Review of The Dirty Dozen (1967) by Rainer K — 03 Oct 2012

I guess we all can agree on The Dirty Dozen being one hell of a film.

It was groundbreaking in his violence as well as in his structure which established (but not invented) a formula that has been used times and times again.

Props, to the casting director finding 12 (or better 14) men you could identify with while still buying them as criminals.

There's a lot to like in The Dirty Dozen - explosions, filthy jokes, genuine anti-racism messages and a lot of stars (and stars to come). Especially the third act is very suspenseful.

Now I know what movies like The Expendables try to duplicate - but fail all the time. The Dirty Dozen gives all the characters enough time to develop so that you actually care about them when the thrills come rollin'.

It accomplishes that by finding just the right balance between humour and seriousness in the beginning - why and how exactly this worked so well in this film I can't tell, but boy, although it's simple, it's good.