Lee Marvin leads some future stars on a mission in The Dirty Dozen

Rating: 8/10 (31 January 2012)

After years of reading about it, I finally decided to watch The Dirty Dozen on Netflix Streaming especially since it would be off it by tomorrow. Lee Marvin as Major Reisman is assigned to lead the title group of men either condemned to death or a very long prison term. Among them: Charles Bronson, Donald Sutherland, Telly Savalas, Jim Brown, and John Cassavetes. The last one is the first to rebel against Marvin and he's perhaps the one that made the most impression on me as a result. No wonder he got the Oscar nomination. Sutherland has a funny scene when he has to pass himself as a general that I read later got him the movie version of M*A*S*H. Savalas and Brown provide the conflict within the team that gets the exciting climax going. And Bronson essays the authority to go with Marvin in leading the mission. Some mistakes that I noticed-like when the Dozen switch the blue bands for red during the "War Games" sequence before they seemed to switch back for a few minutes or women wearing '60s hairstyles in a '40s setting-confused me but overall, The Dirty Dozen has enough compelling dramatics and action for me to recommend.