...we expect action-adventure flicks to embroider reality. This one does so without stretching credibility to the breaking point and provides a good time in the process.
Not only is the sequel a virtual repeat of the original, Marvin and Borgnine by this time were getting much too old for their roles. Although no more than a few months are supposed to go by between the action of the first film and this one, the two actors appear a good twenty years older. Worse, like the rest of the actors in this dead-end affair, both Marvin and Borgnine appear to be reading their scripts from a signboard propped up behind the camera. It is only Jaeckel who displays any sign of life, but his role is so small we hardly notice him.
And things only get worse. What before was a colorful bunch of varied prisoners is now a collection of dull, zombielike nonentities who even look alike. The script is no longer simply clichéd and stereotyped, it's sluggish and boring. The director, Andrew McLaglen, who had done much better work for the big screen in things like "McLintock," "Shenandoah," "The Way West," and "The Devil's Brigade" seems to have taken on the film simply for a paycheck, showing no energy or enthusiasm for this sluggish affair.
Annoyingly, you can also tell when the television broadcast inserted every commercial break, and the action (what little there is) comes to a crashing halt each time, the movie limping awkwardly from one episode to the next.
Once in occupied France, events become not just melodramatic but downright absurd. Think about this: Reisman and his band disguise themselves as Nazi soldiers to infiltrate the countryside, but one of the men Reisman chooses to bring along with them is black! Political correctness overshadows common sense. Moreover, the TV producers replace the good humor of the original movie with a sullen depression, depriving the whole movie of any vitality whatsoever.
Needless to say, my ratings at the bottom of the page apply to the original movie only. "Next Mission" gets a 3/10.
Video:
Warner Bros. transferred the primary movie to disc in a high-bit-rate, anamorphic picture size of 1.78:1, fully filling up a 16x9 widescreen television. The Internet Movie Database lists the movie's aspect ratio at 2.20:1, which, according to Richard W. Haines, author of "Technicolor Movies," was its roadshow size, blown up and cropped from the original 1.85:1 camera negative.
While there is some small degree of grain in the print, especially in the stock footage, it tends to contribute to the film's overall naturalistic atmosphere. The colors are as beautiful, deep and rich as we have come to expect of high-bit-rate transfers; and the object definition is about as good as it gets in a standard-definition format. For a film four decades old, or for any film of any age for that matter, "The Dirty Dozen" is a pleasure on the eyes.
The TV sequel, "Next Mission," is in a standard 1.33:1 screen ratio, the image soft and comparatively blurred. The less said about it, the better.
Audio:
Warner Bros. remastered the sound of the main feature in Dolby Digital 5.1 to excellent effect. The film won an Oscar for sound effects, and they come through loud and clear. The sonics are very dynamic, with a wide front-channel stereo spread and a satisfyingly deep bass. Specific rear-channel locality is limited, as we might expect, and there is a touch of hardness to the midrange and highs, but it is hardly distracting.
The sound in the sequel is reproduced in Dolby Digital 2.0 monaural. Like the sequel's picture quality, it is mediocre at best.
Extras:
Disc one of this Special Edition two-disc set contains the feature film, along with an audio commentary by cast members Jim Brown, Trini Lopez, Stuart Cooper, and Colin Maitland; the producer Kenneth Hyman; original novelist E.M. Nathanson; film historian David J. Schow; and military advisor to movies Captain Dale Dye. It's Dye who starts things off by providing both a historical perspective as well as a film perspective on the movie. If you choose, you can also watch a three-minute introduction to the film by co-star Ernest Borgnine and a vintage featurette, a promotional really, "Operation Dirty Dozen." Things wrap up with thirty-seven scene selections, but no chapter insert; a fullscreen theatrical trailer; English and French spoken languages; and English, French, and Spanish subtitles.
Disc two contains the TV sequel, "The Dirty Dozen: Next Mission," and here you will find English as the only spoken language, with English, French, and Spanish subtitles. Along with the sequel there are two newly made and fairly lengthy documentaries. The first is on the making of the original movie, "Armed and Deadly: The Making of The Dirty Dozen," thirty minutes, with various of the filmmakers and cast members reminiscing--people like Ernest Borgnine, Donald Sutherland, Jim Brown, George Kennedy, Trini Lopez, and Clint Walker. The second documentary is "The Filthy Thirteen: Real Stories from Behind the Lines," a forty-seven minute segment about the real-life airborne division that inspired author E.M. Nathanson to write his fictional "Dirty Dozen." Finally, there is a twenty-nine minute vintage recruitment documentary, "Marine Corps Combat Leadership Skills," with the late Lee Marvin narrating.
Parting Thoughts:
It's hard to beat a really good action adventure, and the original "Dirty Dozen" is among the best of its kind. It hasn't the essential realism of, say, "The Guns of Navarone," but thanks to the firm grasp that director Robert Aldrich and star Lee Marvin brought to the picture, "The Dirty Dozen" is almost irresistible. Sure, it overstates the heroics and emphasizes military maneuvers that probably never could have happened the way they are depicted, but we expect action-adventure flicks to embroider reality. This one does so without stretching credibility to the breaking point and provides a good time in the process.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences nominated "The Dirty Dozen" for four Oscars: Best Supporting Actor (John Cassavetes), Best Film Editing (Michael Luciano), and Best Sound and Best Sound Effects (John Poyner). As I said before, the film won for Sound Effects, so keep your volume control handy. I understand that the Academy might have nominated Robert Aldrich for Best Director, too, had there not been some controversy surrounding the final raid. I'll leave it to you to listen to Borgnine's introduction and the movie's audio commentary to decide if they robbed Aldrich or not.
