Kelly's Heroes is one of those movies that TCM seems to trot out a lot for the Memorial Day marathons or maybe on Veteran's Day. Since I hadn't done a post on it before, I recorded a showing some months back and finally got around to watching it. I have to admit that I didn't like it as much as most people seem to do.
Clint Eastwood plays Private Kelly, who's marching through France in the months after the D-Day invasion. The Nazis are losing but clearly haven't lost yet, and it's still dangerous for the troops near the front lines. In one operation, the platoon of which Kelly is a part, commanded by Capt. Maitland, captures a German officer. During the interrogation, Kelly learns that the Germans are holding a whole bunch of gold, worth some $15 million in 1944 dollars, in a town not too far away. The only thing is, the town is 30 miles behind the front line.
When Capt. Maitland goes to see Gen. Colt (Carroll O'Connor), Pvt. Kelly gets an idea. During the fog of war, he can lead a team to get that gold, enriching all of them personally. (Obviously he hadn't seen a movie like Charade or even The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.) However, he's going to need both men, and equipment, to carry out the operation. To get the materiel, he turns to a sergeant nicknamed "Crapgame" (Don Rickles). But learning about the operation is Sgt. Oddball (Donald Sutherland), who has been trying to sit out the war as much as possible by claiming that his men's tanks are all out of commission, such that they can't move anywhere. But for $15 in gold, his men will get enough of the tanks fixed to help with the operation.
Eventually, the operation gets under way, although it's not going to be easy and not just for the reason that the gold is behind enemy lines. The men need to get over a bridge, but regular US troops, not knowing about this secret and highly illegal operation, bomb the bridge. And even when they get to the town where the gold is being kept, it's going to be difficult to get it and get it out of town.
I think the problem I had with Kelly's Heroes is that none of the characters seemed remotely realistic. The movie was released in 1970s, and while it's ostensibly set in World War II, I couldn't help but get the feeling that the filmmakers, like those who made MASH the same year, were really making a statement about the Vietnam War. Where everybody else sees a riotously funny movie, I see one that's trying a bit too hard to be funny, to the point that it didn't really work for me.
But, of course, everybody else finds it funny, so maybe you will too if you watch it.
No comments:
Post a Comment