Review of Kelly's Heroes (1970) by Adam R — 09 Sep 2011

1970 must have been the year of the lighthearted, slight, anti-authoritarian anti-war comedy. Though "M*A*S*H" is better remembered and more famous, "Kelly's Heroes" is a worthy bedfellow, even if both movies' knockabout jocularity tend to obscure any kind of message the films might have; lesser-known works from Wilfred Owen and Erich Maria Remarque these are not.

Unlike "M*A*S*H," which tended toward depicting the boredom average soldiers feel and the shenanigans the lads get into to alleviate the tedium, "Heroes" is a heist film. The titular private (Clint Eastwood), a former officer demoted due to his place as fall-guy in a spectacular failure of an operation, learns from a dying captive Nazi the location of a trove of Nazi gold. Convincing burned-out Mstr. Sgt. Big Joe (Telly Savalas), greedy Staff Sgt. Crapgame (Don Rickles) and spaced-out Sgt. Oddball (Donald Sutherland) from the armored division to get in on the scheme to go AWOL, get the loot then get the hell out of the war zone proves easy, the boys on their way with a small contingent of similarly tired, hopeful young men.

Unlike Eastwood and director Brian G. Hutton's preceding "Where Eagles Dare," "Heroes" goes to great lengths to establish the characters and even has enough affection to give them and their loving, backhanded banter center stage. Set pieces are integral to the story (notably a tense mine field crawl which has more tension than the entirety of "Eagles" and in the final act, which seemed to prefigure "Saving Private Ryan" by nearly 30 years and take a much lighter tone) but never intrude on the relationships between the characters. There's even enough room for some range, whether it's Savalas' legitimately moving work as a man trying to balance his desire to get rich with the needs of his men, who can die even on a battlefield far away from the war, or Sutherland's completely anachronistic performance as Oddball, seemingly transferring the zonked-out hippie persona of the day to a man who -- terrifyingly -- commands three Sherman tanks.

Insubstantial is the word that best sums up "Kelly's Heroes" but it's an amusing trifle. And unlike far more interesting, engaging and moving anti-war pictures like "Platoon," "Apocalypse Now" and "Full Metal Jacket," you'll probably have fun with this one (except in the case of "Jacket's" first half; the rat pack could have co-starred with Eastwood, Rickles and company and none of it would have been as funny as most of R. Lee Ermey's dialogue).