STACK J#165 Jul 2018

EXTRAS

FEATURE

training and sheer physical exhaustion. The second section is the transformation of the dozen malcontents into a cohesive team. Working together – during a war games training exercise – they violate every rule in the book, and by doing so manage to capture the opposition’s colonel (played by Robert Ryan) and his entire staff. The final section is the climactic attack on a French chateau where the German High Command are quartered. The dozen’s mission is to kill as many of the German officers as possible to pave the way for a successful D-Day operation. The film’s controversy arose from scenes of the German officers and their non-combatant lady companions who, having taken refuge in the chateau’s basement following the initial attack, are locked in by one of the team. Reisman then orders gasoline poured through air vents of the shelter, which is then ignited with hand grenades. Aldrich filmed various angles of the German victims scrambling like caged animals moments before the basement explodes into a mass of flame. The imagery aptly recalls the Nazi death camps. Many movie critics were appalled by the violence being carried out by “American” soldiers in the final 30 minutes of the film. Aldrich countered those critics with, “I wanted to make the point that violence is just as disagreeable when it comes from Americans as it does from Germans. War is hell and it needs to be portrayed as such”. Audiences ignored the controversial critiques

The Dirty Dozen

Reisman what he thinks of the plan. He replies, “I think it stinks but it confirms a suspicion that I’ve had for some time now.” “And what’s that, major?” asks Worden. “That one of the officers in command of this operation is a raving lunatic,” retorts Reisman. He continues telling the brass that not only is the plan preposterous but the

Reisman begins the dozen’s rigorous training

condemned men won’t go for the deal unless they receive a pardon – that is if any of them survive, which he very much doubts. Worden agrees with granting the men

recently been enhanced by his Academy Award for Cat Ballou  (1965), MGM signed him to the production.  Veteran movie actors Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, Ralph Meeker, Robert Webber, George Kennedy and Richard Jaeckel were subsequently cast as Marvin’s military allies and adversaries. Of the dozen actors who portray the condemned prisoners, only seven of them dominate the screen-time. John Cassavetes (who would receive an Oscar nomination for his role as the volatile Victor Franco); sullen Charles Bronson; TV stars Clint Walker and Telly Savalas; NFL football legend Jim Brown; popular singer Trini Lopez; and the then unknown Canadian jobbing actor Donald Sutherland, whose landmark role in the film as the dopey but loyal Vernon Pinkley directly led to his starring role in M.A.S.H . (1970). The other five actors were just fillers to make up the dozen. Following the prologue of Major Reisman witnessing the military execution – by hanging – of an American soldier, the movie is then essentially divided into three sections. The first begins with the introduction of Reisman meeting the top brass, who brief him on his assignment. General Worden (Borgnine) asks

The attack on the chateau – Jefferson (Jim Brown) drops grenades down the air vents

The Dirty Dozen remains a perennial favourite

pardons if they undertake the mission. There then follows the introduction of the twelve undisciplined prisoners and Reisman breaking them down one by one through gruelling

and flocked to see the movie, making it the highest grossing film of the year and the sixth highest in MGM’s history.  Aldrich’s action-packed film would spawn many “men on a deadly mission” imitators, but some 50 years after its initial release,  The Dirty Dozen remains a perennial favourite.

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