The Dirty Dozen

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The Dirty Dozen is a 1967 war film directed by Robert Aldrich from the novel by E.M. Nathanson. Starring Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Telly Savalas, Charles Bronson, and NFL Hall of Famer-turned-actor Jim Brown, it was a huge box office success for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and the year's highest-grossing film. It was nominated for four Oscars, including a supporting actor nomination for John Cassavetes, and won one Oscar for its sound effects. In 2001, the American Film Institute included it on its list of 100 Years...100 Thrills.

[Spoiler warningSpoiler warning]: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The movie opens in England in the spring of 1944 as Allied forces in the United Kingdom prepare for the D-Day invasion during the World War II. Major John Reisman (Marvin) is witness to the execution by hanging of a US soldier (executions for capital crimes in the US Army at that time was not uncommon, though the most famous US military execution, that of Eddie Slovik, was the only one for the crime of desertion).

Reisman, an OSS officer, then meets with Major General Worden (Borgnine). Dramatic tension is created when Marvin spots Colonel Everett Dasher Breed (Robert Ryan) in the anteroom of Worden's office; a pair of knowing looks makes it clear the two have a history together but no words are spoken. The tension mounts when Marvin salutes General Worden, being forced to hold the salute an uncomfortably long time before it is returned. Reisman is offered a seat in front of a panel of officers, and Worden reviews Reisman's reports on his service record with him. "Lots of fireworks," Worden notes. "...and very short on discipline. Very short on discipline." Reisman's character is illustrated by his response "I didn't write those reports."

The meeting then comes to the point - a mission is described involving the training of twelve American soldiers, all general convicts convicted of capital offences including murder, desertion, robbery and rape, and sentenced to either execution or long terms of imprisonment. The soldiers are to be trained and eventually ordered to destroy an assigned target, the identity of which remains secret.

Reisman asks what the designated target is, noting that if he is being offered the opportunity of leading the mission, it is reasonable to know the identity.

Worden: ''It's not, as you say, being "offered."

Reisman: I'm volunteering.

Worden: Exactly, Major. You know, I'm glad you look at these things so realistically!

The plan is then described to Reisman; a large château near Rennes in Brittany is known to be the location of a retreat for German senior officers. In preparation for the D-Day invasion, Reisman's group will train to drop by parachute and destroy the chateau, killing the officers inside and hopefully disrupting the German chain of command as the invasion is launched.

After this introduction, the film consists of three parts; the training of Reisman's men, an extended sequence of military maneuvers in Britain in which Reisman's Dirty Dozen prove their worth in special operations, and the attack on the château itself.

Most of the occupants are killed when the building is blown up. Only Reisman, Sergeant Bowren (Richard Jaeckel), and one of the Dirty Dozen, Wladislaw (Bronson), survive the mission.

Spoilers end here.

Contents

1 Other information
2 Truth or fiction?
3 Cast
4 External links and sources

Other information

Jim Brown announced his retirement from professional football during the filming of this movie.

For its time, the film was an unconventional and extremely violent depiction of war. Roger Ebert, in his first year as a movie critic for the Chicago Sun-Times, was shocked by its violence. He wrote (sarcastically):

I'm glad the Chicago Police Censor Board forgot about that part of the local censorship law where it says films shall not depict the burning of the human body. If you have to censor, stick to censoring sex, I say. ... But leave in the mutilation, leave in the sadism, and by all means leave in the human beings burning to death. It's not obscene as long as they burn to death with their clothes on.

Truth or fiction?

As a preface to the novel, EM Nathanson states that he heard of a legend of men like these, but found no record of it.

Though there are frequent rumors of such units existing nothing has ever been verified. The story may be based on the Filthy Thirteen, a small group of airborne demolition experts whose story was documented by a [book by the same name.] Unlike the Dirty Dozen, the Filthy Thirteen was not a unit composed of convicts, though some of this group did have criminal records.

Cast

Ernest Borgnine .... Maj. Gen. Worden
Charles Bronson .... Joseph T. Wladislaw
Jim Brown .... Robert T. Jefferson
Tom Busby .... Milo Vladek
Ben Carruthers .... Glenn Gilpin
John Cassavetes .... Victor P. Franko
Stuart Cooper .... Roscoe Lever
Richard Jaeckel .... Sgt. Clyde Bowren
George Kennedy .... Maj. Max Armbruster
Trini Lopez .... Pedro Jiminez
Colin Maitland .... Seth K. Sawyer
Al Mancini .... Tassos R. Bravos
Lee Marvin .... Maj. John Reisman
Ralph Meeker .... Capt. Stuart Kinder
Robert Phillips .... Cpl. Carl Morgan
Robert Ryan .... Col. Everett Dasher Breed
Telly Savalas .... Archer J. Maggott
Donald Sutherland .... Vernon L. Pinkley
Clint Walker .... Samson Posey
Robert Webber .... Brig. Gen. Denton

External links and sources

[The Dirty Dozen], from the Turner Classic Movies website
[Review of the film], by Roger Ebert, written in July 1967

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