Best movie ever!

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

The Dirty Dozen (1967) This is a war action movie. Truly one of the first of its kind to concentrate on the action, with a sprinkling of comedy via the burgeoning brotherhood of the men. A prominent Major trains a small band of the Army's worst convicts to be sent on a virtual suicide mission. The cast includes Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, Jim Brown, John Cassavetes, Telly Savalas, Robert Webber, and Donald Sutherland. The film is based on the novel of the same name. It was inspired by a real- life group called the "Filthy Thirteen". On release, the film was picked apart for its level of violence, but was a massive commercial success. It presently holds a 91% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and was nominated for four Academy Awards. It spawned numerous sequels, copycats, and was the inspiration for many subsequent movies in the genre. This is a classic American film of the era, and a must watch for the action enthusiasts.

Dirty is implied that the characters do what it takes to get the mission done. Dirty Harry demonstrated that in his movies always prevailing but with a controversy as to how he did it. In this movie, dirty also applies to stained as each man was not only dirty but dirt too. In the end and throughout this movie, that is what it took to get this job done. The same tactics are used today by the CIA and various military as in Navy Seals, Marine Recon, Green Beret and Special Forces. War is about winning not etiquette or necessarily fair play. The Germans believed anything goes as did the Japanese but Americans thought it better for morale if we came up with rules of engagement for POW's better referred to as the Geneva convention. In this movie, it starts with men having nothing to lose and acting foolish and goofy. But stay tuned because when it matters, these boys turn into killers and bet all they have to do it too. Nice movie to eat along with and snack with a tasty drink. Enjoy all these stars in one place delivering their memorable lines. BTW...I always look to see if a movie is a watch again and this one doesn't wear out!

Major John Reisman is an unconventional US Army officer and he has been given a very unconventional mission. He is to lead a force made up of twelve army convicts and attack a château in France where senior German officers regularly meet. These twelve men haven't been convicted of minor crimes; most of them have been sentenced to hang and the others have a long time in prison in front of them. They are told that they is a good chance that they won't survive but if they perform well they will be offered an amnesty. Before they can proceed with the mission they must be moulded into a unit rather than twelve individuals looking out for themselves. Then they will have to prove themselves to sceptical senior officers. If they fail at any point they will return to face their sentences. Eventually they are ready and the Germans won't know what hit them!This is a classic 'Boys' Own Adventure' type of war film; the story is relatively simple but effective. There is plenty of humour as the team gradually bond; especially when they are getting the better of the officious Colonel Breed and the scenes in France are genuinely exciting and it soon becomes clear that they won't all be returning home. The cast does a fine job; most notably Lee Marvin, who is great as Major Reisman; Charles Bronson, who plays the German-speaking Joseph Wladislaw and Telly Savalas, who is particularly disturbing as Archer Maggott a murderous rapist who believes he is doing God's work. The rest of the cast, which includes some familiar faces are good too. If you are looking for gritty realism this may disappoint but if you want a great bunch of characters, a touch of humour all leading up to an explosive finale you should love it.

Understand this: in WW2 (and today) there was no shortage of elite, well-trained and disciplined commandos willing to risk life and limb to go on suicidal missions. So under no circumstance would it be necessary to send a dozen men from a military prison, who were either condemned to execution or sentenced to lengthy prison term at hard labor, on a mission to go behind enemy lines on the eve of DDay to try and kill as many officers as possible of the German high command, enjoying R&R in a French château.However, this contrived premise becomes the hook that elevates TDD above another WW2 action movie. I actually find the first 2/3 of the movie dealing with the assembly of the unit and how Lee Marvin as Maj. Reisman trains them to be a crack and cohesive combat unit more interesting than the actual mission. It's an excellent cast. Marvin was at his peak, having recently had a couple brilliant roles, 1 dramatic as an alcoholic in "Ship of Fools" and the other as a drunken gunfighter in the comedy, "Cat Ballou." In TDD Marvin gets to do his tough guy personification again, but he shows a wonderful touch of wryly delivering comedic lines. TDD has a superb cast playing the Army brass and the prisoners. Ernest Borgnine gives a good low key performance as the general who concocted this plan, as does George Kennedy as his aide. Robert Ryan is the arrogant and pompous Col. Breed who despises Maj. Reisman. Richard Jaeckel gives another top notch performance as the MP Sgt who has to assist Reisman in keeping order, while the vastly underrated Ralph Meeker has a great bit as an Army shrink who analyzes the misfits.At the heart of this are the "Dozen" the convicts who will be expected to pull of this mission or die trying to even have a shot at clemency. Actually for the audience we only really get to know 6 of them. Bronson and Clint Walker were good soldiers who ended up on death row, Bronson after he fragged a cowardly officer and Walker after he lost his temper and killed a man with a punch. Football great Jim Brown made his initial movie appearance, waiting to die after killing a racist who wanted to castrate him. His adversary among the prisoners becomes Telly Savalas as Pvt. Maggot, truly a psychotic and racist killer. Donald Sutherland gives a good comedic bit as a rather dim-witted soldier, while the great John Cassavetes delivers perhaps the stand out performance of the 12 as Franco, a low level ex-Chicago mobster, sentenced to death after a penny ante holdup went astray. Franco ends up becoming sort of the ex post facto leader of the 12 as they eventually become an efficient killing machine.One of those flicks that is fun to continually watch, if nothing else for one of the truly great movie casts of all time.