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Rating:  -
"The Dirty Dozen", Robert Aldrich's 1967 adventure classic, would redefine a whole genre of films, as public attitudes towards warfare and heroism changed, due to Vietnam. With 'heroes' who were certainly not noble, a mission that would require a level of cruelty film audiences had never before seen from American fighting men, and graphic language and bloodshed, the impact of the the film was both immediate (despite huge 'box office', many critics panned the film as 'disturbing' and glorifying violence), and continuing (influencing films as diverse as "Patton" and "Saving Private Ryan"). It can be viewed at many levels, as a crackling good adventure yarn, an 'anti-establishment' and anti-war statement, the ultimate 'buddy' film...few films have generated as much controversy, or stood the passage of time, better!
Based on E.M. Nathanson's novel (of rumored 'Death Row' convicts offered a pardon or reduction of sentence for volunteering for a suicide mission), with a large dash of the Pathfinders' legendary "Filthy Thirteen" of WWII tossed in, the property was purchased as a potential starring vehicle for John Wayne. The Duke passed on the project, however (choosing to make "The Green Berets", instead). Director Aldrich never envisioned Wayne in the lead, preferring WWII Marine vet Lee Marvin in the complex role of maverick Maj. John Reisman, and the actor, fresh from winning an Oscar for "Cat Ballou", was dead-on perfect in the part. Veteran stars Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, Ralph Meeker, Robert Webber, George Kennedy, and Richard Jaeckel were cast as Marvin's military allies and adversaries.
For the "Front Six" of the Dozen, sullen Charles Bronson (another WWII vet), John Cassavetes (who would garner an Oscar nomination), Telly Savalas (in the most 'whacked-out' role in his career), Clint Walker (of "Cheyenne" TV fame), football legend Jim Brown (in only his second film), and popular singer Trini Lopez (in his film debut) would dominate the screen time, with a "Back Six" of character actors in much smaller roles, simply filling out the rest of the twelve parts. But a movie 'miracle' occurred; when Walker objected to a scene where, as a bogus 'General', he would idiotically review an Airborne unit (feeling it demeaned Native Americans, who his character portrayed), Aldrich passed the scene to "Back Six" actor Donald Sutherland...and the scene would spectacularly launch his career, leading to his starring role in "M.A.S.H."
Aldrich's meticulous shooting style, and the often rainy British weather (where the film was shot), more than doubled the shooting schedule, and after seven months on location, Trini Lopez (on the advice of friend Frank Sinatra), informed Aldrich and the producers that he was missing singing dates, and would need a pay hike to continue. To Lopez' surprise, Aldrich 'dropped' him, having him die in the climactic parachute drop!
The director was warned that if he didn't eliminate the film's most controversial scene (pouring gasoline and dropping grenades on the women guests, as well as the Nazi officers seeking refuge in the bomb shelters), he would lose any chance of a 'Best Director' Oscar. After soul-searching, he left the scene in ("War is Hell, and HAS to be portrayed that way"), and while he sacrificed the prize, Robert Aldrich gave the film a brutal honesty that subsequent wars would sadly verify.
With loads of Disc Two Special Features that open up the film and gives an insight into why it has become a 'classic' (including the first "Dirty Dozen" TV 'sequel', a Lee Marvin Marine 'Leadership' training film, and an astonishing documentary on the "Filthy Thirteen"), it is absolutely an essential for any 'War Film' library.
"The Dirty Dozen" survived contemporary criticism, and has proven to be one of the most enduring war films of all time, as fresh today as when it debuted in 1967.
Rating: -
The movie THE DIRTY DOZEN led to three sequels, easily the best of which was the 1985 TV movie DIRTY DOZEN: THE NEXT MISSION. That movie, which reunited Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine and Richard Jaeckel from the original movie is featured in the two-disc collectors set DVD as the primary special feature.
Learning of a German plot to kill Hitler, Allied intelligence is worried. The war is not going well for the Reich and Hitler is making illogical and irrational decisions. The Allies realize that if the Fuhrer is assassinated, that the decision-making powers could be given to a more capable military commander and thereby prolong the war, as Borgnine's Gen. Worden notes, Hitler is in fact their best ally.
What follows is a largely retread of the recruitment and training that was seen in the first movie, however the target this time is a train and instead of killing a whole mansion full of generals, the target this time is one. However, as expected, things do not go entirely to plan and the closing minutes of the movie are laden with a couple of surprises for the team. It's lightweight fun and not at all up to the same quality as the original, but it's entertaining enough and has its great moments. The 1985 movie's running time is 1 hour, 35 minutes and is (since it was made for television) full-frame. It's inclusion as a special feature here is reason enough for this movie to be a recommended purchase.
But it's not alone in the special features department. Add to that a scene specific commentary that is held together by film historian David Schlow. For the most part the participants appear to have been recorded separately (with former marine Capt. Dale Dye being the sole participant for the first eight minutes), and at times it can be a little dry, but it's fascinating and informative. Joining Dye and Schlow are cast members Jim Brown, Trini Lopez, Stuart Cooper, and Colin Maitland, producer Kenneth Hyman and original novelist E.M. Nathanson.
