Crackerjack WWII heist flick

Rating: Null/10 (29 January 2001)

Released at the height of the Viet Nam conflict, "Kelly's Heroes" did not amuse critics, who found a light-hearted war film in extremely poor taste at a time when thousands of American boys were becoming casualties of a highly controversial military action. Thirty years on, however, it has become something of a popular classic.
More a caper film in a WWII setting than an actual war pic, "Kelly's Heroes" follows the exploits of a motley platoon of G.I.'s as they attempt to 'liberate' 14,000 gold bars from a bank 30 miles behind German lines. The script is a gem, focusing on the mechanics of organising "the perfect crime" without tipping off Army bureaucracy, or the enemy, and is chock-full of memorable lines and authentic touches that sell the unlikely premise (for example, a major plot point revolves around the well-documented inferiority of the US Sherman tank vs. the German Tiger I).
Nearly the entire cast turns in memorable performances: Telly Savalas as Big Joe (basically Sgt. Rock come to life), Carroll O'Conner as a clueless, blood 'n' guts General, Don Rickles as a mercenary quartermaster, Donald Sutherland as a hilarious proto-hippie tank commander, and numerous other recognisable faces in smaller roles. Clint Eastwood plays his usual tight-lipped tough guy, and wisely leaves the jokes to the rest of the cast.

Director Brian G. Hutton, hot off the success of "Where Eagles Dare", was given a big budget to play with, and puts the money to use blowing up whole companies of faceless Nazis in several spectacular battle sequences. Well-chosen Yugoslavian locations stand in for 1944 France.

The DVD version released in late 2000 is of excellent quality. Beware of the version often shown on television; numerous minor cuts have been made and the image cropped from the original widescreen format.