Kelly's Heroes (1970) User Reviews

Great WW2 Buddy Pic

[SgtSlaughter · 8/10 · 5 July 2003]

Utterly hilarious World War II adventure picture, with some great acting by all of the leads, fine action sequences and superb scenery.

Kelly (Clint Eastwood) captures a German colonel (David Hurst), who inadvertently tells him where the Germans are hiding $16,000,000 worth of gold bars. Kelly enlists the aid of his platoon to trek behind the German lines and steal the cash.

The movie features a top-notch cast of veterans and would-be stars. Eastwood (THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY) has a quiet, serious role and floats through the entire picture. Telly Savalas (PANCHO VILLA) makes a great counterpart as the loud, short-tempered and cynical platoon sergeant. Donald Sutherland (THE EAGLE HAS LANDED) steals the show, though, in a very offbeat role as a hippie-style tank commander. He delivers some utterly 60s dialog with great style and is uproarious. Don Rickles is funny, too, in a smaller role as Crapgame - a rear-echelon supply clerk who goes along on the trek for a profit and gets more than he bargains for. Carroll O'Connor (THE DEVIL'S BRIGADE) has an un-necessary but zany role as General Colt, a blustering officer who can't understand why his red-blooded American soldiers aren't cutting through the German army. The role is obviously a knockoff of George C. Scott in PATTON, and O'Connor does an excellent job.

The supporting cast is fine, too, though not many make much of an impact. Jeff Morris is a hoot as Cowboy, a transplanted Texas hick, with Harry Dean Stanton in support as his sidekick; Stuart Margolin is a jittery radio operator; Len Lesser is a construction officer who gets conned into going along to build a bridge for the guys, and ends getting really screwed over by Kelly's boys; Hal Buckley is the platoon commander who only cares about getting his yacht to Paris; Gene Collins is the baby-faced youngster. David Hurst is lovable as the dim-witted German colonel, and it's really a shame he gets killed - especially by one of his own tanks. Karl Otto Alberty (THE GREAT ESCAPE) has a nice, small role near the end as a Tiger tank commander, and there's an anti-war spin when Kelly and crew let him escape unscathed. Watch for John G. Heller (OPERATION CROSSBOW) as the German patrol leader during the minefield scene.

The movie also features some terrific action scenes. The minefield debacle is suspenseful and nail-biting, and eventually filled with tons of gunfire and neat explosions. The final battle, in which the dozen or so heroes manage to wipe out a garrison of Germans in a small French village is expertly filmed, with some great camerawork and lots of good, convincing special effects. Some major aspects of this sequence were ripped off in SAVING PRIVATE RYAN - Tiger tanks in the street, a sniper in a bell tower, machine gunners firing from bombed-out buildings - the whole general look of the sequence was completely conned.

The Lalo Schiffrin score is light-hearted fun, and Mike Curb Congregation's "Burning Bridges" theme is a good song but doesn't at all fit the theme of the movie. The film was shot in Yugoslavia to take advantage of lower production costs. It actually looks a lot like central France, with plenty of hedgerows, bombed out buildings and such - nothing like the mountains and rivers of THE BATTLE OF NERETVA.

I saw this movie on Turner Classic Movies, appropriately letterboxed at about 2.35:1 with hardly a flaw in the print. Colors are accurate and the image is pretty sharp. TNT used to play an awful, orange-looking print of the movie (with the dialog edited to pieces, also) The audio is fine and sounds clear and loud, but the gunfire and explosions lack intensity. The film is also available on DVD.

KELLY'S HEROES is a witty, lighthearted WWII adventure which I don't think any fan can miss. If you need to sit back and watch American GIs kick German butt for 2 and a half hours for a goal as lofty as pure, all-American greed then this is your flick.

Great Fun!

[artzau · 9/10 · 22 June 2001]

Interesting enough, reading through the comments on this film, I noted only one detractor, some sorehead from Canada who completely missed the point of the film. No, Sr. Canadiense. This is not a serious film about WW2. Read some of the excellent commentaries here about the social and temporal context of this film, i.e., the height of the Vietnamese war. Yes, Sutherland, your fellow countryman, was an active anti-war protester and fully embraced the anachronistic hippie role. The mad-cap story which tweaks the nose of the "establishment," in this case, the military establishment, is plausible when you let go of the blood, guts and glory of the war film genre. And, it is a damn funny film. Eastwood is at his clenched jaw, cynical best; Savalas is great as the Sergeant big-guy; Carrol O'Conner is riotious as the general; Rickles is, well, Rickles. But, Sutherland steals the show. The scenes where they tanks come out blasting the Germans to the tune of twangy Country-Western music is hilarious. Sutherland's out-of-time-sync "...no negative vibes... hey, man...yeah, baby..." is side-splitting. The final confrontation scene between the three striding up to the German tank commander, with Sutherland loosening his side arm, ala Clint Eastwood in Fist full of Dollars is a riot. This film is full of funny stuff. And, you can see it again and again and find new business to laugh about. Buffs will delight at seeing Harry Dean Stanton in a pre-Repo Man role and Richard Davalos who played James Dean's doomed brother Aron in East of Eden. This is a great piece of satire that was overlooked, cast aside and has still survived to the delight of those of us who enjoy it again and again. But, hey, don't just take my word for it. Of the 30 or so commentaries here-- and do read them, as there are some excellent ones-- only one was a detractor.

