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Action, Adventure, War 149 min NR
Rotten Tomatoes82%Metacritic73IMDb
Train them! Excite them! Arm them!...Then turn them loose on the Nazis!
12 American military prisoners in World War II are ordered to infiltrate a well-guarded enemy château and kill the Nazi officers vacationing there. The soldiers, most of whom are facing death sentences for a variety of violent crimes, agree to the mission and the possible commuting of their sentences.
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Resolved, plot-driven, classical in form and epic.
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Written by TMDB members; each links to the original. Not part of Taste Buds's numbers.
One of the most quintessential macho movies of all time. The Dirty Dozen is directed by Robert Aldrich and adapted for the screen by Nunnally Johnson & Lukas Heller from the novel by E. M. Nathanson. It stars Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Telly Savalas, Charles Bronson, John Cassavetes, Donald Sutherland, Richard Jaeckel, Robert Ryan and Jim Brown. 1944, just prior to D-Day . Major Reisman (Marvin) is a none conformist kind of guy and he riles the higher brass no end, so it comes as no surprise to him that he is the man assigned the unenviable task of assembling a suicide squad of army criminals for a mission to destroy a château in France. This particular château has no military value as such, but as it is used by many of the Nazi big chiefs, destroying it whilst they relax inside will upset the German plans immensely. But can this rag tag band of murderers, rapists and thieves shape up into something resembling a fighting force? Their reward, should they survive the mission, is amnesty, but Reisman for sure has his hands full on both sides of the war. "One: down to the road block, we've just begun.. Two: the guards are through.. Three: the Major's men are on a spree.. Four: Major
Read the whole review on TMDBI loved this. Right up there with my favourite Aldrich films (though maybe 'Kiss Me Deadly' is still my number one), and of the greatest performances of both Lee Marvin and John Cassavetes (who was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at both the Golden Globes and Oscars for his work here). This hearkened back to the heady times when if you got a great cast and director together, you were virtually guaranteed you'd come out of it, because of comparatively little studio interference, with a bonafide classic piece of cinema. People thought the studio system was broken and needed fixing, by films such as 'Easy Rider'? THIS, along with other fine Aldrich works from this period, age a lot better and hold up much finer today than Dennis Hopper's so-called 'masterpiece' and its ilk.
Read the whole review on TMDBLee Marvin is charged with a mission to drum a dozen criminals and reprobates into some sort of cohesive military unit with a view to destroying an heavily guarded chateau that serves as a respite for high ranking Nazi officers. The challenge looks impossible as the band are assembled - a bigger crowd of cowards, thugs and zealots you would never hope to see; but with the assistance of his stoic sergeant (Richard Jaeckel) he manages to get the wacky zealot Telly Savalas, Charles Bronson, Sonny Bono, Jim Brown and a woefully sleazy John Cassavetes to pull in the same direction. It's all good stuff, with plenty of humour to keep it all going nicely. Maybe a bit too long, but a good wartime action drama that builds well to a strong conclusion.
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“Is this Robert Aldrich's best work?”
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“Does it glamorize what it means to condemn?”
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32 profiled raters. Loved most by The Prestige Hunters.
If you loved this film, the television, the book, the music, the game.
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