Kelly’s Heroes
Kelly’s Heroes is often compared to the Dirty Dozen. They are both anti-war movies, which might not be that odd seeing how they both came out during the Vietnam War and the audience wasn’t interested in heavy war movies. The plot is about the perfect crime, stealing from the enemy during war. The word gets around and soon Kelly has a whole platoon looking for the loot.
The film makers payed great attention to details, such as weapons, vehicle and uniforms. The events in the movie are fictional but due to the time spent on the small details the authenticity is actually rather high. Then you have a character like Oddball that is more of a anti-Vietnam hippie then a WWII tank commander — but because of the comic relief and satire it adds another level to the movie instead of making it silly.
Kelly’s Heroes has a great all-star cast, which really pays off. I can only imagine how bad this movie could have been if the actors hadn’t had the charisma and experience as this lot has. I especially love Donald Sutherland’s role as Oddball, probably Sutherland’s best performance ever. “Always with the negative waves Moriarty, always with the negative waves.”
Short info
Format: Movie
Year: 1970
Director:
Brian Hutton
Length: 144 min
Language: English
Country: USA, Yugoslavia
Campaign:
Events:
December 11th, 2009 at 9:06 pm
The authenticity is often commented on with Kelly’s Heroes. Who would expect a comedy to win out in this aspect over The Big Red One or some other ’serious’ war movies?
They made a good choice in picking Yugoslavia to film in. Use of their army and its Shermans, halftracks and German vehicle swag including converted T34/Tiger movie tanks. And the ability to destroy a old european looking town.
Rather than get irritated by oddball’s hippiness, I like to think of him as a decade ahead of his time with the beat generation. And Kelly, Big Joe and Crapgame thought he was loony too. However, he was a competent tank commander.
I haven’t just watched this film, I’ve studied it. I made a map of Clermont by drawing out the buildings. I’ve followed the paths of Kelly’s men and the tank and it all works. I did this to Play the Movie! Using NUTS! rules, I laid out all the stats for Kelly’s Heroes and made a campaign so you could game it: Mortared Town, Hilltop, Railroad, Minefield, Big Bridge and Clermont. The campaign is free and has lots of KH details.
http://www.gamestercrafter.com/kellys_heroes/
A nice blend of movie and game.