A good deal of humor with explosive action...

[Nazi_Fighter_David · 8/10 · 5 July 2003]

The story is in the funny-macho style of 'The Dirty Dozen', with more emphasis on the fun... The film is set during World War II in post-D-Day France... The plot is a simple one, guaranteeing the minimum of complexity and the maximum of action...

Private Kelly (Eastwood) abducts a German colonel and accidentally discovers the whereabouts of a fortune in gold...

Being less interested in winning the war than in a little self-enrichment, he decides to liberate the hoard privately...

Being unable to take on the Nazi war-machine single-handed, he sees himself obliged to recruit some fellow conspirators... So he takes Telly Savalas, the top skeptical sergeant who initially vetoes the move, but changes his mind when it becomes clear that he cannot stop his men from going; Don Rickles, the hustler who can easily provide any weapon; and Donald Sutherland, the bizarre leader of a Sherman-tank squad, whose life style consists of getting high on drugs and meditating to unorthodox music... Sutherland, in fact, very nearly steals the film in his role of a spaced-out tank commander...

Certain amusing touches stand out in this piece of satire: The blazing battle led by Oddball's tanks, complete with inspiring music; the very suspenseful climax that makes the audience tingle with the fear that the soldiers' plan may fail; the title song, 'Burning Bridges,' which perfectly fits the mood of the film; and the wonderful parody of 'The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly,' with Eastwood and his gangster force advancing on a German tank guarding the gold to the strains of Ennio Morricone's memorable score...

Carroll O'Connor plays the egotist happy general who sees the move as nothing more than a group of dedicated soldiers taking the war into their own hand...

Worth its weight in gold.

[Oro-Indiano · 10/10 · 21 March 2000]

Whilst it would make few people's "All time top ten" lists, I'm hard pressed to think of a film which is so relentlessly enjoyable as "Kelly's Heroes". Part war movie, part comedy, part bank-job caper, the different elements combine seamlessly to produce a distinctive and memorable film.

Clint Eastwood, in an unusually subdued but nonetheless commanding performance, plays the leader of a platoon of restless GIs in the chaos of post D-Day France. When he captures a German officer who just happens to be in possession of a solid gold bar, Clint extracts the necessary information and before you can say "Three Kings", he's hatched a plan to make it 30 miles beyond enemy lines to nab the $16 million stash. He can't do it alone, of course, but has no trouble in convincing his fellow troops that if they're going to be killed in this war, the reward for them should be worth the risk. Enlisting the help of Quartermaster "Crapgame" (Don Rickles) Sergeant "Big Joe" (Telly Savalas) and Sherman tank driver "Oddball" (Donald Sutherland) among others, Kelly and his platoon of ironic "heroes" are soon on their way to an eventual showdown with the German Tiger tank unit guarding the bank...

All too often cross-genre pictures can be let down if the balance isn't right, but that's not the case here because each element is as good as it can be. The action and battle scenes are well executed, especially that in which Oddball and his Shermans attack a German depot. The comic relief is genuinely funny rather than cheesy, and includes a beautiful scene at the climax of the movie which gently parodies Clint's spaghetti-western days, complete with the strains of cod-Morricone music. The suspense is well maintained where necessary, such as the scene where the platoon is caught exposed in the middle of a minefield with a truckload of Germans bearing down on them. And of course there is the ensemble cast, which is uniformly excellent. Keep an eye out for a young Harry Dean Stanton, and Len Lesser, who is better known as Uncle Leo in "Seinfeld". Sutherland's proto-hippie ("Always with them negative waves, Moriarty!") and Carroll O'Connor's manic General Colt are just two performances which live long in the memory, alongside the ever-reliable Eastwood and Savalas.

There are a few points made about the madness and futility of war if that's what you're looking for. Allied bombers knock out bridges by day, German mobile engineers rebuild them by night... neither the Americans or the Germans seem to know what's going on or where their lines are supposed to be... behind the lines our heroes are attacked by their own aircraft... General Colt mistakes Kelly's gold-inspired push for a patriotic determination to end the war, and mobilizes his army to follow him, chastising the staff officers around him for failing to show the same spirit!

But ultimately, this movie is about entertainment rather than political comment. And as such it is one of the most successful examples of its type, as the almost total absence of negative comments from this page should indicate. The script by Troy Kennedy Martin ("The Italian Job") is tight, and direction by Brian G Hutton ("Where Eagles Dare") equally assured. Perhaps regarded as lightweight in comparison to other, more serious "men on a mission" movies such as Robert Aldrich's "The Dirty Dozen" or Hutton's aforementioned "Where Eagles Dare", the film has nonetheless been influential. For example, although David O Russell's "Three Kings" veers off on a tangent and makes more of a serious comment on the US role in the Gulf War, its matchbook plot (ie that which can be written on the back of a matchbook) is the same as "Kelly's Heroes". And in the speakers mounted on the side of Oddball's tanks, used to blast music at the enemy and freak them out, there is more than a hint of the Wagner-playing helicopters in Coppola's "Apocalypse Now", still some nine years hence at the time of this film's release.

In my humble opinion, therefore, "Kelly's Heroes" is a supremely enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours. You will be doing yourself a favour if, next time you get the chance, you take a look. It's rare that I see a film and don't think at least once that I'd change something about it, but if there is something to change in "Kelly's Heroes", I don't know what it is. With that in mind, I give it a...

(10/10)

A war movie buff's guilty pleasure.

[k_rkeplar · 9 August 2004]

I'm the first one to rant at ridiculous war movies. The history has to be right, the uniforms, and so on and so on. Plots have to be creditable or I'm the first one to cry foul. But then there comes along movies like Kelly's Heroes. It's violent and meaningless really...but funny and very exciting. The gear is accurate for the most part, which is far more than I can say about the bulk of so called serious war films. Even with the infamous Tiger tank the film makers attempted to at least make the Russian built Yugoslav T53s they were using look like Tigers. I think they were T53s, they did such a good job of making them look like Tigers it's hard to tell. The whole film is a 1960s anti-establishment slant thrown on a pretty standard WWII story about GIs on a mission behind the German lines. In this parallel universe John Wayne type mission, these guys are out for number one. It's their mission, not the US Army's or the Allies. With a headlines crazy General chasing behind them with his photographer looking to pin medals on "his boys" for piercing the German lines and apparently leading his "charge", they're heading for a town full of Germans guarding a bank with three Tiger tanks. Clint Eastwood has to pick up the means to complete this personal mission along the way without the secret leaking out. We even have 1960s Hippies in this silly war torn 1940s world. Donald Sutherland is a riot as a stoned Sherman tank commander who seems to have stepped into a timewarp and emerged in 1944 and found himself at the helm of an armored unit. Several then unknowns are in the film, including Harry Dean Stanton and Gavin Mcleod. Beautiful scenery and photography shot in what was then Yugoslavia. Excellent attention to equipment detail. Good, if over the top, performances all around. Suspense and excitement. Very funny. And possibly the silliest pothole laden plot to ever pass itself off as a war movie. If you're a war movie buff with a sense of humor you'll love it.

Impossible to duplicate

[ss5921 · 10/10 · 29 July 2003]

There will never be a cast of characters brought together for one movie which could compare to this one. Clint Eastwood shows that he can be good at being quite serious, humorous, and even let other people steal scenes without losing presence. The real difference though lies in the rest of the cast which is a group of All-Stars who excel at certain type characters the likes of which you can not find today. Examples: Telly Savalas showing why he would become a MAJOR TV star later, Don Rickles being Don Rickles but keeping his movie character true to the film, Carroll O'Connor showing that greatness was just around the corner for him, and Donald Sutherland is just too good for words. What really makes this movie though is unlike other movies which bring together a lot of big names and top character actors, Kelly's Heroes did not lose focus on the importance of the plot. THe story never gets lost to the characters. Absolutely great job!

Light-hearted WWII romp is entertaining action film...

[Doylenf · 6/10 · 30 December 2006]

What films like DESPERATE JOURNEY did for WWII audiences at the time of release, KELLY'S HEROES did for audiences in 1970 in showing the humor and banter of men in trying wartime circumstances determined to carry out a certain mission. Here the mission is the heist of gold behind enemy lines--something Kelly inadvertently finds out about before deciding that his troopers will carry out the scheme right under the noses of the Nazis.

It's all in fun, and some of it is even funnier considering that hippies didn't exist in the '40s so that the flavorsome performance of DONALD SUTHERLAND as Sgt. Oddball is really an anachronism. His quips are strictly from the '70s but his contribution is so full of laughs that it's easily forgiven in the spirit of enjoying a war story that doesn't take itself seriously in the first place.

All the men seem to be having a great time--including CLINT EASTWOOD, TELLY SAVALAS, CARROL O'CONNOR, DONALD SUTHERLAND, RICHARD DAVALOS, GAVIN MacLEOD, HARRY DEAN STANTON and DON RICKLES.

Summing up: Just the right brew for a lighter look at wartime escapades!

Classic and Great

[bdenny29 · 10/10 · 13 July 2004]

This movie is simply great. The guy who wrote the other review is flat wrong. He contests that anyone no from the era won't like it. I was born in 1982, and it's in my top 5. It has one of the best casts around, with Clint Eastwood, Telly Savalas, Don Rickles, Donald Sutherland, and Carroll O' Connor. It has action and humor, what more could you want. It is a great film, hands down. Do yourself a favor and view its splendor. The Mike Curb song is great and catchy, the editing is on par with any other movie, and the plot, although improbable, is entertaining. All told, it gets a 9.5/10.

Under-rated wartime caper.

