The movie is a classic war movie that was made in the 1960s. Going to war as a Suicide Squad is scary. As a War film, you may expect a regular band of soldiers. It's not fun to hang out or chill out with criminals. Set in 1944, any team of soldiers can be considered as a suicide squad because of the fact that they may not return. The only difference is The Dirty Dozen is very unpredictable. As a group of gangsters, racists, activists, mentally unstable people, murderers, misogynists, rapists and psychopaths, having them in your group can really haunt you.
The Dirty Dozen has a DC comics adaptation named "The Suicide Squad". There is also a similar 2016 movie named The Suicide Squad. The group contains super-villains who are psychos as well, but they have a fail safe unlike The Dirty Dozen. The Suicide Squad Super-Villains have a bomb implanted inside them, so that they can be killed by the officer if a mission goes south or the Super Villain doesn't follow protocol. The officers are usually cold hearted.
On the contrary to being scary, The Suicide Squad gives the movie a comic tone. For example, there is a scene where The Dirty Dozen infiltrates the team of Colonel Breed ("Robert Ryan") under the orders of Major John Reisman("Lee Marvin"). Reisman asks the criminal Pinkley("Donald Sutherland") to act as a General and give small orders to Breed's unit. Quite the prankster he was, and it was a funny scene. All the training sessions with Colonel Breed were pretty funny.
Lee Marvin plays a bold and defiant character pretty well. Major John Reisman is always under scrutiny by the members of his team, his superior officer General Worden, and Colonel Breed. He tries to pick fights with Colonel Breed. He lacks in discipline, unlike other army officers. He soon wins over the confidence of his team. In fact, he defends his team in front of the General when his mission, which is named "Project Amnesty", was asked to be terminated. He says his team can prove themselves. He is proud of his team more than any team in the army, and formulates a plan.
The movie is primarily an action thriller. Major John Reisman handpicks a bizzare group of twelve criminals. The criminals are trained into becoming a functional commando unit and are then sent into battle against the Nazis. Reisman is offered the job by his superior officer, General Worden("Ernest Borgnine"), to lead the Suicide Squad inside Nazi Occupied France. Or rather, Reisman volunteers to do it. Reisman has to select twelve prisoners who are either sentenced to death, is under long time imprisonment, or long time hard labor. Then he has to train them and lead them on this mission. The mission Project Amnesty has no military value. Reisman has to develop a plan to do it, after he is asked to train his team.
On the path to training, Major Reisman and the criminals have to overcome many obstacles. John Reisman initially tries to communicate with the criminals by being very strict, but fails. The major tries to sell them the idea of Project Amnesty in exchange for a sentence remission. He ultimately finds out that getting the criminals together would be the best solution. John Reisman tries to give the criminals any incentive that would bring them together as a team. When all the criminals resist when they are asked to shave, especially Franko("John Cassavetes"), John Reisman allows them to stay unshaven and calls them The Dirty Dozen. Eventually the criminals team up.
To get into the Nazi chateau in France, the group were asked to recite a rhyming chant of sixteen lines on a repeated cycle. Twelve lines of the Sixteen would imply a step along the way, so it would be easy for them to remember what they were doing. They kept doing it until they started to parachute. They were going to be dropped by a parachute to a heavily fortified chateau. They were planning to kill every Nazi there. If they do lose their own people, don't think but move on with the mission. They didn't have time to think about that. They had to finish the mission.
The part where they sneaked inside disguised as Nazis was really great. Major Reisman and Wladislaw("Charles Bronson") were the ones who sneaked inside. Wladislaw could also speak german, so that was a bonus. Soon the others sneaked in with their help. Everything was going exactly as planned, until the misogynist Maggott("Telly Savalas") decided to no longer follow the mission and bring Judgement Day by alerting the Nazis. The Nazis hid in the bomb shelter, while the entire group had to escape. Before escaping, they made sure the entire section would be bombed. The mission was succesful, but only one of the Dirty Dozen make it, along with the major and a sergeant from his team, Bowren ("Richard Jaeckel").
The comic tone of Project Amnesty is the prime reason for the movie's success. It is based on a real life story, which is surprising. It is very interesting, especially after what the team has been trained. But apart from that, most of the characters in The Suicide Squad don't fit the bill for a soldier, even if it is based on a real life story. Their training is barely shown. Instead, either months of time being passed is mentioned, or the rhyming chant is sung. Apart from that, the only thing shown are the funny training exercises with Colonel Breed.
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