“The Dirty Dozen” MOVIE REVIEW

 

“The Dirty Dozen”

MOVIE REVIEW

 

The Dirty Dozen is an American war movie directed by Robert Aldrich and starring Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, Jim Brown, Joh Cassavetes, Richard Jaeckel, George Kennedy, Ralph Meeker, Robert Ryan, Telly Savalas, Donald Sutherland, Clint Walker, and Robert Webber was released in 1967.

The film, which was made in England, takes place in 1944, at the height of the Second World War. The movie was a box office hit and received the Best Sound Editing Academy Award at the 40th Academy Awards in 1968. The American Film Institute ranked it 65th on its 100 Years list in 2001. The screenplay is based on E. M. Nathanson's 1965 best-seller of the same name, which was inspired by the "Filthy Thirteen," a real-life World War II demolition experts unit from the 101st Airborne Division. Another source of motivation could have been the 44 life-sentenced prisoners at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary who publicly offered to serve in the Pacific on suicide missions against the Japanese.

 

The movie's plot is as follows: In March 1944, OSS officer Major John Reisman receives a top-secret order from Major General Sam Worden, the commander of ADSEC in Britain, to embark on Project Amnesty, a mission to train some of the Army's worst prisoners and transform them into commandos in preparation for a nearly suicide mission just before D-Day. In order to sabotage the Wehrmacht's chain of command in Northern France prior to the Allied invasion, the objective is a chateau close to Rennes where scores of senior German officers will be killed. Prisoners who make it through the mission will have their offenses forgiven.

 

While the other inmates are subject to lengthy sentences that include hard labor, five of them are given the death penalty. The inmates are forced to construct their own training camp while being guarded by a detachment of MPs under the command of Sgt. Bowren. This forces them to gradually learn how to work together. However, all shaving and wash kits are withheld as punishment for an act of disobedience started by the disobedient Franko, earning them the moniker "The Dirty Dozen." The prisoners are psychoanalyzed by Capt. Kinder during their training, and Kinder forewarns Reisman that all of them would kill him if given the chance, with rapist/killer Maggot being the most deadly.

 

The "Dirty Dozen" are sent for parachute training at a facility run by Reisman's adversary Colonel Everett Dasher Breed of the 101st Airborne Division when their commando training is nearly finished. The Airborne colonel tries to find out Reisman's goal by having two of his men beat a confession out of one of the detainees after Reisman's soldiers clash with Breed, especially when Pinkley - acting on Reisman's orders - appears as a general to evaluate Breed's best troops. After Breed and his men visit their camp in search of information, the prisoners who initially accuse Reisman of being the attacker realize their error. Reisman breaks into his own camp, and the prisoners disarm Breed's paratroopers, humiliating the colonel and forcing him to flee.

 

Reisman rewards the men with prostitutes once they complete their training, which infuriates General Worden and Brigadier General Denton, his chief of staff. The project might be abandoned, in which case the men would be returned to prison to complete their terms of confinement. Reisman fiercely defends the inmates, claiming that each one is equivalent to ten of Breed's best soldiers. Major Max Armbruster, a friend of Reisman's, offers a test. The "Dirty Dozen" will make an attempt to seize Colonel Breed's headquarters during future military operations in southwest England. Using a variety of unconventional strategies, the force successfully infiltrates and seizes Breed's wargames headquarters. General Worden approves Reisman's assignment after being impressed.

 

The jump causes Jiminez to break his neck, and the men parachute into northern France. The mission continues after losing a man as German-speaking Wladislaw and Reisman enter the chateau pretending to be German officials. Pinkley is outside while pretending to be a German commander. Gilpin is on the building's roof when his leg slips through and becomes stuck. However, the psychotic Maggot breaks the cover and sounds an alarm, ruining any remaining element of surprise. Gilpin sacrifices himself by detonating the antenna with hand grenades while still having one leg jammed in the roof. Pinkley kills numerous police officers with gunfire before being shot to death. Jefferson then shoots Maggot to death in order to defend the objective. The Wehrmacht officers and their associates flee to a closed subterranean bomb shelter when shooting is heard, but Jefferson throws the hand grenades down ventilation shafts and tries to run for his life but is shot dead.

 

Only Reisman, Sgt. Bowren and Wladislaw manage to survive the intense fighting. Back in England, Armbruster's voiceover affirms that General Worden cleared the Dirty Dozen's lone survivor and informed the family members of the others that "they lost their lives in the line of duty."

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