[barnabyrudge · 7/10 · 8 September 2004]

Clint Eastwood reunites with his Where Eagles Dare director Brian G. Hutton for another improbable but entertaining WWII caper. Kelly's Heroes has its moments of wartime spectacle and lots of slambang action, but it also has plenty of comedy thrown in. Many critics judged the film quite harshly, groaning about how it is inappropriate for a film to mix jokes and war. But in truth, Kelly's Heroes never pretends to be a serious wartime account - and the humorous undercurrent helps the film rather than hampering it.

A bunch of American GIs are given a few days away from the battlefront during WWII. However, they are not overly impressed with the quiet, excessively peaceful and "boozeless" village where they've been told to relax. One member of the group, Kelly (Eastwood), has learned of a fortune in Nazi gold bullion hidden away in a bank in a German-occupied town some thirty or more miles behind enemy lines. He tells the other guys about it, and they decide to risk their lives to get hold of the hoard. Of course, pulling off a bank robbery is no easy task at the best of times, but when the bank is so far into enemy territory......

Eastwood is suitably laid-back here, but the real stars of the show are Telly Savalas (dynamic and hilarious as Big Joe) and Donald Sutherland (a hippy tank driver so chilled-out he's happy to eat cheese, drink wine and sunbathe in the middle of a chaotic battle!) The pyrotechnics are well-orchestrated, and Troy Kennedy Martin invests the script with the kind of amusing banter and thrilling set pieces that he gave to The Italian Job a year earlier. Kelly's Heroes is totally unsubtle and totally removed from reality - but what it lacks in tact it makes up for with spectacular destruction and bags of entertainment.

Lifetime quest

[nigelcollinson · 10/10 · 28 October 2020]

I was born in the year this was made. Bought up with the film. Watch it every year. This year I decided I was going to find and then visit the location of the end bank scene. Beautiful Croatia. I rode from my home in London. Worth every mile.

Rogue's Paradise

[damianphelps · 7/10 · 12 February 2021]

This is a movie full of rogues acting like contemporary pirates as they loot, pillage and disrupt there way through the war.

A pretty fun movie with some good laughs and some good action.

One criticism is that the movie is probably 30 minutes too long but that's a minor complaint.

A nice bit of war themed fun :)

A different kind of war movie...

[KShrew · 10/10 · 6 April 1999]

Kelly's Heroes is a difficult movie to describe -- somewhat a cross between a good war movie and a black comedy. The chemistry between Savalas, Eastwood, Rickles, and Sutherland really makes this movie. The combat scenes are some of filmdom's best...close to the Kubrick-directed scenes in Dr. Strangelove.

Entertaining WWII film with lots of humor , battles , explosions and sheer amusement

[ma-cortes · 7/10 · 12 February 2012]

Spectacular War film with a touch of irreverence about a reckless group of U.S. soldiers undertaking a dangerous mission behind enemy lines , as they sneak on Nazi territory to get their hands on a secret stash of valuable treasure at a bank , containing 16 million dollars in gold bars. Exciting film with a truly silly formula about a misfit team led by lieutenant Kelly (Clint Eastwood) who carries out a suicide mission behind enemy lines . A group of two-fisted soldiers formed by a misfit band with egoistic aims are drafted to go on a near-suicide mission and attempt to take the bullion from a French village occupied by Nazis . This strange, motley platoon is led by Big Joe ( Telly Savalas) and with the aid of hustler Crapgame (Don Rickles), anachronistic , lame-brained hippie named Oddball (Donald Sutherland) and three old Sherman tanks that subsequently will take on Tiger tanks . Kelly leads his men ,turning his G.I.s into a valiant fighting unit , and going deep into French territory to steal the gold for themselves .¨ Kelly's heroes¨ is an entertaining film with Clint Eastwood as tough officer along with the ordinary team of renegade soldiers of World War II whose mission is to steal the Nazi secret treasure from a villa . In the hands of hardboiled director Brian G Hutton and a tough-as-leather cast , that's all the plot that's needed to make one rip-roaring wartime flick. Eatwood's mission is two-fold and in violent and cynical style : the selfish and mean group undergoing across a dangerous territory and executing hazardous feats , they then turn loose on a villa located in France where cause destruction . The first half of the film allows the colorful cast of character actors to have their fun as they get their tails whipped into shape and develop shaky relationship with their leaders . The final part is all action, as the brave commando wreak havoc and then run for their lives. Despite the fact that most part of the "heroes" survive the bloodbath, the message here isn't that war is hell. Rather, it seems to be: war can be a hell of a good time... if you've got nothing to lose . The dangerous mission includes a selected group formed by a motley and varied but disreputable squadron played by all-star-cast and notorious secondaries . This is a rugged WWII actioner concerning a squadron of dispensable characters with no past and no future . The Privates are oddballs , rag-tag and undisciplined gang , under command a selfish Lieutenant and other rare characters . At the end they must participate in the suicidal mission behind the enemy lines , to wipe the German group by means of a violent assault over a strongly protected village.

