An all-star cast energizes Robert Aldrich's classic World War II action drama about a group of 12 American military prisoners assembled by tacticians and ordered to perform a... more
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The Dirty Dozen [1967]
A model for dozens of action films to follow, this box-office hit from 1967 refined a
... more
die-hard formula that has become overly familiar, but it's rarely been handled better than it was in this action-packed World War II thriller. Lee Marvin is perfectly...
The Dirty Dozen [1967]
A model for dozens of action films to follow, this box-office hit from 1967 refined a
... more
die-hard formula that has become overly familiar, but it's rarely been handled better than it was in this action-packed World War II thriller. Lee Marvin is perfectly...
...When asked to name the quintessential 'guy movie' in Sleepless In Seattle, Tom Hanks put forward Robert Aldrich's "The Dirty Dozen" in response and who could argue with him. Released in 1967, this testosterone fueled war movie, gathered together a number of male stars, all big names in their own right, and turned around the way war movies were presented. No longer would the Allied forces be packed full of good guys taking the moral high ground, whilst ... ...than heroic actions. Released in the midst of the Vietnam war, those that followed may have concentrated on that event as opposed to the battle against the German war machine, but there is no doubt that it paved the way for movies like The Deer Hunter and Platoon or more recently the likes of Saving Private Ryan which all work off Aldrich's ideas. What The Dirty Dozen does so differently from all those which came before is to blur the boundaries ...
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Advantages: Great performances, Lee Marvin, superb dramatic tension Disadvantages: Goof ups in depicting war games
The 60's was a period when we had great war flicks like Where Eagles Dare, The Dirty Dozen, Guns of Navaronne, The Great Escape, The Longest Day to name a few. My dad was a lover of such movies, and he would take me along as a kid, and that's how I grew up loving such cinema. Dirty Dozen is a typical lets get together guys and go on a mission, spot the star World War II movies which appeared regularly during that period. But this is one movie which ... ...and superb pacing.
With the advent of D-Day, the US Army has come up with a plan to interrupt German chain of command. Raid a secluded mansion where most of the high ranking Nazi officers come to party with their mistresses and kill every one there. It's a suicidal operation, and so the army decides to make use of convicted criminals who are either on death row or facing life imprisonment. It's a win win situation, if they die, they would have the ...
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Actor(s): Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, Jim Brown, John Cassavetes, Richard Jaeckel, Ralph Meeker, Robert Ryan
Director(s): Robert Aldrich
Genre: War
Classification: 15 years and over
Production Year: 1967
Running Time: 2 hours 23 minutes
Video Category: Feature Film
Plot: A strike force of violent criminals are recruited to tackle one of the most bizarre and dangerous combat missions of World War II.
Release details
DVD Region: Region 2 (Europe)
Studio(s): WARNER HOME VIDEO; CINRAM LOGISTICS
Release date: 18/04/2005
No of Discs: 1
Catalogue No: D 065079
Barcode: 7321900650793
Director of Photography: Edward Scaife
Languages
Main Language: English
Technical information
Special Features: Featurette, Trailer
DVD Description
An all-star cast energizes Robert Aldrich's classic World War II action drama about a group of 12 American military prisoners assembled by tacticians and ordered to perform a suicide mission: infiltrate a well-guarded chateau and kill the Nazi officials staying there. The incarcerated soldiers, most of whom are facing death sentences for a variety of violent crimes, jump at the chance to redeem themselves. Major Reisman (Lee Marvin), the noncriminal in charge of the group, whips the men into a crack unit, uses them to best the troops of his by-the-book superior officer, Colonel Breed (Robert Ryan), in war games, then leads the steely antiheroes on their perilous assault. The film is studded with standout performances, including Telly Savalas as a religious psychopath with a febrile animosity toward Germans and John Cassavetes in an Oscar-nominated portrayal as an insubordinate, poison-tongued hothead. Ernest Borgnine, Donald Sutherland, Charles Bronson, and football legend Jim Brown further round out the impressive collection of talent. Aldrich, who by the time of THE DIRTY DOZEN had been fathoming the darker side of life onscreen for more than a decade (KISS ME DEADLY, WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE
