Kelly's Heroes (1970)
TOMATOMETER
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AUDIENCE SCORE
Critic Consensus: Kelly's Heroes subverts its World War II setting with pointed satirical commentary on modern military efforts, offering an entertaining hybrid of heist caper and battlefield action.
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Cast
as Pvt. Kelly
as MSgt. Big Joe
as SSgt. Crapgame
as Sgt. Oddball (tank commander)
as Gen. Colt
as Moriarty
as Maitland
as Little Joe
as Cowboy
as Gutowski
as Gutowski
as Petuko
as Job
as Fisher
as Babra
as Bellamy
as Willard
as Col. Dankhopf
as Mitchell
as Grace
as Penn
as Mulligan
as Jonesy
as German Lieutenant
as Turk
as German Tank Commander
as Booker
as French Mayor
as Supply Sergeant
as German Captain
as Guest
as Roach
as Bonsor
as American Lieutenant
as Roamer
as Old Man in Town
as Tank Commander
as Tank Commander
as Tank Commander
as German Lieutenant
Critic Reviews for Kelly's Heroes
All Critics (20) | Top Critics (3) | Fresh (16) | Rotten (4) | DVD (2)
An attempt to blend the war epic and the caper film that doesn't quite come off.
Nearly satirical in its overall effect, plot caroms between cliche dogface antics, detailed and gratuitous violence, caper melodramatics, and outrageous anachronism.
Interesting only in so far as it reveals Eastwood's nonchalant attitude to the blockbuster.
The action is flashy and intermittent, deliberately wallowing in a mire of revisionist grot, churned up vistas of European mud. Time has made it more intuitive and caustic a film, than its daft reputation might suggest.
A terrific guys-on-a-mission movie.
This humorous, lively, and entertaining picture could be described as a caper film set against a WW II backdrop.
Audience Reviews for Kelly's Heroes
A motley collection of American GIs hatch a scheme to steal $16 million in gold bullion from a bank behind the German lines. Very much a product of the wave of anti-Vietnam films of the time, Kelly's Heroes has more in common with the likes of Catch 22 and MASH (both released the same year) than your average gung ho WWII movie. Clint Eastwood at his prime heads up a brilliant cast of offbeat hustlers and crackpots including Telly Savalas as a hard nosed sergeant and the pick of them all, Donald Sutherland, as a hilariously anachronistic hippy tank commander who goes into battle bearing country & western and paint balls. The plot is a marriage of The Dirty Dozen and The Italian Job and is never afraid to chop and change genres; the war elements providing the action and pyrotechnics and the heist the quirky characters and comedy, all ending up in an amusing homage to Sergio Leone as Clint enters into a western showdown with a Tiger tank. It's a massive XY pleaser and as such its appeal may be lost on the female population but it was one of my favourites as a boy and has lost none of its appeal after all these years. Groovy, baby.
Super Reviewer
This military comedy about the hunt for millions of dollars in gold bars makes war look more like an adventure than an actual threat. Sure, people die and there is plenty of suspense, but the overall mood of the film is rather cheerful. That's mostly thanks to a motley cast, including tongue-tied Eastwood, grumpy Savalas and crazy Sutherland. Especially the final taking of the little town's bank is excellently filmed and pretty enthralling. A few stabs at the silliness of military ranks and command chains are also thrown into the mix. A very entertaining caper adventure with pretty impressive action scenes and a very lovable solution. It's particularly refreshing and are in WW2 films that a German opponent would listen to reason.
Super Reviewer
Kelly's Heroes is an overrated movie in my opinion. I like Donald Sutherland a lot and I hadn't seen a movie in which I didn't like him until now. His character is annoying and really ruined the movie for me. It wasn't just him though. I hated Don Rickles and Carroll O'Connor too. I didn't find this movie funny at all and it ran on way too long for what it was. I did really like the minefield scene though. It was the one part of the movie that was actually entertaining and gave me hope for the rest of the movie. One of the few Eastwood movies I didn't care for.
Super Reviewer
Kelly's Heroes Quotes
| Crap Game: | "Ya make a DEALLLL......." |
| Crap Game: | Ya make a DEAL! |
| Big Joe: | "What kind of a deal??"... |
| Big Joe: | What kind of a deal? |
| Crap Game: | "A DEAL DEAL....." |
| Crap Game: | A DEAL DEAL. |
| Oddball: | But for 1.6 million dollars, we could become heroes for three days. |
| Oddball: | Why don't you say something rightous or hopeful for a change? [to Moriarity] |
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