Les douze salopards

During World War II, Major Reisman is called to a high level meeting to discuss his next mission – to train a group of soldiers and prepare them for a mission behind enemy lines. However the `soldiers' that Reisman has been assigned are all sentenced to death or life in prison for their crimes. The mission is a suicide mission on a French chateau where German top brass will be, the aim being to kill as many as possible. But before the mission, the group must pass a training to be considered for pardoning.

Well known by all men everywhere, this is less a serious war movie and more an enjoyable ensemble romp through a training camp, with the final third being the mission itself. This is the film's strength – the training sections are very enjoyable and good fun to watch. The mission is punchy and dramatic and works very well as the conclusion to the film rather than the whole film itself (which other `mission' films have to do). The training is slick and enjoyable, not only it is occasionally quite funny but it is also consistently amusing and exciting at turns.

The film's main selling point (increasingly so) is the all star cast, all of whom do really good work. Marvin is tough in the lead and he is well supported by Borgnine, Kennedy, Ryan and Jaeckel playing the other officers. Of the prisoners Cassavetes steals the show with his cocky Franko although he is not short of famous support. Sutherland (although not well known at the time) is good comic relief, Savalas is a little too heavy for the film but adds menace, Bronson is good value, Brown is strong and is well known due to a weepy Billy Crystal! The rest of the dozen give good performances, but I'll be honest and say that the famous faces stuck in my mind more.

Overall this is not a wonderful film and, as a war movie it isn't the best `mission' movie you could find (simply cause the mission is quite short and straightforward. However it is a fun movie that never drags despite the slightly longer than normal running time for this type of movie. The training section and the mission itself combine to form an enjoyable film that is driven by a great cast playing good characters.

Heart-pounding and adrenaline-rushing action giant that still packs a punch that will knock you out. A dozen criminals (Oscar-nominee John Cassavetes, Telly Savalas, Jim Brown, Charles Bronson and Donald Sutherland being the major standouts) are trained for a suicide mission into Nazi territory in 1944 and act as assassins. If you want to catch a thief, you hire a thief and that is the same principle used throughout this impressive motion picture. Lee Marvin does some of his best work as the leader of the rag-tag bunch of miscreants. Serves its purpose to near perfection. 4.5 out of 5 stars.

It's difficult when you approach an old movie to see it for the first time and you have to try and drop all the baggage associated with it from reviews and analysis over the years. The Dirty Dozen is such a movie. I just watched it for the first time last night on TV, clipped though it was for those smaller brained people among us who don't like to see dark bits at the top and bottom of their screens.

It's interesting that there are three real character acts to this movie. There's the dark opening and character introduction, the fun act where the characters meld together into a team, and the closing act where the mission, and the war, become a stark and deadly reality. That last act is dark too, although there a couple of accidental laughs in there for the worst character expression at a death ever, and one particularly bad death scene.

What does strike you about the opening is how really dark it all is. We're talking about murders who are looking at to be retrained. Indeed one is a rapist with a serious God complex who is bordering on utterly insane. They are about to be hanged for their crimes, but have one last chance. Poor Major John Reisman has no say in the matter, he has his band and has to make them work.

It's well filmed for the first two character acts, and the acting is very good. John Cassavetes and Telly Savalas are wonderful in their roles. In fact it's a surprise to see Savalas in such a role and shining so brightly. Donald Sutherland also shows he has some excellent character acting in him. The rest are far from bad, but you can see a lot of typecasting for them.

The movement from the dark opening to the more jovial training act is interesting to watch, as this is exactly how many of the characters are seeing it, as a bit of fun. What they aren't expecting is the third character act, that of the actual war itself, and for some this proves too much.

The difficulty I had with the final act is only in the filming. There are premature cuts, awkward angles and jumping storytelling. So much is missed by the camera, and it doesn't feel like it's there to let your imagination run, it seems like someone has cut the film deliberately, and quite badly. There are quite a few scene transitions that just don't work at all.

However, where it doesn't fail is bringing the characters to their ultimate journey, that of redemption and a renewed desire to fight for their Major, and their fellow men. They become soldiers, and indeed heroes.

It's a good war film to watch, very well structured and reflective of the characters journeys. It's just that final act for me which spoiled my enjoyment, and purely in the filming of it.

A generally entertaining war film with no real political axe to grind or patriotic flagwaving getting in the way. Its very dangerous trying to humourise war in the movies, because that would be offensive to all those that had served & died in real life. Kelly's Heroes and 1941 probably went a little too far, pretending that war is really fun & cool when you've got people like Clint Eastwood in charge. But then you have other war films that are black in its humour but manage to keep into focus the cruelty & horrors of war at the same time - M*A*S*H and Catch 22 are the best examples. With Dirty Dozen we have something of a go-between; the humour amongst the characters is light & welcoming but never falls into farce or bad-taste; and Aldrich quickly pulls us back into the fold with some tight scripted scenes of drama & mass murder (throwing petrol & grenades into that German bunker to name but one. I often wonder about that scene, and whether it was some kind of metaphor for the gas chambers & concentration camps in Belsen) But unlike MASH & Catch 22, Aldrich resists the temptation to openly politicise the effects of war, after all this film was made in '67 near the height of the Vietnam war/protests. Instead he takes a straight line course of action and lets us be moved & entertained by the convicted GIs doing their duty. Marvin is excellent as the hardnosed but disobediant Major. He plays the anti-hero far better than Eastwood in Kelly's Heroes. Marvin just looks the type who'd give the top brass as well the Germans a real hard time. But special mention must go to Cassavettes as Viktor Franko, the trouble-maker's trouble-maker. His character is so refreshing & wild amongst a relatively mild cast of supporting extras, with the exception of Savalas. Franko is the Joker of the pack but you soon feel an attachment for him in spite of his crimes. Sutherland & Bronson, don't really add much. The former plays a slightly naive man who hasn't really grown up and Bronson just smirks & mumbles a lot. The only other character worthy of a mention is the truly terrifying Savalas, who is a Christian through & through, yet hates all women as much as the Germans; and has a most spine chilling laugh! Difficult to believe this man later became Kojak! The film is a tad overlong; the first & last 40 minutes hold the interest but the middle section (the War Games scene), is far too long and generally detracts. All the same, DD is a very good movie, especially for those who don't want to be politically moralised too. ***/*****

