The Dirty Dozen

Lee Marvin plays a US officer tasked with training twelve hardened criminals (a dream cast that includes John Cassavetes and Donald Sutherland) for a 1944 suicide mission. By cynically amplifying a World War II spectacle through the sceptical lens of the Vietnam War era, Robert Aldrich’s anti-authoritarian, corrosive rage hit the nerve of the zeitgeist like a bomb—most directly by way of Jim Brown’s infamous “bomb run” in the finale, which was cheered even though it evoked both the Holocaust and the US military’s napalm attacks. This scene forms the highpoint of this critically controversial yet hugely successful deconstruction of the war film, which was made in the spirit of non-conformism: it is precisely the gripping staging that Aldrich allows to underline the dehumanising nature of war. Claude Chabrol: “a vehemently anti-militarist treatise (murderers in peacetime are the best soldiers, and vice versa).” Aldrich’s take on its reception was as follows: “American critics totally missed that, so they attacked the picture because of its violence, and for indulging in violent heroics. Now, fascinatingly, European critics all picked up on the parallel between burning people alive and the use of napalm. They all got the significance of what was being said.” (Christoph Huber)

Courtesy of the Cinémathèque suisse.

All retrospective films that will be shown at the Filmmuseum after the Viennale - from 04.11. - can of course also be reserved as usual at filmmuseum.at or by calling 01/533 70 54 and purchased at the box office of the Austrian Film Museum. The prices of the Austrian Film Museum apply.