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“The Dirty Dozen” (film) Posted February 23, 2010 @ 10:29 pm In Numbers,Twelve | No Comments
“The Dirty Dozen” was 1967 film directed by Robert Aldrich [13]. In the film, a group of twelve American soldiers—all of whom were convicted of serious crimes—are sent on a suicide mission during World War II [14] just before D-Day [15] behind German lines. In addition to such prominent actors, such as Charles Bronson [16], Jim Brown [17], John Cassavetes [18], Telly Savalas [19], and Donald Sutherland [20], who were members of the “Dirty Dozen” (listed above), there were other famous actors who appeared in the film but weren’t members of the “Dirty Dozen,” such as Lee Marvin [21], who is the group’s commanding officer, and Ernest Borgnine [22] and George Kennedy [23], who both appear high-ranking officers in the film. |
"In the US likewise, the Second World War years have taken on a roseate hue, and not only in hindsight. Read the journalism of the great wartime American foreign correspondent Ernie Pyle (played by Burgess Meredith in William Wellman's 1945 film, 'The Story Of GI Joe') and you are transported into a world as far removed from Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo Bay as it is possible to imagine. Pyle celebrated the optimism and resourcefulness of the American foot soldiers. As John Steinbeck wrote, Pyle's journalism was about a 'war of the homesick, weary, funny, violent common men who wash their socks in their helmets, complain about the food, whistle at Arab girls, or any girls for that matter, and bring themselves through as dirty a business as the world has ever seen and do it with humour and dignity and courage'.
"Pyle was killed by Japanese machine-gun fire in April 1945. The image of American GIs he provided has fed into countless war films, from 'The Longest Day' to 'Saving Private Ryan'. It's the idea of the soldiers as resourceful, courageous and optimistic. They may be womanisers who excite unholy passions in the civilians whose countries they help liberate, but their decency is never in question. Even the renegades—for example, the misfits under Lee Marvin's charge in Robert Aldrich's 'The Dirty Dozen'—retain the basic qualities that Pyle idealised.
—Geoffrey Macnab, "Movies on the march," The Independent (UK), January 7, 2009.
In "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," "...Victor and James are recruited by the mysterious, governmental William Stryker (Danny Huston) to join a Dirty Dozen-style team of ...what are they, exactly? Super-mercenaries? We don't know. Nor do we know why, once the group breaks up, Victor starts killing all its old members. Or why in God's name he would kill Logan's girlfriend, Kayla Silverfox (Lynn Collins), with whom Wolverine has been living on a mountaintop in the Canadian Rockies, minding his own business. Or why mutant children are being kidnapped to an island off the coast of insanity. Or what Stryker is after."
—John Anderson, "So Violent, and Yet So Bloodless," The Washington Post, May 1, 2009, p. C01.
“Inglourious Basterds is part 'Dirty Dozen,' part Sergio Leone, part Leon Uris—but not much 'Night and Fog' or 'Shoah,' and certainly not much 'Schindler’s List.'"
—Jeffrey Goldberg, "Hollywood’s Jewish Avenger," The Atlantic, September, 2009.
"Soon Hunter has heard some exciting news: A big vessel has been spotted in the tight Spanish port of Matanceros, and it did not behave like a warship. To Hunter this means three things: that this must be a treasure ship; that the port is unapproachable head on, but that its seaward-facing cannons can be attacked from the rear (the 'Lawrence of Arabia' strategy known as 'Aqaba, from the land'); and that only a special, hand-picked crew, a smallish version of 'The Dirty Dozen,' can get the job done.
"The book then spends a night at Central Casting. (It's not hard to see why Steven Spielberg plans to make the movie version of Pirate Latitudes.) Hunter assembles a lineup of colorful specialists with odd monikers, and at last a truly Crichton-style element enters this story. The crew includes a demolition expert known as 'Black Eye, the Jew,' who will devise an ingenious trick involving rodent entrails. There is a man known as Whisper because his throat has been cut. There is a female navigator whose sight is so good that she can direct the ship even in blinding sunlight. This navigator's other, less strategic trick is to strip off her tunic as a distraction to a man she plans to stab."
—Janet Maslin, "Vile Heroes and High-Seas Swagger," The New York Times, November 23, 2009,
"[Sean] Payton, with his elfish grin, reminds my wife Amanda (who, I admit, has always been a far bigger football fan than me, and yes, it's a touch emasculating) of that really smart kid back in grade school who had a lot more going on than most just below the surface. And he, in consultation with Brees, went to work immediately, repopulating the Saints team, creating a perfect storm of misfits and undesirables not seen since 'The Dirty Dozen.' Players like Jeremy Shockey, who was let go by the New York Giants with a broken leg, Marques Colston, who was one of the last to be chosen in the draft that year, and Pierre Thomas, who didn't even make the draft at all, these were suddenly the new faces of the Saints post-Katrina. In 2006, just one year after the hurricane with a new roof on the dome, Payton's leadership and Brees' newly healed arm led the Saints to their first NFC championship game. Not bad, eh? Despite their losing to the Chicago Bears, the thrill felt in the air of New Orleans was truly the first since Katrina. So much more was to follow."
—Joseph Boyden, "The healing power of Saints," The Globe and Mail (Canada), February 10, 2010, p. S1.
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URL to article: http://www.ealmanac.com/2906/numbers/the-dirty-dozen-film/
URLs in this post:
[1] Al Mancini: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Mancini
[2] John Cassavetes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cassavetes
[3] Ben Carruthers: http://www.ealmanac.comtp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Carruthers
[4] Jim Brown: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Brown
[5] Trini Lopez: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trini_Lopez
[6] Stuart Cooper: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Cooper
[7] Telly Savalas: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telly_Savalas
[8] Donald Sutherland: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Sutherland
[9] Clint Walter: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clint_Walker
[10] Colin Maitland: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0537944/
[11] Tom Busby: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Busby
[12] Charles Bronson: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Bronson
[13] Robert Aldrich: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Aldrich
[14] World War II: http://www.ealmanac.com/1564/numbers/world-war-ii/
[15] D-Day: http://www.ealmanac.com/2953/letters/d-day/
[16] Charles Bronson: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000314/
[17] Jim Brown: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000987/
[18] John Cassavetes: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001023/
[19] Telly Savalas: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001699/
[20] Donald Sutherland: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000661/
[21] Lee Marvin: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Marvin
[22] Ernest Borgnine: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Borgnine
[23] George Kennedy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Kennedy
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