Clint Eastwood as Lieutenant Kelly assumes the character of commando leader in this better than average wartime movie well directed by Brian G Hutton. This moving film packs frantic thrills, lots of familiar faces, perilous adventures , comedy , relentless feats , and buck-loads of explosive action and emotion . The noisy action is uniformly well-made, especially deserving of mention the rip-roaring final scenes on the village , including some spectacular shootouts , an amusing showdown in Sergio Leone-Ennio Morricone style and bombing . Apart from the values of team spirit , cudgeled by Eatwood into his rebel group , the film is full of feats , humor with tongue-in-check and thrills . Clint Eastwood is good as leader of the motley pack together thwart the Nazi schemes, as well as the largely secondary cast as Gavin MacLeod , Richard Davalos , Gene Collins , Harry Dean Staton, Perry Lopez and with special mention to Carroll O'Connor as grumpy general . Atmospheric and functional musical score , including inappropriate songs , by Lalo Schifrin and colorful cinematography by Gabriel Figueroa . This is a wartime typical vehicle and into the ¨warlike commando genre¨ , in USA style which also belong the American classics from the 60s as : ¨Dirty Dozen (Robert Aldrich) ¨ Where eagles dare(Brian G. Hutton) , Tobruk (Arthur Hiller), Devil's Brigade (Andrew V McLagen) and many others .

The motion picture is well handled and professionally directed by Brian G Hutton, and achieved success and cash . Hutton started his career with little and prestigious films , such as ¨Wild seed¨ and ¨The Pad¨. There after, he veered off into big budgeted and all-star movies, proving which he could handle big scale production, as ¨Where the eagles dare¨, one of the best from Alistair McLean, and of course ¨Kelly's heroes¨ in which added humor to the warlike action. His next picture was ¨High road to China¨ marked a partial return with panache to his previous form but faltered at the Box-office, in spite of being quite amusing and with occasional touch of directorial skill. Rating : Above average , for that reason is a must for adventures buffs.

Intended to be a satire, ended like propaganda

[rainfall · 4/10 · 15 February 2008]

It's really pretty scary film. It is about few brave American soldiers, who represent all possible mainstream macho and caper gangsters clichés, but at the same time all are absolutely positive. And the film is positive, too. I don't know, maybe it is true that Eastwood and Hutton weren't let to make the film they wanted, maybe some parts didn't survive under producers (read - censors) heavy scissors, but is very wrong that Kelly's Heroes is seen like a positive movie in the end. Released the same year with Catch-22 and MASH, it looks like a real propaganda. People are living American way of life (cinematic one at least), they don't care whom do they have war with, but at the same time we see people around celebrating. It's a real holiday of happy life, Americans came! And Americans are happy, too, and even this survived nazi is happy. Indeed, who cares about the war, when you have the money. And how about that phrase Big Joe says to German about the stupid war, and that he doesn't know whom and what for are they fighting... says after Kelly's Heroes have killed around 50 Germans themselves. In the end it is a light western mixed with some war action. Doesn't even smell as a satire. And it's not about war for God's sake. I don't know how can this film be named as one of the greatest war movies.

Classic comedy; realistic characters, believable props/scenery.

[eaglejet98 · 28 November 2003]

Kelly's Heroes does not try to trivialize war. It portrays a comedy within the boundaries of war's absurdity. (Quite frankly, I did not like the film MASH because I felt it did try to trivialize war).

What makes Kelly's Heroes a success is that the director never forgot that the point of comedy is to make us laugh. There's no message here; just pure entertainment.

The film is believable because it stretches, but never steps over, the line of plausibility. The story is preposterous, but in the confusion of war we can believe something like this could happen. Those who have served in the military have all met characters like the ones in Kelly's platoon, even Oddball. Yes, Donald Sutherland was clearly cast out of time, from the 60s, but he somehow personified the rebel in all of us, and that spans generations. If anything, Oddball subliminally told us it was okay to view the film from our vantage point of 1970. His character worked. And so did all the others.

On top of that, the filmmaker spent the extra time and expense to insure reasonable technical accuracy. The uniforms were authentic and I was most impressed by the fact that the vehicles and equipment, for both sides, were accurate. (My biggest gripe about 'Patton' was that it used M-41 tanks for both sides, just painted differently).

The structure of the film is excellent. We believe everything is real. The early scene where the platoon is sitting on the side of the road while a seemingly endless convoy of Sherman tanks passes is a perfect example. There may have only been a few tanks but the way they were looped about continuously gave the impression of 'a cast of thousands'. The Yugoslavian backdrop was reflective of WWII Europe.

Watch this film a few times and you'll catch the slight nuances not normally found the first time through. It's classic how seemingly unimportant early events or dialog enhance the humor of later scenes. For example, when Oddball first shows Kelly his tanks he says they have loud speakers to calm their nerves and paint in their shells to scare the Germans. Early Sherman tanks had a low velocity shell that was ineffective against German armor. Later we roar when Kelly catches a Tiger from its vulnerable rear, but Oddball forgets to fire an anti-tank round and instead splatters it with pink paint! The railroad yard attack scene, (which is superbly choreographed, and tactically accurate) becomes absolutely riotous when Oddball's crew plays 'I've been working on the Railroad' after destroying the place and rumbling away.

