Excellent Performances

Rating: 9/10 (2 March 2019)

I can see how The Dirty Dozen could be considered a prelude to Police Academy. Well, I guess I should say that I consider it a prelude to Police Academy. I saw many parallels with Major Reisman (Lee Marvin) trying to train his band of misfits similar to Police Academy. But The Dirty Dozen isn't simply a crude gag-a-minute comedy. It is a nice blend of a bit of comedy, some drama, and some wartime action.
The story is very smartly put together. Taking place during World War II Major Reisman is told to train a group of twelve military prisoners to go on very much a suicide mission. I know, I know... Suicide Squad right? Well, this was 50 years before that and with far more endearing characters. The prisoners have the choice (which is not much of a choice) to go on this mission and be pardoned or refuse and accept their sentence. Being that all of them are facing sentences from as little as 20 years up to hanging, the choice became easy.
The characters were fantastic: Donald Sutherland as the Christopher Lloyd-like goofy Vernon Pinkley, Jim Brown as the few-worded Robert Jefferson, Telly Savalas as the fire and brimstone Southern religious nut, and John Cassavetes as the loud, unruly, and obnoxious Victor Franco were the real standouts. I loved the mixture of characters and Major Reisman's relationship to them all. They were all condemned and in a way he was condemned with them. That didn't mean they had to live condemned and that didn't mean they didn't have anything to contribute. But as I said, this movie was made awesome by the performances. Every character contributed and made the film great.