Format: DVD from Northern Illinois University Founders Memorial Library on laptop.
The lovely people who make and compile The List ever year have made a deal with the Sundance Channel to start showing a film from The List every week. It’s a great idea—one that probably should have happened years ago. They opened the series with The Dirty Dozen, a film that has appeared in none of the volumes. Since the word is that the 10th edition will involve a good 50 new films, it’s a pretty safe bet that one of those new films will be this one.
So let’s talk for a minute about the career of the great Lee Marvin. If you want to talk cinematic tough guys, Marvin gets my vote as the man on the top of the pyramid. The guy’s entire career was carved out of mahogany and fastened into place with brass rivets. No one was a bigger movie badass than Lee Marvin, and while there are a number of films I could cite as proof (Point Blank comes to mind), The Dirty Dozen will handle this task nicely. I’m of the opinion that the bulk of great World War II films are prison films or prison-related films, and once again, this could be exhibit A.
