THE DIRTY DOZEN (1967) ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
D: Robert Aldrich
Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson,
John Cassavetes, Telly Savalas, Jim Brown,
Robert Ryan, George Kennedy, Donald Sutherland,
Richard Jaeckel, Clint Walker, Ralph Meeker
On the eve of the Normandy Invasion, Major Lee Marvin springs a bunch of psychos from the stockade and trains them to go behind enemy lines to take out a castle full of German generals. Classic World War Two action adventure, tough, funny and highly improbable, crackling with wise-guy dialogue and machine-gun fire. If it didn't invent the formula, it at least set the standard for every misfits-on-a-suicidal-mission movie to follow. Bronson, Cassavetes and Sutherland stand out in the gallery of perverts and murderers.
