Enjoyable WW2 comedy romp

Rating: 8/10 (18 August 2000)

A great little comedy war film with no political axe to grind and neither does it focus to much on the explicit details of the war. Instead we have a bunch of American GIs tracking down $16 million of gold bars 10 miles behind enemy lines in occupied France.
The leader is of course played by a rather dead-pan Clint Eastwood as Kelly, while his heroes include a wonderful performance by Savalas as Big Joe & Donald Sutherland as the "oddball" Oddball.

Although the humour isn't slapstick or disrespectful, it is rather dry & amusing. There's plenty of war action to keep the fans happy, but its all rather secondary to the main story.
Eastwood, however, looks a tad uncomfortable in the role, as if the comedy isn't quite his scene. He grimaces a lot and holds a tight square jaw, without being too gung ho. But he doesn't show any inspiration in his rather straight forward role and as a consequence slowed the pace of the film right down.
To compensate for Clint's uninspired performance the film perks up and balances out with wonderfully spunky performances from Savalas & Sutherland.
Although Savalas isn't really given much to do to challenge his acting abilities he seems to fit the role more than Clint does. And in a way I'm glad to see him in a rather more humourous WW2 vehicle such as this so soon after his rather manic & sinister role as a GI POW in the 1967 classic, Dirty Dozen.
Sutherland's role is both engaging yet way out of time & place since he takes on the part of a tank commander with an attitude of a late 60s hippie with lots of "hey mans, positive waves, cool man etc". Whether director, Sutton, felt this was an inspired idea I'm not sure but it makes the film slightly disjointed & time warped.
Having said that, Sutherland does add a nice feel to proceedings which only helps the comedy along at a gentle but steady place.
And of course, the film becomes even more surreal with the clever little spaghetti western parodies so familiar with a certain Mr Eastwood.
Overall, Kelly's Heroes is an enjoyable romp played with a straight bat and which doesn't really offend anyone. It handles the subject of death & war with a distant yet respectful hand. It's basically the direct opposite of all the serious posturing from the earlier Dirty Dozen.
Although 30 years old and looks a little dated, KH is a very good film, in spite of Eastwood's rather myopic acting

***/*****