Saturday night on Finland’s commercial channel MTV3 there was the choice of the mediocre Bond film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service in which George Lazenby faces infamous villain, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, played this time by Telly Savalas. I didn’t fancy watching the grinning Australian 007 again, so I opted for another Savalas film from my DVD collection: The Dirty Dozen.

When I realised that it had been exactly forty years since the film’s initial release my surprise was genuine. While researching facts for this review my surprise turned to concern as I discovered that a remake is in the works for 2008. I shall attempt to put that dread behind me and focus purely upon one of the grittiest, masculine and extremely violent war films from the 1960s.

It is believed that director Robert Aldrich missed out on an Academy Award Directing nomination because he refused to cut the infamous chateau bunker scene at the movie’s climax, which is one of the more shocking moments in war film history especially if you imagine it from the other side. Thankfully Aldrich kept the notorious scene in tact to depict the fact that war is hell and created a scene that will burn in your memory.

For those unfamiliar with the film based upon E.M. Nathanson’s novel, the story follows Maj. John Reisman (Lee Marvin) being assigned a mission to train twelve American soldiers, each convicted of capital offences including murder, robbery and rape, to attack a large château that is known to be a retreat for German senior officers. The mission is hoped to disrupt the German chain of command as the D-Day invasion begins.

Lee Marvin, hot off an Academy Award win for Cat Ballou two years earlier, got the role after John Wayne turned it down to make The Green Berets, but the film benefited from this twist of fate. Marvin served in the US Marine Corps in WWII and this allowed him to provide technical assistance in creating a realistic portrayal of combat, although if you listen to the DVD Commentary by another retired Marine you may doubt any of the realism.

One of the opening scenes of the film features Marvin in a briefing with Ernest Borgnine and George Kennedy, which just sets you up for more big names come the introduction to the dozen. Charles Bronson, Telly Savalas, Donald Sutherland , in one of his first movie roles, John Cassavetes, who was nominated for Best Supporting Actor, musician Trini Lopez, former American footballer Jim Brown and Richard Jaeckel, as the head of Military Police guarding the prisoners. It is a cast for which many would die for and, ironically, the three men that survive at the end of the film are no longer with us.

For me, one of the reasons that this film is so superb is due to the camaraderie and chemistry between all the actors – I say actors because the only women in the film are either prostitutes or the German officers’ partners. I guess it wouldn’t be too outrageous to say that this is a guy film and wouldn’t be a popular choice for a romantic night in, although feel free to try this out for yourself.

Despite the director missing out on a statuette, The Dirty Dozen did win an Oscar for Best Sound Effects and was nominated for Best Film Editing and Best Sound, all three of which take the film to another level, especially on the volume control…TURN IT DOWN! Happily on the Special Edition DVD that I bought there is the sequel The Dirty Dozen: Next Mission and a great deal of extras, so I shall be returning to the discs very soon. On one final note, it was enlightening to learn that The A-Team was initially conceived as a cross between The Dirty Dozen and The Magnificent Seven.