Simply Perfect

Great Film overall

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Nearly 20 years after the blockbuster success of "The Dirty Dozen," Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, and Richard Jaeckel re-teamed for a sequel, "The Dirty Dozen: Next Mission." While Borgnine and Jaeckel retain their dignity and acquit themselves reasonably well, Marvin seems bored and tired throughout; "show me the money" is written all over his face. But the lead is not the only casting problem with this lackluster followup. The original dirty dozen were a motley crew of psychopaths and criminals, embodied by such great character actors as John Cassavetes, Telly Savalas, and Donald Sutherland. The dirty dozen in "Next Mission" are well scrubbed, clean cut young guys, who look as though they were former boy scouts recruited from a male escort service. To suggest these choir boys had committed crimes worthy of hanging or life at hard labor is laughable.Mercifully, "Next Mission" is about an hour shorter than the classic original. The assignment this time is to assassinate a Nazi general, who is intent on killing Hitler. However, the reasoning for saving Der Fuhrer's life is never explained. The mission not only lacks justification, but also seems to lack any logical plan. The team lands at an airport inside Nazi controlled territory, calmly walks from the plane dressed in German uniforms, and boards a waiting bus. One of the team is an African-American, but that only seems to occur to anyone at the last minute, just before they deplane. If that is not howler enough, the team member who has only flown crop dusters suddenly becomes expert at flying a German war plane. Marvin tells the group they will not parachute, because they have not been trained and would be killed; later, the entire group parachutes safely in the dark. Michael Kane is credited with the "writing;" he should have sued to take his name off.Director Andrew V. McLaglen is a competent director of such TV westerns as "Gunsmoke," Have Gun will Travel," and "Rawhide;" occasionally, he turned out a decent movie as well: "Shenandoah," "McLintock," "The Undefeated." However, the script for "Next Mission" defeated McLaglen and his career was over six years later, not long after another misguided sequel, "Return from the River Kwai." "The Dirty Dozen: Next Mission" should be required viewing in film school, The Pitfalls of Making Sequels to Successful Films, 101. "Mission" is unnecessary, howlingly inept at times, and only tarnishes the image of Lee Marvin. Not surprisingly, none of the new dirty dozen became household names afterward; all involved should have passed on this mission and so should viewers.

Part II picks up a few months after the first(despite coming out 18 years later!) which has Lee Marvin returning as Major Reisman(older looking but still game) along with Ernest Borgnine and Richard Jaekel in their original roles. Reisman must once again recruit 12 condemned military prisoners, only this time, the group seems even less trustworthy than the first...Belated TV sequel tries to provide a seamless transition from the first film, and almost succeeds, but plot is uninspired, even silly(stop the assassination of Hitler? Unlikely in late World War II, but OK...) Works as well as it does by the good cast(Lee Marvin is still appealing, as are Borgnine and Jaeckel). Not bad at all, but hardly necessary! Still, there would be two more TV sequels, then a series.(Which I haven't seen).

The original The Dirty Dozen had Lee Marvin and his jail house crew on a mission that took place inside occupied France days before the D-Day invasion at Normandy. The mission this second trained dozen performs is a few months later.A few months in World War II time, but unfortunately 18 years for the returning cast members from the original cast, Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, and Richard Jaeckel. They've all aged considerably and sad to say it shows. Especially on Marvin. Due to health problems, Lee Marvin's cinema appearances were cut down considerably during the Eighties. Still Marvin's the same maverick Major Reisman as before. Not too much time is devoted to the training as in the original because that's where we got to know some of the dozen as individuals.The new group is a rather faceless and personalityless lot. None of them stand out in the way that John Cassavetes, Clint Walker, Donald Sutherland, or Telly Savalas did. Of course they were all killed so we couldn't bring them back. Just as well for the producers because those salaries in 1985 would have busted the budget.Still this talented group of players put over an extremely preposterous story back in 1967. This story is more preposterous and it doesn't have the talent to back it up and put it over.Would you believe that the army wants to assassinate S.S. General Sepp Dietrich because they think he might be looking to assassinate Hitler? I didn't think anyone would, I sure didn't. I'd really stick with the original here.

1944: Major Reisman (Lee Marvin) is in trouble again. Whilst out on a mission, he ordered his men to hijack a truck full of steaks and scotch that was on its way to a banquet for top Nazi officers. Facing years of hard labour in a military prison and dismissal from service, Reisman is reprieved by General Worden (Ernest Borgnine) to form another Dirty Dozen (made up of military prisoners on death row or facing long term imprisonment) to undertake another suicide mission. This time they must sneak into occupied France and hijack a train in order to assassinate a Nazi general because he is planning to kill Hitler.Nearly twenty years after the release of Robert Aldrich's classic war movie, THE DIRTY DOZEN (1967), came this preposterous made for TV sequel in which the plot bares no credibility what so ever. There's a ridiculous climatic sequence where Reisman and his men come within yards of Hitler himself and the Major has to persuade his man to shoot the general and not Hitler as he's tempted to do just that. In reality of course, they wouldn't have got within fifty yards of him and there is no suspense to be had here as we know that they wouldn't have shot Hitler anyway as this would have made the tale even more absurd than it already is. On the positive side, Lee Marvin is still fun to watch as the tough Major Reisman and he is reunited with Richard Jaeckal as Sgt Bowren and Ernest Borgnine as General Wordon who still offer good performances and there's some slick action sequences to enjoy before the absurd climatic showdown.Nevertheless, it was still unwise to have made this film but two sequels followed. They were: THE DIRTY DOZEN: THE DEADLY MISSION (1987) and THE DIRTY DOZEN: THE FATAL MISSION (1988), which brought back Telly Savalas whose character was killed off in the original, but this time he was back as the man training the men as one Major Wright.