Review of The Dirty Dozen (1967) by Travis W — 28 Aug 2007

The current generation has been thoroughly spoiled during entertainment's love affair with WWII. Say what you will about its ultimate message and the almost obsessive Norman Rockwell perfection of "Saving Private Ryan," it achieved a level of intensity that is earned, and impossible to just manufacture.

The epic miniseries "Band of Brothers" was vastly superior in almost every way, but it serves to reiterate the question: are we watching these for the characters or the combat scenes? Hanks and the latter production withstanding, it's a damn good question.

It's also easy to forget in the 5.1 assault on the senses that the heart of these stories lies with the soldiers and not their guns. Before we got busy with displaying new and better ways of blowing these men to Hell, the performances had to be the draw.

This movie isn't just in name only: most of the biggest swinging dicks in hollywood history shared the screen. Take a quick glance at the cast and then ask yourself if the DeNiro/Pacino five min. face off in "Heat" is still such a big fucking deal.

Lee Marvin is a hardass major given the tragic task of picking twelve men off death row to be trained for a suicide mission in the heart of der Vaterland. A little of '67 shows through in its pitch black soul.

The movie is pretty much tone deaf as it barrels toward its conclusion, with characters joking, rebelling, and causing forgivable brands of mischief that are so charming, you are in a complete state of denial as the mission proper begins.

Each death, both friendly and otherwise, is like a splash of cold water that reminds you the first half wasn't just safe, studio movie magic, it was a bunch of condemned men trading on their savage natures, waiting to indulge themselves on the slim hope of survival and, as part of the deal, freedom.

It spends more than 90 minutes painting a four-color picture before dashing the colors across the canvas (and most of it blood red). Whether or not the outcome of the mission is a kind of divine justice is debatable, but it raises a question much more timeless than even the best of the current crop of stories from "the last great war" can manage: is murder justified by the circumstances without or the reasons within?