...thanks to the firm grasp that director Robert Aldrich and star Lee Marvin brought to the picture, The Dirty Dozen is almost irresistible.
Audio:
Warner Bros. remastered the sound of the main feature in Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 to good effect. The film won an Oscar for sound effects, and the effects come through loud and clear, at least in the front channels. Specific rear-channel locality is limited, as we might expect, until the very end of the picture, the climactic fight sequence. There is also a touch of hardness to the midrange and highs and some occasional nasality, but like the faint film grain I mentioned earlier, it is hardly distracting. The sonics are very dynamic, more so now in DD+, with a wide front-channel stereo spread, a strong transient impact, and a satisfyingly deep bass.
Extras:
The HD-DVD contains all the extras found on the two-disc SD Special Edition and contains them all on a single side. The biggest bonus on the disc is a complete second movie--although in standard definition--a made-for-TV sequel, "The Dirty Dozen: Next Mission." Eighteen years had gone by before MGM decided to make a sequel to their longtime hit, so in 1985 they talked Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, and Richard Jaeckel into reprising their old roles. Apparently, the rest of the actors (whose characters survived in the original movie) read the script for the new film and declined to participate.
"The Dirty Dozen: Next Mission" became the first in a series of sequels made in the late 1980s, most of them with Borgnine only. As Marvin would pass away a year later, the temptation for him to do another passed with him. This sequel is nothing short of awful. A Nazi general wants to save Germany by assassinating Adolf Hitler. The Allies don't want this to happen because they feel Hitler is so incompetent that with him in command the War will soon be over. As a result, the army calls upon Reisner and a new "dirty dozen" convicted rejects to stop the assassination by parachuting into German-occupied France and killing the Nazi general planning the hit on the Fuehrer.
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 were supposed to have gone 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 signboards. It is only Jaeckel who displays any sign of life, but his role is so small we hardly notice. 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. 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.
The TV sequel is presented in a standard-def, 1.33:1 screen ratio, the image soft and comparatively blurred; and the sound is in Dolby Digital Plus 2.0 monaural. The less said about either, the better. Needless to say, my ratings at the bottom of the page apply to the original movie only. "Next Mission" gets a 3/10.
More important, the extras include 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 main film by co-star Ernest Borgnine, who must be about 110 by now but looks and sounds the same as ever, a remarkable fellow.
Next, 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, and a vintage featurette, a promotional really, "Operation Dirty Dozen."
Things wrap up with thirty-seven scene selections, but no chapter insert; a widescreen theatrical trailer; English, French, and Spanish spoken languages; and English, French, and Spanish subtitles. As always, Warner Bros. provide pop-up menus, a zoom-and-pan feature, an indicator of elapsed time, and an Elite Red HD case.
Parting Thoughts:
It's hard to beat a really good action adventure, and the original "Dirty Dozen" is among the best of its kind, now looking better in HD and sounding better in Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 than it probably ever did in a movie theater. 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.
Warner Bros. remastered the sound of the main feature in Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 to good effect. The film won an Oscar for sound effects, and the effects come through loud and clear, at least in the front channels. Specific rear-channel locality is limited, as we might expect, until the very end of the picture, the climactic fight sequence. There is also a touch of hardness to the midrange and highs and some occasional nasality, but like the faint film grain I mentioned earlier, it is hardly distracting. The sonics are very dynamic, more so now in DD+, with a wide front-channel stereo spread, a strong transient impact, and a satisfyingly deep bass.
Extras:
The HD-DVD contains all the extras found on the two-disc SD Special Edition and contains them all on a single side. The biggest bonus on the disc is a complete second movie--although in standard definition--a made-for-TV sequel, "The Dirty Dozen: Next Mission." Eighteen years had gone by before MGM decided to make a sequel to their longtime hit, so in 1985 they talked Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, and Richard Jaeckel into reprising their old roles. Apparently, the rest of the actors (whose characters survived in the original movie) read the script for the new film and declined to participate.
"The Dirty Dozen: Next Mission" became the first in a series of sequels made in the late 1980s, most of them with Borgnine only. As Marvin would pass away a year later, the temptation for him to do another passed with him. This sequel is nothing short of awful. A Nazi general wants to save Germany by assassinating Adolf Hitler. The Allies don't want this to happen because they feel Hitler is so incompetent that with him in command the War will soon be over. As a result, the army calls upon Reisner and a new "dirty dozen" convicted rejects to stop the assassination by parachuting into German-occupied France and killing the Nazi general planning the hit on the Fuehrer.
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 were supposed to have gone 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 signboards. It is only Jaeckel who displays any sign of life, but his role is so small we hardly notice. 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. 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.
The TV sequel is presented in a standard-def, 1.33:1 screen ratio, the image soft and comparatively blurred; and the sound is in Dolby Digital Plus 2.0 monaural. The less said about either, the better. Needless to say, my ratings at the bottom of the page apply to the original movie only. "Next Mission" gets a 3/10.
More important, the extras include 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 main film by co-star Ernest Borgnine, who must be about 110 by now but looks and sounds the same as ever, a remarkable fellow.
Next, 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, and a vintage featurette, a promotional really, "Operation Dirty Dozen."
Things wrap up with thirty-seven scene selections, but no chapter insert; a widescreen theatrical trailer; English, French, and Spanish spoken languages; and English, French, and Spanish subtitles. As always, Warner Bros. provide pop-up menus, a zoom-and-pan feature, an indicator of elapsed time, and an Elite Red HD case.
Parting Thoughts:
It's hard to beat a really good action adventure, and the original "Dirty Dozen" is among the best of its kind, now looking better in HD and sounding better in Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 than it probably ever did in a movie theater. 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.
![Lost [TV Series]](/images/displaymedia.php?id=23770&sizew=70&cat=3)
Average user rating (1-5):
[release]19879[/release]