DVDs in Review

Kelly’s Heroes (Brian G Hutton, 1970)

Title: Kelly’s Heroes (Brian G Hutton, 1970)

Release date: June 7 2010

Certificate: PG

Format: Blu-ray

RRP: £17.99

Rating: 5/5

Reviewed by Dave Lancaster

In ‘Kelly’s Heroes’, Eastwood does a rare thing, He lets his considerable screen presence as the definitive leading man take a back seat, allowing the other actors to steal the limelight. He did this most memorably in 1974 with Jeff Bridges in the greatly underrated ‘Thunderbolt and Lightfoot’, allowing Bridges to secure an Oscar nomination.

Here, he lets rising stars Donald Sutherland and Telly Savalas (who worked so well together in the similar war classic ‘The Dirty Dozen’) run wild, giving ‘Kelly’s Heroes’ a wonderful oddball edge fuelled by black comedy and also punctuated by solid action scenes.

Also helping out in the mix is director Brian G Hutton who helmed Eastwood’s other great war adventure ‘Where Eagles Dare’. That film also adopted paper thin characters working with plenty of twisting plot movements and spectacular stunts to justify its two-and-a-half-hour length. Both feels don’t feel overlong, nor do their characters feel underwritten.

‘Kelly’s Heroes’ is about a bunch of oddball army men (Sutherland’s character is even called ‘Oddball’) who stumble upon news of a massive haul of Nazi gold stashed across enemy lines. Ignoring the war raging all around them, the group (complete with a Sherman tank, of which Oddball slowly observes “A Sherman can give you a very nice... edge”) seek out the treasure at all costs, becoming increasingly ridiculous including a stand-off in a tank that adds a very tongue in cheek nod to Eastwood’s finale in ‘The Good, The Bad and The Ugly’. 

There’s a sense of bravado that belongs in a film from the 1930s and 40s; it feels like Errol Flynn is going to make a suave, swashbuckling entrance at any second.  But ‘Kelly’s Heroes’ still retains the punch of its era, coming off the back of Eastwood’s violent westerns and the gritty independent film movement, crossed with the big budget backing of a major studio. This film never feels empty. Nor does this lush Blu-ray transfer from Warner Brothers that looks so clear it’s hard to believe this was originally released 40 years ago.

This film is also available as part of Warner’s extensive DVD box set entitled ‘Clint Eastwood: 35 Films 35 Years’. which happens to be the largest single artist box set ever created for DVD. The extensive collection represents a perfect introduction to the prolific actor/director who rarely strayed from Warner Brothers, making it an almost complete filmography of the living legend. Titles included are:

1.    Where Eagles Dare (1968)
2.    Kelly's Heroes (1970)
3.    Dirty Harry (1971)
4.    Magnum Force (1973)
5.    The Enforcer (1976)
6.    The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)
7.    The Gauntlet (1977)
8.    Every Which Way But Loose (1978)
9.    Any Which Way You Can (1980)
10.    Bronco Billy (1980)
11.    Honkytonk Man (1982)
12.    Firefox (1982)
13.    Sudden Impact (1983)
14.    Tight Rope (1984)
15.    City Heat (1984)
16.    Pale Rider (1985)
17.    Heartbreak Ridge (1986)
18.    Bird (Director’s Cut) (1988)
19.    The Dead Pool (1988)
20.    Pink Cadillac (1989)
21.    The Rookie (1990)
22.    White Hunter Black Heart (1990)
23.    Unforgiven (1992)
24.    Perfect World (1993)
25.    The Bridges of Madison County (1995)
26.    Midnight In The Garden Of Good and Evil (Director’s Cut) (1997)
27.    Absolute Power (1997)
28.    True Crime (1999)
29.    Space Cowboys (2000)
30.    Blood Work (2002)
31.    Mystic River (2003)
32.    Flags of Our Fathers (2006)
33.    Letters From Iwo Jima (2006)
34.    Gran Torino (2009)
35.    Invictus (2010)