For his part Nathanson is also featured in two of the featurettes, "Armed and Deadly: The Making of The Dirty Dozen" and "The Filthy Thirteen: Real Stories from Behind the Lines." Surprisingly the second of these is the most extensive of the two with the retrospective documentary running at a little less than 30 minutes (27:18) and the story on the actual WWII events running at over 45 minutes (47:10). Both are well done in their own respect (and are in widescreen) with a number of new on-camera interviews with George Kennedy, Donald Sutherland and Ernest Borgnine. The first details the development of the movie from book form to finished movie. Interesting among this documentary is the fact that director Robert Aldrich was denied an Oscar because he decided not to cut the scene of the gasoline being poured on the Germans in the underground bunker. Sticking to his principles Aldrich commented that "war is hell" and refused to compromise the quality of his vision. Also interesting is the revelation that newcomer Donald Sutherland originally only had one line in the movie, but when one of his fellow cast members declined to do the scene where they impersonate an American general, Sutherland was picked to do it instead. Little did anyone suspect that almost 40 years later it is arguably Sutherland who is the most famous of the original cast. Author of the book "Guts and Glory" Lawrence Suid talks about how realistic the movie was compared to earlier WWII movies and Nathanson tells us (on camera) that Aldrich attempted to buy the rights to the book before it was published, only to discover that MGM had already acquired them.We also learn that the part of Col. Reisman was originally offered to John Wayne who turned the part down much to the relief of Aldrich who feared that it would have become "a John Wayne movie." In his on-camera interview former footballer Jim Brown reflects on the fact that Aldrich (who was a big football fan) gave dialogue and scenes intended for other actors to Brown so that he would have a bigger role and also the fact that he received some valuable instruction from the other actors, saying "It's almost like having 15 acting coaches."
The second documentary traces the origins of the DIRTY DOZEN story. Author Nathanson had been told that a unit such as the Dirty Dozen had been formed in World War II and two surviving members of what were named "The Filthy Thirteen" are interviewed on camera including veteran Jake McNiece who was a soldier referred to by one historian who just wanted to kill the enemy and didn;t see what discipline had to do with it. Prior to the jump into Normandy McNiece shaved his head to prevent head lice infection and painted his face, a style that his companions copied. War corresspondants became interested in the group and one (Arch Whitehouse) coined the phrase "Dirty Dozen." For his part Nathanson says he used court martial records and his imagination and to this date no evidence has ever been presented to conclusively prove that allied prisoners were recruited for suicide missions, in fact Dye notes in the audio commentary that no U.S. soldier was hanged in WWII.
Two vintage featurettes are also included. "Operation Dirty Dozen" (at 9:13) is little more than a short promo for the movie, although it does offer some interesting clips of the behind the scenes shooting, this is in fact the same feature that was included on the previous release and though it is evidently old, it appears to be in good shape. The second is perhaps the most unusual of all the special features. Former WWII Marine Lee Marvin hosts a Marine Corp training and recruitment film that runs just shy of a half hour at 29:39. Sadly the film quality on this featurette is less than perfect.
Rounding out the special features is a 3:29 on-camera introduction by Ernest Borgnine where he references the three sequels.
All in all, this is the DVD set that fans of the movie have been waiting for. Highly recommended.
Rating: -
Warner Brothers has made up for the long wait for a good DVD edition of The Dirty Dozen. This two-disc package is excellent, a major improvement on the previous release.
Image quality: A new transfer to anamorphic video. The image is great--very sharp and clear, giving all due emphasis to the gritty quality of the story. In some shots you can see every pore on Lee Marvin's face. A little frightening, I suppose, but worth it.
Sound: Very good. The Dirty Dozen won the Oscar for Best Sound Effects, and this DVD's sound does the film justice.
Special features: Surprisingly good for a film as far-removed in time as this. The highlight, for me, was the commentary on the film by a few of the surviving actors, a film historian, and Cpt. Dale Dye of Warriors, Inc. Dye's salty commentary is the real jewel of the features on this edition.
It's nice to see a movie I've loved since childhood getting the DVD it deserves. If you've been waiting for this DVD--or even if you haven't--pick it up as soon as you can. Highly recommended.
Rating:  -
There's a great yarn behind this 1967 macho touchstone. The extras on Warner's special edition focus on director Robert Aldrich, who was set on making a mainstream anti-war movie. A solid 2006 documentary tells how Aldrich carpet-bombed the heroic conventions of American war films. Actor Donald Sutherland recalls: "He wanted to make a war film that was ugly. That was brutal and vicious. And nobody was good." The Dirty Dozen's massacre of trapped Nazi officers and their wives served as commentary on Vietnam and its atrocities, with gasoline standing in for napalm.
Good video quality (it appears to be the blown-up-to-70mm crop) and a high-energy 5.1 audio mix.
Check out the fun Swinging Sixties docu about Lee Marvin and the cast hanging out in London during production breaks. Despite disclaimers that the DD story had anything to do with the real-life Filthy 13 unit, there is a detailed docu about that warpainted wild bunch. Only the gung ho will make it to disc 2 for the 1985 TV movie "The Dirty Dozen: Next Mission."
Rating:  -
Judging by the review below, it seems that my worst fear about this DVD have been confirmed, and that those ignoramuses at Warners have put out the same severely cropped version of the film that we have been foisted with on region 2.
`The Dirty Dozen' was originally hard matted at 1.85:1, which is how the original DVD was presented , albeit non-anamorphic. However, Warner Bros. insistence on cropping it to the meaningless 2.10:1 ratio means that many shots now look mis-framed, especially the close-up shots which suffer from severe cropping, with many of the actors' heads cut off at the top. Warners excuse for this was that the film was re-released in the cinemas on 70mm blow up prints, which were made in approximately this ratio.
If I am right, I would strongly discourage anyone from buying this release, despite the fact that the picture is undoubtedly clearer and sharper than previous ones, since the framing now looks hopelessly wrong. If enough people do this, maybe it will force Warners to issue a proper version at its correct 1.85:1 aspect ratio. What utter plonkers.
P.S. Speaking of plonkers, would the moronic reviewer harrythompson please stop bothering everyone with his inconsequential utterances. Maybe if he stopped attacking people merely for being more knowledgeable than he is, he could begin to confront his own stupidity, and make a concerted effort not to act like pond life. Thank you.
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