war for fun and profit

Rating: 9/10 (11 April 2009)

Before there was "Saving Private Ryan" there was "Kelly's Heroes." In both movies a sensitive but tough commander is asked to risk his men's lives on a mission that makes no sense whatsoever. But instead of having to bring back Matt Damon safe to his mama, Sergeant Big Joe (Telly Savalas) is asked to rob a bank in a provincial French town, which may or may not have $16 million in Nazi gold. Clint Eastwood is Kelly, the brainy operator who uncovers the trail of the gold, and he's aided and abetted by Sergeant Crapgame (Don Rickles), a behind-the-scenes black market dealer, and Oddball (Donald Sutherland), a spaced-out tank commander. This film is cheerfully anachronistic in projecting sixties style, attitude, and cynicism onto the 1940s. Every man is thoroughly unpatriotic, disillusioned with the system, and out for himself. Is this really World War II, or is it Vietnam? Sutherland's character is a hippie before hippies were invented. That having been said, let me assure you I love this movie. It is a total joy from beginning to end. Capitalizing off the success of "The Dirty Dozen," it seeks to recreate the formula with some of the same actors (Savalas, Sutherland). The film is chock-full of familiar faces from film and TV: Carroll O'Connor, Gavin McLeod, and even the ubiquitous Harry Dean Stanton (billed as Dean Stanton). Shot in Yugoslavia, the film successfully exploits Eastwood's iconic status in spaghetti westerns: the scene where Eastwood, Savalas, and Sutherland confront the SS tank commander who is the only thing standing between them and the gold is a witty send-off of Sergio Leone. "Kelly's Heroes" is a near-perfect mixture of comedy, action, and male bonding. Perhaps the ultimate redneck movie.