra time and expense to insure reasonable technical accuracy. The uniforms were authentic and I was most impressed by the fact that the vehicles and equipment, for both sides, were accurate. (My biggest gripe about 'Patton' was that it used M-41 tanks for both sides, just painted differently).

The structure of the film is excellent. We believe everything is real. The early scene where the platoon is sitting on the side of the road while a seemingly endless convoy of Sherman tanks passes is a perfect example. There may have only been a few tanks but the way they were looped about continuously gave the impression of 'a cast of thousands'. The Yugoslavian backdrop was reflective of WWII Europe.

Watch this film a few times and you'll catch the slight nuances not normally found the first time through. It's classic how seemingly unimportant early events or dialog enhance the humor of later scenes. For example, when Oddball first shows Kelly his tanks he says they have loud speakers to calm their nerves and paint in their shells to scare the Germans. Early Sherman tanks had a low velocity shell that was ineffective against German armor. Later we roar when Kelly catches a Tiger from its vulnerable rear, but Oddball forgets to fire an anti-tank round and instead splatters it with pink paint! The railroad yard attack scene, (which is superbly choreographed, and tactically accurate) becomes absolutely riotous when Oddball's crew plays 'I've been working on the Railroad' after destroying the place and rumbling away.

Don Rickles should have won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his portrayal of Crapgame. He congeals all the other elements and characters in the film.

The parody scene of 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly' is superb. Like Oddball, its being out of time somehow enhances its own effect.

I read somewhere that Clint Eastwood was a bit disappointed with this film because he was not allowed to give it one more edit before its release. I don't know how on earth he could have improved on it.

Interesting enough, reading through the comments on this film, I noted only one detractor, some sorehead from Canada who completely missed the point of the film. No, Sr. Canadiense. This is not a serious film about WW2. Read some of the excellent commentaries here about the social and temporal context of this film, i.e., the height of the Vietnamese war. Yes, Sutherland, your fellow countryman, was an active anti-war protester and fully embraced the anachronistic hippie role. The mad-cap story which tweaks the nose of the "establishment," in this case, the military establishment, is plausible when you let go of the blood, guts and glory of the war film genre. And, it is a damn funny film. Eastwood is at his clenched jaw, cynical best; Savalas is great as the Sergeant big-guy; Carrol O'Conner is riotious as the general; Rickles is, well, Rickles. But, Sutherland steals the show. The scenes where they tanks come out blasting the Germans to the tune of twangy Country-Western music is hilarious. Sutherland's out-of-time-sync "...no negative vibes... hey, man...yeah, baby..." is side-splitting. The final confrontation scene between the three striding up to the German tank commander, with Sutherland loosening his side arm, ala Clint Eastwood in Fist full of Dollars is a riot. This film is full of funny stuff. And, you can see it again and again and find new business to laugh about. Buffs will delight at seeing Harry Dean Stanton in a pre-Repo Man role and Richard Davalos who played James Dean's doomed brother Aron in East of Eden. This is a great piece of satire that was overlooked, cast aside and has still survived to the delight of those of us who enjoy it again and again. But, hey, don't just take my word for it. Of the 30 or so commentaries here-- and do read them, as there are some excellent ones-- only one was a detractor.

There will never be a cast of characters brought together for one movie which could compare to this one. Clint Eastwood shows that he can be good at being quite serious, humorous, and even let other people steal scenes without losing presence. The real difference though lies in the rest of the cast which is a group of All-Stars who excel at certain type characters the likes of which you can not find today. Examples: Telly Savalas showing why he would become a MAJOR TV star later, Don Rickles being Don Rickles but keeping his movie character true to the film, Carroll O'Connor showing that greatness was just around the corner for him, and Donald Sutherland is just too good for words. What really makes this movie though is unlike other movies which bring together a lot of big names and top character actors, Kelly's Heroes did not lose focus on the importance of the plot. THe story never gets lost to the characters. Absolutely great job!

It creates a specific time (mid July 1944), a specific unit (35th Infantry) and a specific place (near St Lo and Nancy)

The accuracy is top-notch, the cast is top-notch. "Oddball" is not a '70s character as he is the Bohemian in all of us and tank crewmen were and are that strange. One tank commander in France in 1944 was known for carrying a colt 38 rather than the issued 45 and wearing cowboy boots. Some did effect Aviation leather jackets like Oddball, and yes there are plenty of pictures of soldiers with beards.

I was in the amry for 11 years and a tank crewman, and we all quoted the movie and we loved the character of Oddball, and when off the line he was all fun and games, when in action, he was all business, just the way real tankers were and still are.

Armor rules!