Entertaining WWII film with lots of humor , battles , explosions and sheer amusement

Rating: 7/10 (12 February 2012)

Spectacular War film with a touch of irreverence about a reckless group of U.S. soldiers undertaking a dangerous mission behind enemy lines , as they sneak on Nazi territory to get their hands on a secret stash of valuable treasure at a bank , containing 16 million dollars in gold bars. Exciting film with a truly silly formula about a misfit team led by lieutenant Kelly (Clint Eastwood) who carries out a suicide mission behind enemy lines . A group of two-fisted soldiers formed by a misfit band with egoistic aims are drafted to go on a near-suicide mission and attempt to take the bullion from a French village occupied by Nazis . This strange, motley platoon is led by Big Joe ( Telly Savalas) and with the aid of hustler Crapgame (Don Rickles), anachronistic , lame-brained hippie named Oddball (Donald Sutherland) and three old Sherman tanks that subsequently will take on Tiger tanks . Kelly leads his men ,turning his G.I.s into a valiant fighting unit , and going deep into French territory to steal the gold for themselves .¨ Kelly's heroes¨ is an entertaining film with Clint Eastwood as tough officer along with the ordinary team of renegade soldiers of World War II whose mission is to steal the Nazi secret treasure from a villa . In the hands of hardboiled director Brian G Hutton and a tough-as-leather cast , that's all the plot that's needed to make one rip-roaring wartime flick. Eatwood's mission is two-fold and in violent and cynical style : the selfish and mean group undergoing across a dangerous territory and executing hazardous feats , they then turn loose on a villa located in France where cause destruction . The first half of the film allows the colorful cast of character actors to have their fun as they get their tails whipped into shape and develop shaky relationship with their leaders . The final part is all action, as the brave commando wreak havoc and then run for their lives. Despite the fact that most part of the "heroes" survive the bloodbath, the message here isn't that war is hell. Rather, it seems to be: war can be a hell of a good time... if you've got nothing to lose . The dangerous mission includes a selected group formed by a motley and varied but disreputable squadron played by all-star-cast and notorious secondaries . This is a rugged WWII actioner concerning a squadron of dispensable characters with no past and no future . The Privates are oddballs , rag-tag and undisciplined gang , under command a selfish Lieutenant and other rare characters . At the end they must participate in the suicidal mission behind the enemy lines , to wipe the German group by means of a violent assault over a strongly protected village.
Clint Eastwood as Lieutenant Kelly assumes the character of commando leader in this better than average wartime movie well directed by Brian G Hutton. This moving film packs frantic thrills, lots of familiar faces, perilous adventures , comedy , relentless feats , and buck-loads of explosive action and emotion . The noisy action is uniformly well-made, especially deserving of mention the rip-roaring final scenes on the village , including some spectacular shootouts , an amusing showdown in Sergio Leone-Ennio Morricone style and bombing . Apart from the values of team spirit , cudgeled by Eatwood into his rebel group , the film is full of feats , humor with tongue-in-check and thrills . Clint Eastwood is good as leader of the motley pack together thwart the Nazi schemes, as well as the largely secondary cast as Gavin MacLeod , Richard Davalos , Gene Collins , Harry Dean Staton, Perry Lopez and with special mention to Carroll O'Connor as grumpy general . Atmospheric and functional musical score , including inappropriate songs , by Lalo Schifrin and colorful cinematography by Gabriel Figueroa . This is a wartime typical vehicle and into the ¨warlike commando genre¨ , in USA style which also belong the American classics from the 60s as : ¨Dirty Dozen (Robert Aldrich) ¨ Where eagles dare(Brian G. Hutton) , Tobruk (Arthur Hiller), Devil's Brigade (Andrew V McLagen) and many others .
The motion picture is well handled and professionally directed by Brian G Hutton, and achieved success and cash . Hutton started his career with little and prestigious films , such as ¨Wild seed¨ and ¨The Pad¨. There after, he veered off into big budgeted and all-star movies, proving which he could handle big scale production, as ¨Where the eagles dare¨, one of the best from Alistair McLean, and of course ¨Kelly's heroes¨ in which added humor to the warlike action. His next picture was ¨High road to China¨ marked a partial return with panache to his previous form but faltered at the Box-office, in spite of being quite amusing and with occasional touch of directorial skill. Rating : Above average , for that reason is a must for adventures buffs.