Don Rickles should have won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his portrayal of Crapgame. He congeals all the other elements and characters in the film.

The parody scene of 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly' is superb. Like Oddball, its being out of time somehow enhances its own effect.

I read somewhere that Clint Eastwood was a bit disappointed with this film because he was not allowed to give it one more edit before its release. I don't know how on earth he could have improved on it.

One Of The Best

[Mr Blue-4 · 9/10 · 5 September 2005]

I've grown up with this film, thanks to all the times CBS used to run it, and cable channels since then. I never tire of it. A near perfect combination of action and comedy. The film's wisecracking is not only appropriate to the subject matter but to the environment the film found itself made and released in (the height of the Vietnam War).

The turmoil of the Vietnam era casts a shadow on the film, yet at the same time it stands on its own, very much timeless in a way. The one exception being Donald Sutherland's Oddball character, who remains one of the best things about this 1945-era film while his presence screams Woodstock.

Watching it today, it points out a tremendous flaw in TODAY's Hollywood. The casting. "Kelly's Heroes" is rich with character actors, who are not only able in firing off lines at each other (Rickles and Savalas particularly) but also in holding the screen in saying nothing. I think every fan of the film knows exactly what I mean and would agree with me that the mentality guiding the production of films today is simply horrific.

I think this is one of the best movies ever made.

[babafrby · 10/10 · 22 November 2001]

This movie has top notch entertainment with virtually no cursing and excess violence (a nice alternative to today's production standards).

Clint Eastwood and Donald Southerland are at their best, the story line and writing are excellent!

I watch this movie often - if perchance you have never seen this movie, rent it today. Enjoy!

From Zeroes to Heroes

[dunmore_ego · 7/10 · 2 March 2006]

It is World War II. A small troop of American soldiers surrounds the German-occupied French village of Claremont, closing in slowly over the rooftops and through the ruins. Thirty miles behind enemy lines, isolated from their own army, one Sherman tank their only armored support against three superior German Tiger tanks, they're not here to fight a battle.

They're here to rob a bank.

With characters like Pvt. "Barbara," Pvt. "Cowboy," "Little Joe" (jumpy Stuart Margolin), "Crapgame" (whining Don Rickles), "Big Joe" (rough-hewn Telly Savalas), "Pvt. Willard" (Harry Dean Stanton, actually looking young - well, young-ISH), "Oddball" (a mind-expanded Donald Sutherland) and the unruffled, smooth operator, Kelly (Clint Eastwood, gliding through this movie like a Private With No Name), *Kelly's Heroes* invented the word "ragtag." Up against these guys, American troops in previous films portrayed as impertinent insubordinates looked like altar boys.

These misfits learn of a cache of 14,000 German gold bars behind enemy lines and – led by Pvt. Kelly - take a detour from their futile war effort to heist it. Kinda like *The Dirty Dozen* without the meticulous planning. One: down to the road block we've just begun. Two: the guards are through. Three: we're ALL on a spree!...

Released smack in the midst of the Viet Nam war (1970), the film's coterie of quirky characters more readily reflects that era's disheveled anti-establishmentarians, rather than the somewhat grittier G.I.'s of the actual Second World War. Which accounts for Oddball's hippie commune of actual "flower children" – a species that did not yet exist at the time of this movie's supposed period.

Chief crewman of Oddball's cadre of three Sherman tanks is Moriarty (engine-oiled Gavin MacLeod, long before he captained The Love Boat, here piloting The Love *Tank*), incessantly being accused and mispronounced by Oddball, "Always with the negative waves, Moriaritty! Always with the negative waves!" In their quest to pull off the perfect crime, with an actual pot of gold (worth 16 million dollars) at journey's end, Kelly's "heroes" inadvertently win battle after battle, carving a swathe of allied territory straight through the heart of German occupation – to the chagrin and delight of General Colt (frenetic Carroll O'Connor), who believes these troops are ploughing patriotically through enemy lines despite the hesitance of their commanders.

Languidly directed by Brian G. Hutton (who also directed the other Eastwood war movie of this era, *Where Eagles Dare*), this movie would have fared better – as a more entertaining diversion and as a better story - if it had concentrated on the aspects which *separated* it from other war movies of its day - the "heist" angle and the "comedy" - rather than adhering to war movie convention so perfunctorily: machine guns blaze away at every opportunity, mowing down Germans who couldn't hit the side of a barn, with carpet-bombing padding out large segments of screen time. Being a "war movie," Hutton obviously received a fat explosives budget - and by Jerry Bruckheimer he was going to use it! By the time they reach Claremont, Kelly's armada of companies has been whittled down to only his troop and Oddball's one remaining Sherman. Meanwhile, General Colt drives headlong to Claremont to meet up with Kelly's troop, not realizing that if he did, instead of handing out the medals he brings, he'd have to court-martial the lot of them.

After his troop disables two Tigers, Kelly must find a more subtle way to subvert the last remaining Tiger, dug in directly in front of the gold-laden bank.

