Kellys' Heroes (1970) 149m.
A mostly successful hybrid of two genres, the war movie and caper film, which was popular with audiences upon release. Clint Eastwood is topbilled as a former lieutenant (he was busted down when the army needed a scapegoat) fighting for the liberation of France in WWII. He hits upon the idea of robbing a bank behind enemy lines while the country is in turmoil. Eventually Telly Savalas and the rest of his platoon, along with several outsiders, get involved in the plan.
Tone and feel of film on one hand portrays the chaos of war as a giant shoot-em-up adventure playground, but on the other as a brutal and unheroic campaign of destruction. Director Brian G. Hutton and writer Troy Kennedy Martin are intent on blurring the line; to show that in ever-changing battle frontiers there can only be ambiguity. Most ambiguous of all is that these unclear notions of heroism and crime are being packaged as escapist, mainstream entertainment. Eastwood is a complete cipher - he may as well be a carbon copy of the same character he played for Hutton in the previous year's WHERE EAGLES DARE - leaving the more overt roles to players like the cosmically enlightened Donald Sutherland or hustling entrepreneur Don Rickles. Also, it's hard to reconcile the film's title with its events - since when do mercenaries become classed as heroes? That their actions are illegal are confirmed by Rickles, who gloats that their caper is `the perfect crime'. Of course, it could be the film-makers' intention that there are no heroes in war, and that the only valor is getting out alive. Scenes of Kelly (coolly played by Eastwood) and his platoon energetically mowing down German infantrymen become nothing more than just another part of the adventure. The biggest irony - and it is what ‘validates' Eastwood's actions - is that the platoon unknowingly become heroes anyway - or at least as gung-ho general Colt (Carroll O'Conner, in an amusing role) defines the term.
Film's finale is drawn out but comes at the end of much action, humor, and brisk performances by the cast. Fortunately, Hutton elects to keep KELLY'S HEROES light (listen to that theme tune, for example) and doesn't turn it into heavy-handed antiwar bloodletting. For this reason, it becomes one of those unusual things - a war adventure that isn't interested in its own message.
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