Review: Kelly’s Heroes

Before “Three Kings” transplanted the basic idea onto the Gulf War, there was “Kelly’s Heroes” and WWII. The Pvt. Kelly of the films’ title (played by Clint Eastwood) learns of some hidden Nazi gold behind enemy lines worth around $16 million. He decides to wrangle together a small-ish platoon to enact the heist, whilst the war rages and bombs go off all around them. Telly Savalas is ‘Big Joe’ the gruff commanding officer of Kelly’s platoon, who thinks the whole idea is cockamamie and dangerous as hell. Donald Sutherland plays a displaced hippie named Oddball, whose Sherman tanks are essential to pulling off the heist. The rest of the platoon is filled out with familiar faces like Stuart Margolin, Don Rickles, Jeff Morris, Harry Dean Stanton, and Gavin MacLeod (as one of Oddball’s kooks). Carroll O’Connor plays the clueless, tempestuous General who has absolutely no idea what’s going on at any time.

 

Directed by Brian G. Hutton (“Where Eagles Dare”, “The First Deadly Sin”, plus a more prolific career as an actor), this 1970 war/comedy was one of several war movies that were made in the wake of “The Dirty Dozen”. A enjoyable ‘guy movie’, it’s extremely underrated and a rollicking good time. However, I have to say the action/adventure works a lot better than the comedy, and at 2 ½ hours, it’s far too long. There’s no godly reason why this thing needed to be more than two hours long, and it doesn’t help at al. The comic highlight is clearly Donald Sutherland’s displaced hippie ‘Oddball’, with Sutherland clearly having a good year with this film and “MASH”. Opinion is divided on the decision to include a hippie in a WWII scenario, but I think Sutherland is brilliant and hilarious and rather charming in the role, actually. He’s not a 70s hippie, he’s a 40s version of a 70s peacenik, talking about ‘negative waves’ and replacing tank ammunition cartridges with paint so that when fired it creates ‘pretty colours’. Somehow it works. I particularly found it funny that for all of his peacenik when the promise of a stash of gold is offered up, Oddball’s got little problems using live ammunition and going into battle. I imagine the youth of 1970 were very much drawn to the character. I assume that was the intention from Sutherland, Hutton, and screenwriter Troy Kennedy-Martin (“The Italian Job”, “Red Heat”, and a lot of British TV work). Hutton proves himself surprisingly adept at action, and although not gory, a shitload of Nazis sure do get shot or blown up. It would surely rack up a huge body count. He also offers up a rather dangerous view of battle, with bombs going off all over the place – it’s quite tense and scary at times, despite essentially being a light-hearted caper movie at heart. I actually think it holds up better than the other Hutton/Eastwood film, the slightly more serious “Where Eagles Dare”.

 

Aside from Sutherland, Hutton has amassed a pretty enjoyable, eclectic group of actors here for the ragtag ensemble. In a role that probably called for more of a James Garner, James Coburn, or George Segal, we get a stoic Clint Eastwood as the title character. He’s actually not bad and certainly brings presence and machismo, but is he the best person for this cynical and opportunistic character? I’m not entirely sure, though he certainly fits the bill in the action scenes, which may be more important at the end of the day. He’s fine, I guess I just wished they’d cast someone even more suited. Seriously, imagine James Coburn in the part. He would’ve been truly perfect. Thankfully, he’s also got Sutherland and some of the best character actors of the time surrounding him. Stuart Margolin and Jeff Morris probably come closest to stealing the film from Sutherland, as the platoon’s radio operator ‘Little’ Joe and the aptly nicknamed ‘Cowboy’, respectively. Morris, perhaps best-known as Bob of Bob’s Country Bunker in “The Blues Brothers” is a bit Slim Pickens-esque and steals his every moment. You’ve probably seen Margolin in dozens of things over the years, and here he’s perfectly irritable without being actively unlikeable. Speaking of irritable, I normally find insult comic ‘legend’ Don Rickles insufferable, but as with the later “Casino” he proves himself to be a fine character actor. Here as the aptly monikered ‘Crapgame’ he’s perfectly cast as the opportunistic supply Sergeant. Although he’ll be a bit shouty for some, Telly Savalas has no issues convincing you in these surrounds as the no-nonsense tough bastard Master-Sergeant who reluctantly goes along with the plan. Elsewhere you’ll spot familiar faces like “Love Boat” star Gavin MacLeod, long-serving character actor Harry Dean Stanton, Len Lesser (AKA, Uncle Leo from “Seinfeld”) and even a young-ish John Landis, pre-directing infamy. The only genuine weak link here is Carroll O’Connor, one-note as an incompetent General. TV’s Archie Bunker yells a lot, and unlike Mr. Savalas, O’Connor’s not competing with a bunch of loud explosions, it’s just an actor yelling because someone thought it was funny. It’s not his finest hour, and it gets old very quick.

 

“Hogan’s Heroes”, “MASH”, “Three Kings”, and “The Dirty Dozen” rolled into one action-packed, cynical, and irreverent WWII caper with a cracker of a central premise. Far too long, and the action and plot work better than some of the (very) broad comedy. However, Donald Sutherland scores as a loopy displaced hippie, he’s an hilarious scene-stealer, especially if you don’t expect total realism here. One of the best of these more light-hearted 60s/70s war movies for sure, even if that’s because most of them weren’t any good (Lookin’ at you “How I Won the War” and “Hannibal Brooks”). If you liked “Three Kings”, “The Monuments Men”, and “MASH” (either version), you’ll probably enjoy this one too. Excellent Lalo Schifrin (“Cool Hand Luke”, “The Cincinnati Kid”) score, even getting to imitate Ennio Morricone (“The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”) at one very obvious in-jokey moment with Eastwood. Interesting song ‘Burning Bridges’ too, even if it seems to strike a different tone/chord to the rest of the film.

 

Rating: B+