And Sergio Leone comes to the rescue! In a scene directly spoofing one of Clint's own *Dollar* standoffs, he faces down - across an expanse of dusty street - a Tiger tank. Joined by Sutherland and Savalas, and accompanied by Lalo Schifrin's score emulating one of Ennio Morricone's evocative passages (i.e. close your eyes and you're back in *For A Few Dollars More*), they grimly (yet almost smirking for the audacity of the in-joke) stalk towards the tank, whose occupants silently regard this display of bravado - or temporary insanity. All that's missing are the spurs and ponchos.

From out of the tank steps the commander (Karl-Otto Alberty, oozing such searing Nazi authenticity it's a wonder he wasn't indicted for war-crimes after the film). Kelly's plan: like any good American entrepreneur – to Make A Deal. "All you have to do to have an equal share in this money is crank that turret around – and blow a hole in that door." Once again, though other movies may have united Germans and Americans in touching tableaux serving to illustrate the meaninglessness of war, this movie unites them in a decidedly Marxist twist - the proletariat partners in crime united against the capitalistic *bourgeoisie*.

Amidst the French celebrating in the street (thinking they have been liberated), with General Colt mistaken for de Gaulle by the revelers and mobbed before he can discover the decimated bank and American soldiers making off with its loot, Lalo Schifrin's and Mike Curb's strangely nostalgic and immortally memorable theme, *Burning Bridges*, plays out the credits, as Kelly's unlikely heroes load the last of the gold onto their truck and drive off – literally – into the sunset.

(Movie Maniacs, visit: www.poffysmoviemania.com)

A must see

[daniellawhead-880-969771 · 10/10 · 27 March 2019]

I love this movie. I watch it at least twice a year. Not the greatest movie ever made, but if you come accross this movie do not keep scrolling. Watch it! You will not regret it!

Really Weird But a Good Long Weird

[DKosty123 · 7/10 · 3 March 2007]

Even though the battle sequences in this movie are well done, you have to remember this is a real tung-in-cheek WW 2 film. Donald Sutherland & Don Rickles balance off with Clint Eastwood to create a unique type of war film. Carol O'Conner plays a General for laughs in this too. Telly Savalas is along too.

There were some major disagreements with how this film was shot & what wound up on the cutting room floor compared to what appears in the film. The disagreement was so vast that Eastwood decided after this film to start his own production company. It would be interesting if the cuts could be found & the film redone with them to see what Eastwood actually wanted in this film that was cut.

The story has to do with Kelly's Heroes finding out about a bank behind German Lines filled with Gold. They decide to go into the war business for themselves & start their own invasion behind German lines with the gold as their objective.

With characters like Oddball & Crapgame, the humor is there. For this type of film, it runs longer then you'd expect because of the elaborate Battle sequences. Those scenes are an indication that this film was shot to be something even more than it is. Just the same, it is quite entertaining.

Underrated WWII Adventure Comedy.

[AaronCapenBanner · 8/10 · 8 September 2013]

Clint Eastwood leads a fine cast of actors(including Donald Sutherland, Telly Savalas, Carroll o' Connor, Stuart Margolin, and Don Rickles) in this underrated World War II action comedy as Private Kelly(Eastwood) learns of a secret cache of gold bullion worth $16 Million dollars. Only trouble is, it is many miles behind enemy lines, but that doesn't deter Kelly, who gathers other members of his platoon to recover it, leading to a misunderstanding with a general(played by O'Connor) who thinks the men are incredibly brave and determined soldiers who want to defeat the enemy, and reclaim an occupied village! Hilarious and action packed comedy with an appealing assortment of "oddball" characters, and nice directorial(Brian G. Hutton) touches like a showdown with a tiger tank that lifts some memorable music cues from a certain classic western of Clint's...

Highly satisfying film may not always be credible, but is a lot of fun. Nice use of the song "Burning Bridges" in this neglected classic.

Great WW2 heist movie...

[paul_haakonsen · 7/10 · 6 March 2022]

Oddly enough, I think now in 2022 is actually the very first time I have ever sat down to watch the 1970 war movie "Kelly's Heroes". Yeah, I know, that just ain't right.

And boy had I been missing out on something. Writer Troy Kennedy-Martin and director Brian G. Hutton definitely managed to put together a very wholesome and enjoyable movie. And it was just downright difficult to fathom that this movie was already 52 years old. It was certainly a movie that had aged gracefully, because it was a highly enjoyable and watchable movie.

Aside from the good storyline, then "Kelly's Heroes" was made all the more enjoyable given the rather impressive cast ensemble that were in the movie. There were some pretty great names on the cast list, with the likes of Cline Eastwood, Telly Savalas, Don Rickles, Donald Sutherland, Harry Dean Stanton, Tom Troupe, Carroll O'Connor and more.

There was a great atmosphere in the movie, with the characters being rather interesting and realistic. Personally I didn't like Oddball at all, because his personality and way of behaving definitely didn't feel like something the American army would allow back in World War II. But Donald Sutherland definitely put on a good performance though.

"Kelly's Heroes" is a good mixture of war movie and heist movie, and that made for a very interesting and enjoyable combination. And it was one that writer Troy Kennedy-Martin managed to pull off quite nicely.

