You can almost smell the testosterone when watching this great war flick

Rating: 9/10 (29 June 2007)

I have seen a lot of films over the year--meaning, I guess, I need to get a life! However, despite all the hours I have spent on films, I rarely watch a film twice and practically never see a film more than that. It is a tribute to the greatness of this film that I have probably seen it four times over the years and each time I marvel at the film with its wonderful ensemble cast and excitement that just oozes off the screen! There are very, very few war films that are better than this and I almost found myself giving this movie a score of 10. However, since I RARELY give films a "10", I am hesitant to do so here but I mean no disrespect against this nearly perfect film. If you asked me what three features made this film great in particular, I would say the excellent direction, the long but always engaging script and most importantly, Lee Marvin--in his greatest role of his career.
Marvin is placed in charge of a group of 12 demented sociopaths who are given the choice to either join him in a suicide mission or have their full sentences enforced (and in many cases, this means the death penalty). While a few of the 12 are naturally just faces in the film, there are so many wonderful standout performances that give the film so much color and depth. Telly Savalas was given perhaps the most exciting and depraved role in the film and he milked it for all its worth. Charles Bronson and Clint Walker both played strong but decent men who seemed to transcend their circumstances. Jim Brown had a great role that seemed to justify his early retirement from football. Donald Sutherland was a freak--and a very lovable and cool freak at that. But the best role of the 12 was that given to John Cassavetes as the malignant jerk, "Franko".
Apart from these 12 twisted men, Marvin was given TONS of support from some terrific character actors--Ernest Borgnine, George Kennedy, Richard Jaekel, Ralph Meeker, Robert Ryan and Robert Webber. With all these wonderful actors gathered together, it's natural that you'd have an excellent film. What was amazing is that with all this talent, Marvin STILL managed to upstage them all with his tough as nails role as the group's commander! As for the plot, it's so very long and complicated I'd rather not get into it, since it's already listed on IMDb. However, when I say long, this is NOT a complaint. I love long movies provided the script is tight and merits the extreme length and complexity. THE GUNS OF NAVARONE and GONE WITH THE WIND both fall in this category, while THE English PATIENT seems like one of the longest movies ever because it is so dull and needed to be desperately shortened.
The bottom line is that this is an exciting film from start to finish thanks to every aspect of the film working perfectly together. I also appreciated some parts of the script that were risks--injecting humor into such a gritty film as well as the horrific way the film ended. Both aspects of the film worked but could have easily fallen flat with the audience.
A great film and a must-see for any serious fan of cinema.
By the way, many years later, a follow-up to THE DIRTY DOZEN was made for TV. It was totally unnecessary and is very skipable. As the old expression goes, "you can never go back".