Heroes for three days - A great movie forever

Rating: 9/10 (28 February 2006)

I saw this when it first came out in the theaters and have loved it ever since. Seen it many times on TV. What a great ensemble cast with Clint Eastwood, Donald Sutherland, Telly Savala, Carroll O' Connor, don Rickles, Gavin Macleod and Harry Dean Stanton among others. What's remarkable is that Director Brian G. Hutton and writer Troy Kennedy Martin came together to produce such a fine and funny film but never did much other memorable movie work. Hutton did some less-than-memorable films with some big name actors but most his success was with television. Hutton's only other memorable film was 1968's Where Eagles Dare. Martin too has success in television but not much on the big screen except for 1969's The Italian Job of which this is kind of an Italian Job part II-The War Years. This script has so many funny lines you have to see it twice to absurd it all. The character of the Sherman tank driver Oddball as a Hippy 25 years ahead of his time is brilliant with his positive and negative waves, Speakers on his tank cranking big band swing music, his passion for wine and cheese and catching rays. Eastwood's imposing big screen presence never gets in the way of the cast. Eastwood is of course there but he's less noticeable than in any other of his movies because of all the characters that are his Heroes. Eastwood runs this show with help from Savalas and O'Connor but Sutherland steals it and Rickles keeps it all together. I would give this a 9.5 of a possible 10 and highly recommend it.