"Playing war games"

Rating: 8/10 (8 July 2010)

The war movie was in constant evolution in the decades following the worldwide conflict which most of them drew on for source material. We went from respectful recreations in the immediate aftermath, to the use of war as a backdrop for fictional stories (e.g. From Here to Eternity, Bridge on the River Kwai), at which point tentative anti-military themes began to creep in. But while previous anti-war pictures may have been tragic, ironic and harrowing, The Dirty Dozen revitalised the subgenre by showing war as bloody, brutal and nihilistic.
A few years after this a man called Sam Peckinpah would become a byword for screen violence. Peckinpah, by the sheer poetry of his images, inadvertently glamorised the very carnage he sought to condemn. However Robert Aldrich, who directs The Dirty Dozen, takes a slightly more detached view. Sure, Aldrich knows how to make dynamic and exciting combat scenes, shooting series of increasingly frenzied images for the editor (honourable mention to the very talented Michael Luciano) to patch together. However, he takes care never to let us get swept along with the killing. There are scarcely any point-of-view shots, and indeed many of the camera set-ups throughout the picture are from positions where no character could be – up on high or peeping through bits of foreground clutter. These were always typical of Aldrich, but here his use of distant "god" shots is more abundant than ever. The sense of aloofness this creates means that, while the action is great to watch, it never quite makes us want to pick up a gun and get stuck in ourselves.
That is not to say Aldrich is completely cold and detached. He frequently finds room for intensely personal close-ups, showing the humanity of the men and thus drawing out an important strand in the story. Although he was only a writer on a handful of projects, Aldrich always sought to demonstrate his ruggedly affectionate side through his imagery, in even his most macho and ostensibly emotionless pictures. And when at one point he makes a visual reference to The Last Supper, it's not done directly enough to be some twee bit of ironic symbolism. Instead Aldrich seems to honouring these men with their final shred of dignity.
But all these intentions would be lost if it were not for a delightfully talented and appropriate cast. Lee Marvin does his superb world-weary, grudgingly humane hero act, and there are some nice supporting roles by the up-and-coming George Kennedy and former lead man Ralph Meeker. But let's face it – it's the titular twelve whom we really want to watch. With one or two exceptions, these guys were more or less unknowns, and it was only really Donald Sutherland who would ever become an "A" player. And yet, virtually all do a marvellous job. John Cassavetes is more than just a psychotic grin – everything in his body language radiates his rebelliousness. Telly Savalas gives one of the most credible maniac performances I have ever seen – far better than the hammy Ernest Borgnine in Flight of the Phoenix. At first glance these guys appear to have been picked for their twisted faces or burly physique, but they can really act.
The end result is an intelligent and professional work disguised as an action no-brainer. So why were pictures like this – violent yet incisive – being produced around this time? It was of course partly the increasing frankness of the era and the fact that the old production code was now in tatters. But it was also the ongoing conflict in Vietnam, which thanks to television was bringing the horror of war into the living room, and also galvanising a popular anti-war mood. It would still have been commercial suicide for a motion picture to critique the war directly, but a lot of movies from the time lambasted it indirectly with the terrors of a previous conflict. And oddly enough, perhaps through their honest intentions of being entertainment rather than mere soapboxes, pictures like The Dirty Dozen hold up better than many of the genuine anti-Vietnam pictures that were to appear once that war was over.