KnotMissPriceless Why so much hype?

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Ella-May O'Brien Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

talisencrw I loved this. Right up there with my favourite Aldrich films (though maybe 'Kiss Me Deadly' is still my number one), and of the greatest performances of both Lee Marvin and John Cassavetes (who was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at both the Golden Globes and Oscars for his work here).This hearkened back to the heady times when if you got a great cast and director together, you were virtually guaranteed you'd come out of it, because of comparatively little studio interference, with a bonafide classic piece of cinema. People thought the studio system was broken and needed fixing, by films such as 'Easy Rider'? THIS, along with other fine Aldrich works from this period, age a lot better and hold up much finer today than Dennis Hopper's so-called 'masterpiece' and its ilk.

runamokprods This entertaining, tense, yet very cynical view of war is as subversive in it's own quiet way as M*A*S*H is overtly. To take a bunch of murderers, rapists, thieves, then make us root for them as war heroes, and laugh at their antics, then get caught up in their mission but (if we catch it) feel an unease at how that mission quietly echoes the gassing of Jews in concentration camps leads to high number of levels at which to take the film leads to a very complicated movie experience masquerading at 'fun' entertainment. And it IS fun -- that's where Aldrich pulls you in. Yet to admit even subtly (as he also did in 'Attack') that even a war as 'good', just and necessary as WWII was still an act of insanity on all sides may be even more brave than Altman's more overt counter-culture skewering of the Korean War, a war more 'acceptable' to ask moral questions about. All that said, as often happens for me with Aldrich, it lost a bit on second viewing. The humor felt more juvenile, the ironies a bit easy. Still a cool, subversive film, but I'd hoped it would grow, not fade.

BoomerDT Understand this: in WW2 (and today) there was no shortage of elite, well-trained and disciplined commandos willing to risk life and limb to go on suicidal missions. So under no circumstance would it be necessary to send a dozen men from a military prison, who were either condemned to execution or sentenced to lengthy prison term at hard labor, on a mission to go behind enemy lines on the eve of DDay to try and kill as many officers as possible of the German high command, enjoying R&R in a French château.However, this contrived premise becomes the hook that elevates TDD above another WW2 action movie. I actually find the first 2/3 of the movie dealing with the assembly of the unit and how Lee Marvin as Maj. Reisman trains them to be a crack and cohesive combat unit more interesting than the actual mission. It's an excellent cast. Marvin was at his peak, having recently had a couple brilliant roles, 1 dramatic as an alcoholic in "Ship of Fools" and the other as a drunken gunfighter in the comedy, "Cat Ballou." In TDD Marvin gets to do his tough guy personification again, but he shows a wonderful touch of wryly delivering comedic lines. TDD has a superb cast playing the Army brass and the prisoners. Ernest Borgnine gives a good low key performance as the general who concocted this plan, as does George Kennedy as his aide. Robert Ryan is the arrogant and pompous Col. Breed who despises Maj. Reisman. Richard Jaeckel gives another top notch performance as the MP Sgt who has to assist Reisman in keeping order, while the vastly underrated Ralph Meeker has a great bit as an Army shrink who analyzes the misfits.At the heart of this are the "Dozen" the convicts who will be expected to pull of this mission or die trying to even have a shot at clemency. Actually for the audience we only really get to know 6 of them. Bronson and Clint Walker were good soldiers who ended up on death row, Bronson after he fragged a cowardly officer and Walker after he lost his temper and killed a man with a punch. Football great Jim Brown made his initial movie appearance, waiting to die after killing a racist who wanted to castrate him. His adversary among the prisoners becomes Telly Savalas as Pvt. Maggot, truly a psychotic and racist killer. Donald Sutherland gives a good comedic bit as a rather dim-witted soldier, while the great John Cassavetes delivers perhaps the stand out performance of the 12 as Franco, a low level ex-Chicago mobster, sentenced to death after a penny ante holdup went astray. Franco ends up becoming sort of the ex post facto leader of the 12 as they eventually become an efficient killing machine.One of those flicks that is fun to continually watch, if nothing else for one of the truly great movie casts of all time.

bpladybug Over forty years and this movie continues to thrill and entertain. I have seen it several times. If you like the war film genre or just exciting action with ironic humor then you MUST make time to see the original Dirty Dozen.wow, I need ten linesCharles Bronson, Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Jim Brown, Telly SavalisIf you are a young person then you might want to watch these actors - greats in their time. The movie does lack a significant female lead but that was typical for the times.