BEFORE: Kicking off Memorial Day Weekend a little early with the first in a chain of WW2 films. Linking from last night, Steve Buscemi was in "Armageddon" with Bruce Willis, who was in "Red" with Ernest Borgnine (last seen in "Escape From New York"), who appears here as a general.
THE PLOT: A US Army Major is assigned a dozen convicted murderers to train and lead them into a mass assassination mission of German officers in World War II.
AFTER: It's a classic film, no doubt - but it took a long time to get to the main action. Once the plan was set in motion to recruit team members from a military prison, there was a lengthy "interview" process, and then special ops training for those selected. Plus building a camp, parachute training, and even a round of wargames to prove to the generals that the Dirty Dozen squad had what it takes.
There's almost a full two hours of movie before the squad goes on the mission they were selected for. You'd never expect a modern audience to put up with that - not with today's shorter attention spans.
The mission, when it comes, seemed a bit familiar - but that's probably because parts of it were ripped off by Tarantino in "Inglourious Basterds" - with a ragtag covert team disguised as Germans, infiltrating Nazi society, and then torching it from within.
They did take pains to make the members of the Dozen different types of characters - you've got the loose cannon, the quiet psycho, the religious nut, and the (mostly) gentle giant. That's something, anyway. And it's a cool idea to have a squad of men who would rather serve on a dangerous mission than rot in jail or be executed.
Starring Lee Marvin, Charles Bronson, Telly Savalas (last seen in "Capricorn One"), Donald Sutherland (last heard in "Astro Boy"), Jim Brown (last seen in "Any Given Sunday"), John Cassavetes (last seen in "Rosemary's Baby"), George Kennedy (last seen in "The Eiger Sanction"), Trini Lopez, Clint Walker, Robert Ryan (last seen in "The Wild Bunch").
RATING: 5 out of 10 grenades
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