Kelly's Heroes -

Kelly's Heroes
Dr by Brian G. Hutton
Clint Eastwood, Telly Savalas, Donald Sutherland and Don Rickles
Running time 138 mins

The DVD is part of the Clint Eastwood Collection and unfortunately it's a vanilla release with just a trailer and scene access listed under special features.

The transfer is fine, though and the 5.1 soundtrack certainly packs a punch especially in the battle scenes.

Eastwood plays his usual laconic self as an American GI who stumbles upon the whereabouts of over $16 million in gold bullion. The problem is that the gold is situated in a bank behind enemy lines.

Eastwood goes about building a team for the unofficial mission behind enemy lines. Donald Sutherland steals every scene he's in as WWII'S only hippie, Oddball - blasting rock music from huge speakers in his Sherman tanks as he goes into battle and Telly Savalas is on hand to claim any scenes Sutherland missed out on.

It's a comedy of sorts but it doesn't trivialize the true nature of war and some of the battle scenes are harrowing and bite to the bone.

The film was designed to be a vehicle for Eastwood after the success of Where Eagles Dare and indeed the same director is on board, but although cinema's greatest living legend handles himself well, the film belongs to Savalas, Sutherland and an excellent Don Rickles as crap game.

A great movie.