The costumes and props were good, the scenes were good, lots of realism and such to everything here. And it was great that the German soldiers actually spoke German.

If you haven't already seen "Kelly's Heroes", then you most certainly should do so, if you get the chance. I had been missing out on something grand here.

My rating of "Kelly's Heroes" lands on a seven out of ten stars.

Eleven Stars (11) if I could! :)

[gilligan1965 · 10/10 · 21 May 2015]

This is an absolutely fantastic movie with a star-studded cast at their best - and, with a wonderful soundtrack by Mike Curb, the king of biker movie music!

"Kelly's Heroes" has a great script with a lot of creative and funny lines; great expressions on the faces of the characters; great action; great ordnance of World War 2, like the American Sherman tanks (the Tiger 1s are good, too, but, they are actually Russian T-34 chassis with 'Tiger 1' look-alike upper bodies built upon them...but, who cares!); etc.

Besides Clint Eastwood, the cast is full of acting greats such as Carroll O'Connor; Donald Sutherland; Don Rickles; Telly Savalas; Gavin MacLeod; Harry Dean Stanton; Stuart Margolin; and, more.

I love the soundtrack. The song "Sunshine," sung by Hank Williams, Jr. and written by Mike Curb, is fabulous. "Burning Bridges" is also a great song...as are the rest.

This is such a great movie, in a class all of it's own! A World War 2 comedy/drama that actually works well and is believable in how servicemen interact...and, all is directed by a plumber!?!?

Check that out! The same plumber also directed the classic "Where Eagles Dare," also with Clint Eastwood.

If you're a war buff and like to laugh, watch this movie.

RIP Brian G. Hutton, Telly Savalas, and, Carroll O'Connor.

True star power

[bowmanblue · 7/10 · 14 September 2017]

There are some films that need little introduction. 'Kelly's Heroes' is one of them. However, in today's Hollywood, movies about the Second World War are few and far between, so some may question the relevance of an ensemble piece set in the dying days of Nazi-occupied Europe. First of all, I'll probably stick my neck out and say that it's probably not that 'historically accurate' (or at least not to my knowledge!). By that, I don't mean that Allied forces are fighting zombies or abducted by vampires. From the little I know of the period, all the uniforms, military language and techniques look genuine enough to fool a layman like me. When I say it's not 'historically accurate' I mean that, whereas most films of this era concentrate (naturally) on the struggle between German and Allied forces, 'Kelly's Heroes' offers more of a 'crime caper' set during the conflict. If I could compare it to anything, I'd almost say it felt like an 'Ocean's Eleven' in the middle of World War II.

Clint Eastwood plays the titular 'Kelly' – a war-weary soldier who's had enough of potentially dying any day without anything to show for it personally. So, when he learns of a bank full of gold behind enemy lines, he puts together a group of equally ambitious troops all willing to risk their lives for a slice of the bullion. As I mentioned, it's a bit of an ensemble cast, the two most notable additions are Telly Savalas and Donald Sutherland, both who vie for position of the cast member who's trying to steal every scene they're in. However, just because the film is largely about the quest to blow open a bank vault, doesn't mean that it's not a war film. The setting alone means that our 'heroes' come up against all the perils associated with the period and there are some pretty impressive set-pieces when it comes to the action.

I think the best thing about 'Kelly's Heroes' is that it has a pretty broad appeal. Obviously fans of war films will enjoy it, but you have the added bonus of having Clint Eastwood in the lead (and in his prime, no less) supported by some amazing acting talent. Then throw in the action element and the engaging crime plot and you're really going to invest your time into caring whether these (not so heroic) heroes get the gold or not. Don't be put off by its age. It's as good – and more importantly fun – today as it ever was. I will never grow tired from watching a tank freak out the opposing forces by playing music loudly as it comes into battle!

I guess I did not see the same film as the rest of you...

[Anscules · 1/10 · 25 September 2005]

Lead-footed, preposterous video-game action before there was such a thing. There is not a funny line in the whole film, though they are trying (very hard) to amuse. The disjointed nature of the film, featuring bullet-sponge Nazis and wacky comedy, but also US Army joes getting suddenly blown up with land mines. Screwed up fire missions with friendly fire falling on US troops is treated as utter wackiness; the film was made during Viet-Nam, when similar situations plagued our real army. I found this film to be incredibly insulting, which is the main reason I gave it the one-star rating. A film has to anger me to do that.

Endless noise and over-long, childish action sequences run constantly throughout the film. The film itself has no excuse being 144 minutes; I felt myself aging in its presence.

But the final word has to be about the alleged "comedic" properties of this movie. It's one of those films that thinks volume and destruction are automatically funny. Everyone yells and pounds home the dead-on-arrival jokes with loudness, as if that alone will put some life into the writing. When Sutherland annihilates a Nazi train yard (with Nazis more inept at combat than Lucas' "battle" droids), he rides off in a tank down railroad tracks to the tune of "I've Been Working on the Railroad." If you think this is clever or funny, fine. It would have amused me in elementary school, but that's it.

In short, I hated this movie.