The Dirty Dozen (1967)

Director: Robert Aldrich
Starring: Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson

Synopsis:
A maverick officer assembles and trains a team of convicts for a suicide mission to assassinate German officers at a castle resort.

Impressions:
This film went a long way toward kicking off quite a few military maverick films to follow. I guess that given the political climate of the time, you almost had to make a picture like this if you wanted it to be marketable. Quite a few of the cast were actual WWII veterans, so it must not have bothered them too much (or at least they were willing to take the paycheck). The fact that comparatively little screentime is devoted to the raid, most of the film goes toward establishing the characters and most of them are quite memorable. This movie helped pave the way for Donald Sutherland and Jim Brown's rise to stardom, which should be of some interest to their fans. I found it interesting that George Kennedy was playing significantly against type as the nerdy staff officer Major Armbruster. Telly Savalas also plays against type as the psychotic Maggot. Lee Marvin is solid as Major Reisman and I really liked his antagonistic dynamic with John Cassavetes as Franko. It's a good movie and if you want to see a WWII film, without the whitewash you should consider giving this a watch.

Rating:
Watch It