An absolute masterpiece!

Rating: 9/10 (28 August 2000)

A great movie that's filled with explosive action and weird humor about a stubborn Army Major John Reisman (Lee Marvin) is ordered by two generals (Ernest Borgnine and Robert Webber) to train twelve G.I. felons who are sentenced to long terms of imprisonment or be hanged, into commandos for a raid on a château in France where the German army's chain of command is at.
Charles Bronson, Jim Brown, John Cassavettes, Donald Sutherland, and Telly Salvalas are among the twelve felons. The performances in this movie are great all around, most notably Marvin, Bronson, and Cassavettes. Sutherland has a couple of great one-liners. During the battle, Brown has a great death scene. Based on E. M Nathanson's novel and is the screenplay by Nunnally Johnson and Lukas Heller is great. Frank De Vol's compelling musical score sets a very solid tone and tension. Besides Terrence Malick's "The Thin Red Line", Robert Aldrich's "The Dirty Dozen" is the other WWII film that I enjoy. It's an absolute masterpiece.