THE DIRTY DOZEN (1967)

Great Britain, 1944.  A US Major (Lee Marvin) is given orders to select twelve men from the local military prison, train them, then go on a suicide mission behind enemy lines to kill as many German officers as possible.  This will create disruption in the chain of command right before the D-Day invasion.  The men who survive the mission will be pardoned.

Watching THE DIRTY DOZEN today, it's dated as fuck, but still entertaining.  The story was definitely cool and the action scenes were reminiscent the covers the the men's adventure magazines of the 1950's, but I was mainly fascinated by the all-star cast!  I mean, this thing is pack from floor to ceiling with big names.  Charles Bronson, Donald Sutherland, Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine...pretty much every scene had somebody awesome in it.

I also found the film to be interesting from a historical perspective.  I'd love to know more about it.  For example: I'm curious how many films previous to TDD showed American soldiers so gleefully killing not only Nazi officers and soldiers, but also the women with them?  Did the subversive feel of the film have something to do with the Vietnam War?

Younger audiences would probably find the whole thing boring, but it's definitely worth a viewing for fans of (older) WWII movies and movie nerds.

Side note: IMDb lists Dick Miller as "MP at Hanging (uncredited)", but I couldn't find him.

Part 2 - The Dirty Dozen: Next Mission
Part 3 - The Dirty Dozen: The Deadly Mission
Part 4 - The Dirty Dozen: The Fatal Mission

HELL IN THE PACIFIC (1968)

During WWII two soldiers (one American - Lee Marvin, one Japanese - Toshiro Mifune) find themselves on the same small uninhabited Pacific Ocean island.  At first, things are really tense with them staying super quite and hunting each other all over the joint.  Then things die down (including the tension) and they kinda just tolerate each other.  Finally they become friends.  Awww.

The idea for HELL IN THE PACIFIC is amazing.  The amount of things that a talented writer (or group of writers) could have happen here gives me butterflies in my stomach just to think about!  In this age of remakes HELL IN THE PACIFIC is one that needs to be remade for sure.  Shit, you could have an entire series of these films.  I love the idea of two enemy WWII soldiers, but how about a Predator vs. an Alien?  No spoken words just two epic hunters hunting the fuck out of each other!  Vampire vs. werewolf.  John Wick vs. Barry Berkman.  The wookalar from THE PRIVATE EYES vs. the Humungus from THE ROAD WARRIOR?  Billy Bob Thornton from "Fargo" (s1) vs. John Lithgow from "Dexter" (s4).  The serial killer zombie dude from SILENT RAGE vs. Leatherface? Jason vs. Michael? Colonel James Braddock vs. Green Beret John Rambo?  John J. Rambo vs. the Wolverines?  Austin Powers vs. Ace Ventura?  A Krite vs. Stripe the gremlin?  Predator vs. Dog the Bounty Hunter?  One-thousand George Romero zombies vs. 10 Brian Keene "The Rising"-style zombies?  The Terminator vs. John Wick?  Pumpkinhead vs. Rawhead Rex?  Hannibal Lecter vs. Pee-Wee Herman?  Magnum P.I. vs. the Creature from the Black Lagoon?   This could go on forever!!

Anyway, back to HELL IN THE PACIFIC.  Awesome start, slowing middle and horrible ending.  There's an alternative ending on the DVD and it's just as horrible!  Overall, worth watching barely since it's an interesting idea and it looks like both leads gave it their all.  Too bad the writers couldn't come up with enough interesting stuff to fill the entire running time...or who knows maybe this was an anti-war movie?  It was made in 1968.  Ehh, either way it's still not as exciting as I had hoped.

DONOVAN'S REEF (1963)

I love John Wayne, but I don't love him enough to be a fan of this movie.  Told with the utmost sentimentality, the story is about three WWII soldiers who after the war stayed on the French Polynesian where they had been fighting.  The first guy (Jack Warden) is a saint among men.  He's a doctor and has a church and a hospital complete with nuns on his property.  He also has three young children, their mother (a island princess) died during childbirth.  The other two fellows are the hard-living John Wayne and Lee Marvin who spend most of their time fighting each other.  And when I say fighting, I mean fighting, these dudes aren't just wrestling around grab-assing, they're bashing each other in the head with bottles, chairs, boards, whatever they can get their hands on.  Kicking each other in the face, I don't see how either one of them is even alive!

Anyway, the drama comes when word gets around that the saintly doctor is lined up, due to a death in the family, to be the majority stockholder in the family's shipping company.  The catch is he has to be of high moral standing and since he has three children of mixed heritage then, of course, he's a sinner that's gonna burn in Hell for all eternity.  To get around this, John Wayne steps in to act as the children's father while the auditor is visiting.  Trouble is the woman who's sent to determine Doc's moral standing is also his estranged daughter from before the War!  She also, naturally, falls for Wayne, but is emotional conflicted by her love versus the fact he has three children out of wedlock!

I dislike movies about children and if I had known this movie prominently featured kids I wouldn't have watched it.  But I did and I didn't like it at all.  Wayne himself was fine, but the script was way too feel-goodie for my taste, Lee Marvin was completely wasted, the Christmas church service was painful to watch, the priest was more annoying than a Buzzfeed headline, the nuns were annoying, the main actress was annoying, the kids were horrible...but man the scenery was beautiful!!  Wow.

Most people will probably like the film, but based off the poster and setting I was expecting a rough and tumble action-comedy that was actually funny, like NORTH TO ALASKA but on a tropical island instead.