A great mix of genres

Rating: 9/10 (12 May 2013)

Is it a war movie? Is it a heist movie? It it an adventure? Is it a comedy? Is it a social commentary? Yes. And all in good fun.
Great cast, excellent action sequences, decent level of war realism. It effectively employs a cynical style of insulting humor that was very mainstream back in the 1970s (remember the Dean Martin celebrity roasts?), along with a war movie style that was also common for that decade.
Clint Eastwood is great as the lead, but he's the straight man to Telly Savalas and Donald Southerland, who are the real gems in this cast. The rest of the supporting cast is an ensemble of generally good character actors from the 1960s and 1970s, and as a group, they turn in a fine performance.
It's simply a fun movie that should be enjoyed without too critical an eye.