And things only get worse. What before was a colorful bunch of varied prisoners is now a collection of dull, zombielike nonentities who even look alike. The script is no longer simply clichéd and stereotyped, it's sluggish and boring. The director, Andrew McLaglen, who had done much better work for the big screen in things like "McLintock," "Shenandoah," "The Way West," and "The Devil's Brigade" seems to have taken on the film simply for a paycheck, showing no energy or enthusiasm for this sluggish affair.
Annoyingly, you can also tell when the television broadcast inserted every commercial break, and the action (what little there is) comes to a crashing halt each time, the movie limping awkwardly from one episode to the next.
Once in occupied France, events become not just melodramatic but downright absurd. Think about this: Reisman and his band disguise themselves as Nazi soldiers to infiltrate the countryside, but one of the men Reisman chooses to bring along with them is black! Political correctness overshadows common sense. Moreover, the TV producers replace the good humor of the original movie with a sullen depression, depriving the whole movie of any vitality whatsoever.
Needless to say, my ratings at the bottom of the page apply to the original movie only. "Next Mission" gets a 3/10.
Video:
Warner Bros. transferred the primary movie to disc in a high-bit-rate, anamorphic picture size of 1.78:1, fully filling up a 16x9 widescreen television. The Internet Movie Database lists the movie's aspect ratio at 2.20:1, which, according to Richard W. Haines, author of "Technicolor Movies," was its roadshow size, blown up and cropped from the original 1.85:1 camera negative.
While there is some small degree of grain in the print, especially in the stock footage, it tends to contribute to the film's overall naturalistic atmosphere. The colors are as beautiful, deep and rich as we have come to expect of high-bit-rate transfers; and the object definition is about as good as it gets in a standard-definition format. For a film four decades old, or for any film of any age for that matter, "The Dirty Dozen" is a pleasure on the eyes.
The TV sequel, "Next Mission," is in a standard 1.33:1 screen ratio, the image soft and comparatively blurred. The less said about it, the better.
Audio:
Warner Bros. remastered the sound of the main feature in Dolby Digital 5.1 to excellent effect. The film won an Oscar for sound effects, and they come through loud and clear. The sonics are very dynamic, with a wide front-channel stereo spread and a satisfyingly deep bass. Specific rear-channel locality is limited, as we might expect, and there is a touch of hardness to the midrange and highs, but it is hardly distracting.
The sound in the sequel is reproduced in Dolby Digital 2.0 monaural. Like the sequel's picture quality, it is mediocre at best.
Extras:
Disc one of this Special Edition two-disc set contains the feature film, along with an audio commentary by cast members Jim Brown, Trini Lopez, Stuart Cooper, and Colin Maitland; the producer Kenneth Hyman; original novelist E.M. Nathanson; film historian David J. Schow; and military advisor to movies Captain Dale Dye. It's Dye who starts things off by providing both a historical perspective as well as a film perspective on the movie. If you choose, you can also watch a three-minute introduction to the film by co-star Ernest Borgnine and a vintage featurette, a promotional really, "Operation Dirty Dozen." Things wrap up with thirty-seven scene selections, but no chapter insert; a fullscreen theatrical trailer; English and French spoken languages; and English, French, and Spanish subtitles.
Disc two contains the TV sequel, "The Dirty Dozen: Next Mission," and here you will find English as the only spoken language, with English, French, and Spanish subtitles. Along with the sequel there are two newly made and fairly lengthy documentaries. The first is on the making of the original movie, "Armed and Deadly: The Making of The Dirty Dozen," thirty minutes, with various of the filmmakers and cast members reminiscing--people like Ernest Borgnine, Donald Sutherland, Jim Brown, George Kennedy, Trini Lopez, and Clint Walker. The second documentary is "The Filthy Thirteen: Real Stories from Behind the Lines," a forty-seven minute segment about the real-life airborne division that inspired author E.M. Nathanson to write his fictional "Dirty Dozen." Finally, there is a twenty-nine minute vintage recruitment documentary, "Marine Corps Combat Leadership Skills," with the late Lee Marvin narrating.
Parting Thoughts:
It's hard to beat a really good action adventure, and the original "Dirty Dozen" is among the best of its kind. It hasn't the essential realism of, say, "The Guns of Navarone," but thanks to the firm grasp that director Robert Aldrich and star Lee Marvin brought to the picture, "The Dirty Dozen" is almost irresistible. Sure, it overstates the heroics and emphasizes military maneuvers that probably never could have happened the way they are depicted, but we expect action-adventure flicks to embroider reality. This one does so without stretching credibility to the breaking point and provides a good time in the process.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences nominated "The Dirty Dozen" for four Oscars: Best Supporting Actor (John Cassavetes), Best Film Editing (Michael Luciano), and Best Sound and Best Sound Effects (John Poyner). As I said before, the film won for Sound Effects, so keep your volume control handy. I understand that the Academy might have nominated Robert Aldrich for Best Director, too, had there not been some controversy surrounding the final raid. I'll leave it to you to listen to Borgnine's introduction and the movie's audio commentary to decide if they robbed Aldrich or not.
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[release]18552[/release]