The Dirty Dozen

The Dirty Dozen (1967)

Genres - Action, Adventure, Drama, War  |   Sub-Genres - Ensemble Film, War Adventure  |   Release Date - Jul 15, 1967 (USA)  |   Run Time - 149 min.  |   Countries - United Kingdom, United States  |   MPAA Rating - NR
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Synopsis by Hal Erickson

Director Robert Aldrich took what he considered a hopelessly old-fashioned script by Lukas Heller and Nunnally Johnson and fashioned The Dirty Dozen into one of MGM's biggest moneymakers of the 1960s--and the sixth highest-grossing film in the studio's history. Lee Marvin plays Major Reisman, assigned to coordinate a suicide mission on a French chateau held by top Nazi officers. Since no "normal" GI can be expected to volunteer for this mission, Reisman is compelled to draw his personnel from a group of military prisoners serving life sentences. This "dirty dozen" includes a sex pervert (Telly Savalas), a psycho (John Cassavetes), a retarded killer (Donald Sutherland), and the equally malevolent Charles Bronson, Trini Lopez, Jim Brown, and Clint Walker. On the dim promise of receiving pardons if they survive, the criminals undergo a brutal training program, then are marched behind enemy lines dressed as Nazi soldiers, the better to overtake the chateau and kill everyone in it--including the innocent wives and mistresses of the German officers.

Characteristics

Keywords

suicide-mission, group, machismo, major, training, war, Nazi

Attributes

High Artistic Quality, High Historical Importance, High Production Values