50 Great War Films: The Dirty Dozen

 

Directed by Robert Aldrich - 1967 Poster

The most twisted, anti-social bunch of psychopathetic deformities ever.

What a start - a pretty realistic and gruesome hanging of a soldier! The DVD cover warned that the movie contains strong violence. And so it did. One contemporaneous review called the film a studied indulgence of sadism that is morbid and disgusting beyond words...another sarcastically wrote, if you have to censor, stick to censoring sex, I say...but leave in the mutilation, leave in the sadism and by all means leave in the human beings burning to death. It's not obscene as long as they burn to death with their clothes on. Well - wait until I watch some of the later films.

The 'Dirty Dozen'

The plot is a simple one: Major John Reisman (Lee Marvin), quite a maverick himself, is ordered by the commander of the ADSEC in Britain, Major General Sam Worden (a mis-cast Ernest Borgnine) to undertake Project Amnesty - a top secret mission to train some of the US army's worst prisoners (some sentenced to death) to be sent on a virtual suicide exploit to destroy a chateau in Brittany. High-ranking German officers, many with their wives and mistresses, will be there. They, too, will be eliminated. Any of the squad surviving will be pardoned. Much of the movie is taken up with Reisman picking the men and trying to instil some discipline into them. The whole group are opposed by Colonel Everett Dasher Breed (well played by Robert Ryan), who gets egg on his face when the 'Dirty Dozen' (so called by Breed due to their ill-shaven, scruffy look and lack of soap) beats his soldiers in a war games activity. The actual mission succeeds in a violent action-packed climax, but only Reisman and two others survive.

Charles Bronson and Lee Marvin

There are some good moments in the build-up to the mission: Reisman goading one man into attacking him, after making him lose his temper; Pinkley's (Donald Sutherland - my, is he ugly!) masquerading as a General reviewing Breed's troops; the impersonation of Germans by Bronson and Marvin (just like Sinatra et al in Von Ryan's Express!); the psychopathetic behaviour of Maggott (Telly Savalas); the creepy, obnoxious behaviour of John Cassavetes' character Franco. John Wayne turned down the Lee Marvin role, which made for a better film.

Filming took place at MGM British Studios at Borehamwood, where the chateau was built. The resulting building was so solid that 70 tons of explosives would've been necessary to blow it up. A cork and plastic section was destroyed instead! The movie was a huge commercial success, being the 4th highest grossing film of 1967 and MGM's highest grossing film of the year. Cassavetes was nominated for an Academy Award. The film did win the Award for the Best Sound Editing in 1968.

2016 DVD