The Dirty Dozen
This article is about the well-known movie; Dirty Dozen may also refer to the rap group D12.
The Dirty Dozen is a 1967 war film directed by Robert Aldrich from the novel by E.M. Nathanson. It stars Lee Marvin, Charles Bronson, Jim Brown, John Cassavetes, Telly Savalas, Donald Sutherland, Ernest Borgnine, Clint Walker, Robert Ryan, Al Mancini, Richard Jaeckel, George Kennedy, Trini Lopez, Ralph Meeker, Robert Webber, Tom Busby, Ben Carruthers, Stuart Cooper and Colin Maitland.
It was a huge box office success for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and the year's high-grossing film. It was nominated for four Oscars, including a supporting actor nomination for Cassavetes, and won one Oscar for its sound effects. In 2001, the American Film Institute included it on its list of 100 Years...100 Thrills.
Brown announced his retirement from football during the filming of this movie.
Template:Spoiler The movie takes place during World War II, not long before D-Day. Twelve Allied soldiers, all imprisoned and several facing sentences of death, are given the chance to go on a very risky mission. If they survive, their sentences will be set aside.
Major John Reisman (Marvin) an outspoken US Army offier, already viewed unfavourably by his superiors, is "volunteered" to take command of the mission, in which his team is to assault and destroy a chateau in Normandy, frequented by Nazi officers. The mission is set to take place just prior to the D-Day invasion, as the chateau is frequented by German officers on leave from their units.
The soldiers don't take kindly to Reisman's tough training regime, and some try to sabotage it, but eventually they start to work as a team and prove that they're ready for anything. The mission goes ahead, and the chateau is assaulted. Most of the occupants are killed when the building is blown up. Only Reisman and one of the Dirty Dozen, played by Charles Bronson, survive the mission.
For its time, the film was an unconventional and extremely violent depiction of war. Roger Ebert, in his first year as a movie critic for the Chicago Sun-Times, was shocked by its violence. He wrote (sarcastically):
- I'm glad the Chicago Police Censor Board forgot about that part of the local censorship law where it says films shall not depict the burning of the human body. If you have to censor, stick to censoring sex, I say. ... But leave in the mutilation, leave in the sadism, and by all means leave in the human beings burning to death. It's not obscene as long as they burn to death with their clothes on.
Cast
Lee Marvin .... Maj. John Reisman Ernest Borgnine .... Maj. Gen. Worden Charles Bronson .... Joseph T. Wladislaw Jim Brown .... Robert T. Jefferson John Cassavetes .... Victor P. Franko Richard Jaeckel .... Sgt. Clyde Bowren George Kennedy .... Maj. Max Armbruster Trini López .... Pedro Jiminez Ralph Meeker .... Capt. Stuart Kinder Robert Ryan .... Col. Everett Dasher Breed Telly Savalas .... Archer J. Maggott Donald Sutherland .... Vernon L. Pinkley Clint Walker .... Samson Posey Robert Webber .... Brig. Gen. Denton Tom Busby .... Milo Vladek Ben Carruthers .... Glenn Gilpin Stuart Cooper .... Roscoe Lever Robert Phillips .... Cpl. Carl Morgan Colin Maitland .... Seth K. Sawyer Al Mancini .... Tassos R. Bravos
External links and sources
- The Dirty Dozen at IMDb
- The Dirty Dozen, from the Turner Classic Movies website
- Review of the film, by Roger Ebert, written in July 1967