The Dirty Dozen (1967)
Genre: War / Action
Duration: 150 minuten
Alternative title: De Twaalf Veroordeelden
Country:
United Kingdom / United States
Directed by: Robert Aldrich
Stars: Lee Marvin, Charles Bronson and Ernest Borgnine
IMDb score:
7,7 (84.337)
Releasedate: 15 June 1967
The Dirty Dozen plot
"Train them! Excite them! Arm them!...Then turn them loose on the Nazis!"
It is 1944 and the Allied armies are ready to launch a massive invasion against the Germans. Before D-Day, the English want to have a few more secret missions carried out by convicted criminals. They have to parachute into the enemy area and destroy certain things. But first, the criminals must undergo training so that they are ready for their mission.
Actors and actresses
Maj. John Reisman
Maj. Gen. Worden
Joseph Wladislaw
Robert Jefferson
Victor Franko
Sergeant Bowren
Major Max Armbruster
Pedro Jiminez
Captain Stuart Kinder
Col. Everett Dasher Breed
Reviews & comments
scorsese
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- 13473 messages
- 11293 votes
Good film in which an appeal is made to the help of a group of criminals for a military operation. Although the film is well constructed, it could have been a bit shorter. A decent portion of humor and the action is largely saved until the end. Entertaining characters filled in by a cast with quite a few well-known names.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Roger Thornhill
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- 6205 messages
- 2551 votes
Taking my father to the cinema for the great classics of the 60s: The magnificent seven, The guns of Navarone, The good the bad and the ugly, Where eagles dare, Thunderball... and that included The dirty dozen as well. Ridiculously long running time, and with several stars among the military who get far too little to do (Ryan, Borgnine, Kennedy, Webber, Meeker), but the scenes with tough prisoners among themselves are still effective, and with Marvin, Bronson, Sutherland and Cassavetes are always right (but if the latter got an Oscar nomination, Savalas would have deserved one too). Still fun entertainment with ragged edges, and the director carefully avoids any form of sentimentality (and also lets eleven of the 12 unwashed die without batting an eyelid). Oh, and by the way, TRINI LOPEZ?!?
Translated from Dutch · View original
starbright boy (moderator films)
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- 22596 messages
- 5241 votes
Seventh film I've seen from Aldrich (at least what he got credit for) and partly it is recognizable (masculinity, but also a certain pessimism), but partly I also find this clearly different and less marked. It was the biggest hit of his career (in which he was often not very successful actually). Aldrich comes with a very impressive cast, some of them were already stars and some of them would become even more famous in the years after (Sutherland for example). Of the seven (so far all but one 4* or 3.5*), I rate this one the lowest along with another.
It is primarily a film in a subgenre that was very much alive at the time but has since virtually died out. War films that are totally unrealistic but mainly revolve around some sort of impossible mission (can also be an escape). The tone in that genre is often light-hearted (although the ending breaks with that). In that corner I found The Train very good, but this one a lot less.
The film is told very anecdotally and works towards a climax which is not the climax of the film for me. Aldrich still plays pretty well with the large amount of characters in the film and they all get character and that betrays skill. But the film is also really long and in the end nothing really exciting.
Translated from Dutch · View originalPre- and sequels
The Dirty Dozen: The Fatal Mission
1988
The Dirty Dozen: The Deadly Mission
1987
The Dirty Dozen: Next Mission
1985
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