Good war movie!

Rating: 8/10 (19 October 2002)

Robert Aldrich really outdoes himself with this movie. He put together an all star cast that gave a great performance! Lee Marvin is tasked to mold a bunch of army prisoners into a crack team. Their mission is to infiltrate a chateau in France where high ranking German officers take leave. These army prisoners are the worst of the worst. Telly Savalas is the craziest of the bunch as Arthur Maggot (fitting name). Lee Marvin must convince these prisoners that it would be in their best interest to listen to what he has to say. He makes it known that if they are successful with the mission, they wlll be givin pardons, but if they mess up, they go back to prison to await the execution of their sentences. Charles Bronson gives probably one of his best performances in this movie. Donald Sutherland also fit in as a rather odd character. He plays an even better one in "Kelly's Heroes" (Oddball). As it turns out, the group is succesful in its mission, and there is only one survivor from the original dozen, (Bronson). A Very good movie that I would reccommend to anyone.