Kelly's Heroes

Whilst it would make few people's "All time top ten" lists, I'm hard pressed to think of a film which is so relentlessly enjoyable as "Kelly's Heroes". Part war movie, part comedy, part bank-job caper, the different elements combine seamlessly to produce a distinctive and memorable film.

Clint Eastwood, in an unusually subdued but nonetheless commanding performance, plays the leader of a platoon of restless GIs in the chaos of post D-Day France. When he captures a German officer who just happens to be in possession of a solid gold bar, Clint extracts the necessary information and before you can say "Three Kings", he's hatched a plan to make it 30 miles beyond enemy lines to nab the $16 million stash. He can't do it alone, of course, but has no trouble in convincing his fellow troops that if they're going to be killed in this war, the reward for them should be worth the risk. Enlisting the help of Quartermaster "Crapgame" (Don Rickles) Sergeant "Big Joe" (Telly Savalas) and Sherman tank driver "Oddball" (Donald Sutherland) among others, Kelly and his platoon of ironic "heroes" are soon on their way to an eventual showdown with the German Tiger tank unit guarding the bank...

All too often cross-genre pictures can be let down if the balance isn't right, but that's not the case here because each element is as good as it can be. The action and battle scenes are well executed, especially that in which Oddball and his Shermans attack a German depot. The comic relief is genuinely funny rather than cheesy, and includes a beautiful scene at the climax of the movie which gently parodies Clint's spaghetti-western days, complete with the strains of cod-Morricone music. The suspense is well maintained where necessary, such as the scene where the platoon is caught exposed in the middle of a minefield with a truckload of Germans bearing down on them. And of course there is the ensemble cast, which is uniformly excellent. Keep an eye out for a young Harry Dean Stanton, and Len Lesser, who is better known as Uncle Leo in "Seinfeld". Sutherland's proto-hippie ("Always with them negative waves, Moriarty!") and Carroll O'Connor's manic General Colt are just two performances which live long in the memory, alongside the ever-reliable Eastwood and Savalas.

There are a few points made about the madness and futility of war if that's what you're looking for. Allied bombers knock out bridges by day, German mobile engineers rebuild them by night... neither the Americans or the Germans seem to know what's going on or where their lines are supposed to be... behind the lines our heroes are attacked by their own aircraft... General Colt mistakes Kelly's gold-inspired push for a patriotic determination to end the war, and mobilizes his army to follow him, chastising the staff officers around him for failing to show the same spirit!

But ultimately, this movie is about entertainment rather than political comment. And as such it is one of the most successful examples of its type, as the almost total absence of negative comments from this page should indicate. The script by Troy Kennedy Martin ("The Italian Job") is tight, and direction by Brian G Hutton ("Where Eagles Dare") equally assured. Perhaps regarded as lightweight in comparison to other, more serious "men on a mission" movies such as Robert Aldrich's "The Dirty Dozen" or Hutton's aforementioned "Where Eagles Dare", the film has nonetheless been influential. For example, although David O Russell's "Three Kings" veers off on a tangent and makes more of a serious comment on the US role in the Gulf War, its matchbook plot (ie that which can be written on the back of a matchbook) is the same as "Kelly's Heroes". And in the speakers mounted on the side of Oddball's tanks, used to blast music at the enemy and freak them out, there is more than a hint of the Wagner-playing helicopters in Coppola's "Apocalypse Now", still some nine years hence at the time of this film's release.

In my humble opinion, therefore, "Kelly's Heroes" is a supremely enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours. You will be doing yourself a favour if, next time you get the chance, you take a look. It's rare that I see a film and don't think at least once that I'd change something about it, but if there is something to change in "Kelly's Heroes", I don't know what it is. With that in mind, I give it a...

(10/10)

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.

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!

I'm the first one to rant at ridiculous war movies. The history has to be right, the uniforms, and so on and so on. Plots have to be creditable or I'm the first one to cry foul. But then there comes along movies like Kelly's Heroes. It's violent and meaningless really...but funny and very exciting. The gear is accurate for the most part, which is far more than I can say about the bulk of so called serious war films. Even with the infamous Tiger tank the film makers attempted to at least make the Russian built Yugoslav T53s they were using look like Tigers. I think they were T53s, they did such a good job of making them look like Tigers it's hard to tell. The whole film is a 1960s anti-establishment slant thrown on a pretty standard WWII story about GIs on a mission behind the German lines. In this parallel universe John Wayne type mission, these guys are out for number one. It's their mission, not the US Army's or the Allies. With a headlines crazy General chasing behind them with his photographer looking to pin medals on "his boys" for piercing the German lines and apparently leading his "charge", they're heading for a town full of Germans guarding a bank with three Tiger tanks. Clint Eastwood has to pick up the means to complete this personal mission along the way without the secret leaking out. We even have 1960s Hippies in this silly war torn 1940s world. Donald Sutherland is a riot as a stoned Sherman tank commander who seems to have stepped into a timewarp and emerged in 1944 and found himself at the helm of an armored unit. Several then unknowns are in the film, including Harry Dean Stanton and Gavin Mcleod. Beautiful scenery and photography shot in what was then Yugoslavia. Excellent attention to equipment detail. Good, if over the top, performances all around. Suspense and excitement. Very funny. And possibly the silliest pothole laden plot to ever pass itself off as a war movie. If you're a war movie buff with a sense of humor you'll love it.

Clint Eastwood leads a fine cast of actors(including Donald Sutherland, Telly Savalas, Carroll o' Connor, Stuart Margolin, and Don Rickles) in this underrated World War II action comedy as Private Kelly(Eastwood) learns of a secret cache of gold bullion worth $16 Million dollars. Only trouble is, it is many miles behind enemy lines, but that doesn't deter Kelly, who gathers other members of his platoon to recover it, leading to a misunderstanding with a general(played by O'Connor) who thinks the men are incredibly brave and determined soldiers who want to defeat the enemy, and reclaim an occupied village! Hilarious and action packed comedy with an appealing assortment of "oddball" characters, and nice directorial(Brian G. Hutton) touches like a showdown with a tiger tank that lifts some memorable music cues from a certain classic western of Clint's...

Highly satisfying film may not always be credible, but is a lot of fun. Nice use of the song "Burning Bridges" in this neglected classic.