Nice effects though.

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

A big bunch of great great actors in this, actors that I love very much, specially: Charles Bronson, Lee Marvin, Telly Savalas, George Kennedy, Ernest Borgnine, and John Cassavetes, Donald Sutherland, Richard Jaeckel, Ralph Meeker, etc. Great director, Robert Aldrich, a man who made only super films like "Emperor of the North"(with the same Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine), "The Flight of the Phoenix"(again with Borgnine and George Kennedy), "4 for Texas"(with Charles Bronson and Richard Jaeckel), "Kiss Me Deadly"(with Ralph Meeker), "Vera Cruz"(with Bronson and Borgnine again), "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?"(with the great Bette Davis). Great film, super action, well directed, well acted, one of the most popular film of all time.

Major John Reisman is an unconventional US Army officer and he has been given a very unconventional mission. He is to lead a force made up of twelve army convicts and attack a château in France where senior German officers regularly meet. These twelve men haven't been convicted of minor crimes; most of them have been sentenced to hang and the others have a long time in prison in front of them. They are told that they is a good chance that they won't survive but if they perform well they will be offered an amnesty. Before they can proceed with the mission they must be moulded into a unit rather than twelve individuals looking out for themselves. Then they will have to prove themselves to sceptical senior officers. If they fail at any point they will return to face their sentences. Eventually they are ready and the Germans won't know what hit them!This is a classic 'Boys' Own Adventure' type of war film; the story is relatively simple but effective. There is plenty of humour as the team gradually bond; especially when they are getting the better of the officious Colonel Breed and the scenes in France are genuinely exciting and it soon becomes clear that they won't all be returning home. The cast does a fine job; most notably Lee Marvin, who is great as Major Reisman; Charles Bronson, who plays the German-speaking Joseph Wladislaw and Telly Savalas, who is particularly disturbing as Archer Maggott a murderous rapist who believes he is doing God's work. The rest of the cast, which includes some familiar faces are good too. If you are looking for gritty realism this may disappoint but if you want a great bunch of characters, a touch of humour all leading up to an explosive finale you should love it.

I loved this. Right up there with my favourite Aldrich films (though maybe 'Kiss Me Deadly' is still my number one), and of the greatest performances of both Lee Marvin and John Cassavetes (who was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at both the Golden Globes and Oscars for his work here).This hearkened back to the heady times when if you got a great cast and director together, you were virtually guaranteed you'd come out of it, because of comparatively little studio interference, with a bonafide classic piece of cinema. People thought the studio system was broken and needed fixing, by films such as 'Easy Rider'? THIS, along with other fine Aldrich works from this period, age a lot better and hold up much finer today than Dennis Hopper's so-called 'masterpiece' and its ilk.

There have been plenty of films about small groups of soldiers pitted against superior forces or given special training to achieve a seemingly impossible task. And many of those films involved ragtag misfits given a chance to avoid far worse ends than death in battle.But "The Dirty Dozen" is notable for its less biased portrayal of Americans at war. Unlike the war films produced during WWII, "The Dirty Dozen" paints both sides of the conflict with the brush of realism. We see American soldiers commit crimes and act out of malice.Another notable aspect of the film is that one of the dozen was portrayed by Jim Brown, active NFL running back. As an Ohio native and a fan of Brown (and the Cleveland Browns), it was novel to see the athlete--certainly one of the best athletes of all time and the best running back ever by most accounts--on the big screen.The story, which portrays the hellish nature of war, including the slaughter of noncombatants, still has a humorous side. The dozen, who are recruited for a mission behind the German lines, have no respect for authority or discipline. Their recruiter (Lee Marvin) uses novel ways to gain their respect and to convince them that he values them as men and soldiers. On one occasion, he imports prostitutes into the training camp for their entertainment. And the men display cleverness and outside-the-box thinking (something most soldiers have drilled out of them) to prove their mettle and earn the chance to attempt the mission.As in detailed bank heists, Marvin trains his men thoroughly and tests them repeatedly. But things never go exactly as planned. During the mission, they have to be creative.In an odd way, this film probably appeals to those who like films of wartime and those who possess more anti-war sentiments. The all-star cast is largely responsible, though the story is certainly engaging.