Acclaimed director Robert Aldrich (also famous to war film buffs for his rule-breaking drama, "Attack") twists the familiar 'unit picture' into a famous story of unexpected heroism in the midst of World War II. Instead of making his heroes clean-cut, American draftees, we're looking at the dirtiest convicts the Armed Forces has got to offer.

OSS Major Reisman (Lee Marvin, "Hell in the Pacific") is an insubordinate Army officer who's facing a court-martial, when he's given one last chance for a reprieve: select twelve Army prisoners from a maximum-security detention center, train them for a top-secret mission behind the German lines, and then lead them into battle. If they succeed in the mission, they'll be released. For Reisman, it's a tough call, but it's his only chance to save his career.

The men he was to work with are a mixed batch, and director Aldrich packs a lot of character development into a two-and-a-half-hour movie. The most important of the "Dirty Dozen" is Franko, a small-time Chicago hoodlum who's facing the gallows for robbery and subsequent murder of a British civilian. It's clear from the start that Franko is a loner who thinks he's big stuff, but Reisman manages to prove that he's really all talk. More than once, he considers and even attempts escape from the remote training camp that the Dozen are forced to build – but maybe, just maybe, beneath that rebellious attitude, there's a chance for redemption.

Then there are some more sympathetic types: Wladislaw (Charles Bronson, "Battle of the Bulge") was once a front-line infantryman who shot his platoon's medic when the medic got scared under fire and started running – Bronson says "He took off with all the medical supplies… only way to stop him was to shoot him." Jefferson (Jim Brown, "Ice Station Zebra") has been convicted for murder – his defense is he was defending himself from vicious, racist MPs who were abusing him. Wladislaw and Jefferson find themselves allied in order to get Franko on their side, because they have faith in Reisman and aren't willing to let Franko's rebellion become infectious.

Also in fine support is Clint Walker ("None But the Brave") as the big Navajo, Posey, who punched a man too hard for shoving him. He really didn't mean to kill him; he just doesn't like being pushed. Posey comes off as a cuddly teddy bear who'd never intentionally hurt a soul, and it's clear from the start that he's one of the good guys. Finally, Telly Savalas ("Kelly's Heroes") lends a hand as the psychotic, racist, religious fanatic Maggot, who believes his job is to punish the other 11 men for their "wickedness". His motives are never really clear; all we really know is that Maggot is somewhat unhinged and potentially dangerous.

Even though Reisman and his squad don't get along, they're forced to become allied against a common enemy – the American General Staff, who want to do nothing short of shut the operation down. Aldrich again breaks the rules, making the conventionally "good guys" into the enemy. The Germans are barely mentioned throughout the first two acts, and only become involved for the explosive finale. The heart of this movie is anti-establishment behavior, right in the vein of the protest culture of the 60s: the good guys are the unshaven criminals, and the bad guys are the clean-cut, well-dressed Generals who come across as stupid and vain. As Colonel Everett Dasher Breed, Robert Ryan ("Flying Leathernecks") makes an excellent bully, a villain that the Dozen eventually unite to take action against.

Once the men have been trained and are finally cooperating and acting as a unit, it's time to set them loose on the Nazis. And still, the story doesn't become stereotypical. The mission is simple: the men will parachute into occupied France, penetrate a château being used as a rest center for high-level German officers, and kill as many of said officers as possible in a short amount of time. This operation involves stabbing defenseless women, machine-gunning prisoners, and finally, locking several dozen German officers and their mistresses in an underground bomb shelter, pouring gasoline down on them through air vents, loading said air vents with hand grenades, and then blowing up the whole place.

Characters and story aside, the film benefits from some superb editing by Michael Luciano. Director Aldrich and cinematographer Edward Scaife work hand in hand to compose every shot. The cramped, dank prison cells in the first act are utterly convincing, and the layout of the huge, magnificent German-occupied château looks, quite appropriately, like a cross between a marvelous mansion and an impregnable fortress. The battle scenes are well-choreographed, too. Never does a moment go by where we do not know where one encounter is happening in relation to what the rest of the squad is dealing with in and around the Château. Frank de Vol's sweeping score is used sparingly, and adds to both the humor and suspense of the picture. One scene, in which Donald Sutherland's character "inspects" a platoon of the 82nd Airborne, is set to a live orchestra's performance perfectly.

War is a really a dirty business – this isn't a movie about men playing by the rules. It's about breaking every rule in the book to get a job done, and if a few innocent bystanders get in the way, they're simply collateral damage. On a higher level, Aldrich's film reflects culture attitudes of the late 60s. Moviegoers wanted a film which encouraged breaking the rules, which showed the higher levels of the American military as deeply flawed, and made the dregs of society into the heroes of the piece. It's a cynical representation of the time it was made in, but holds up flawlessly 40 years later, in a culture which has probably been shaped by the attitudes the film reflects in every frame.

10/10