Glorifying war crimes

Rating: 1/10 (7 August 2002)

"The Dirty Dozen" is really two movies: the first half is a hilarious, well-acted, thoroughly entertaining romp. That's probably what makes the second half so horrendous. The last half-hour deals with how the "heroes" we've come to like basically burn a bunch of helpless women to death. If this was a German film, circa the forties, we would see it as absolute confirmation of the fundamental evils of Naziism. But because it's an American film and those are "our" boys, not only don't we condemn it, we actually praise it.
Sorry, but you can't have it both ways.