Kelly's Heroes
Encyclopedia : K : KE : KEL : Kelly's Heroes
Kelly's Heroes is an offbeat 1970 war film about a group of enterprising World War II American soldiers. Directed by Brian G. Hutton, who also directed the 1968 WW II drama Where Eagles Dare, the film is virtually a who's who of Hollywood at that time - in addition to Clint Eastwood and Donald Sutherland, it starred Telly Savalas, Don Rickles, Carroll O'Connor and (Harry) Dean Stanton with a small part by Gavin MacLeod (who would later play Captain Stubing on The Love Boat). The screenplay was written by highly-respected British film and television writer Troy Kennedy Martin.
Synopsis
During World War II, Kelly (Eastwood), a former Lieutenant demoted to Private as a scapegoat, captures a German officer. Before he is killed in an artillery barrage, the drunken POW blurts out an interesting bit of information: there is a cache of gold bars, worth millions, stored in a bank vault not far behind enemy lines.Kelly recruits a group of soldiers on R&R to sneak off and steal it. They include a sceptical squad leader, "Big Joe" (Savalas), a greedy supply Sergeant, "Crapgame" (Rickles), an anachronistic hippie Sherman tank commander, "Oddball" (Sutherland), and a number of stereotypical "grunts". The men are presented as competent, if weary veterans; their motivations are more cynical and self-serving than patriotic.
The obvious antagonists are the Germans. However, it quickly becomes clear that the motley band's own superior officers are just as much an obstacle. Kelly's men race to reach the bank before a clueless Major General Colt (O'Connor) can interfere with their scheme. Ironically, while there is combat with the Germans, ultimately, it is the cooperation of a German Tiger tank commander (Karl-Otto Alberty) that proves vital to achieving their goal.
Comments
It stands out from many earlier and contemporary war films in both its cynical tone and mixed conflict as well as in its technical detail.
While its technical realism pales in comparison to Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan, it drew and continues to draw attention for its props and historical details. At a time when some of the most popular war movies used anachronistic tanks, in Heroes, the Tiger tanks (which play a key role in the climax) are well done mock-ups (based on Russian T-34 tanks, since no original Tiger survived World War II in driveable condition; the same thing was done 28 years later to reproduce a Tiger for Saving Private Ryan) down to smoke dischargers in the right place and the appearance of anti-magnetic mine paste visible in close ups.
The film can be said to walk an interesting tightrope. There is a great deal of comedy and satire in the film ranging from a nod to Eastwood's spaghetti westerns in a "High Noon" standoff with a Tiger tank to Carroll O'Connor's satire of Patton. This film was produced and released during the Vietnam War and in the same climate as M*A*S*H: some see the theme of cynicism as commentary on that war.
Trivia
- The sequence containing the 'homage' to Eastwood's spaghetti westerns over-dubs the sound of non-existent spurs onto the footsteps of Eastwood, Savalas, and Sutherland's characters' as they walk up the street towards the Tiger tank commander.
- This film has something of a cult status in the US, and its reputation is enhanced by a bevy of quotable lines. The most memorable is uttered by Oddball when he reprimands his mechanic (Gavin MacLeod): "Always with the negative waves, Moriarity, ALWAYS with the negative waves!."
- Tagline: They set out to rob a bank... and damn near won a war instead!
- It was filmed in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
- The main musical theme of the movie (at both beginning and end) is "Burning Bridges," sung by The Mike Curb Congregation with music by Lalo Schifrin There is also a casual rendition of the music in the background near the middle of the movie.
- At the end of the movie, during the liberation of the French village, a boy is waving a Nazi banner.
External links
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.