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Kelly's Heroes (1970) - Directed by Brian G. Hutton

"Sergeant, this bank's not gonna fall into the hands of the American army. It's gonna fall in our hands."



So, if you ask me what a good example of a guy movie would be, I'd have several answers. One of the best would be, "A Clint Eastwood World War II movie," so if you're proud of your testosterone you should check out Kelly's Heroes, a fun and action packed heist movie with tanks, guns and alcohol.

Kelly's Heroes is the satirical story of an ex-lieutenant who captures a Nazi transporting information pertaining to a treasure of 14,000 gold bars hidden in a bank behind enemy lines. Seeing a... golden opportunity, he gathers a large group of people to go AWOL and retrieve the treasure with the help of a drunken hippie who happens to have a bunch of tanks at his disposal. But soon, an army general finds out about their attacks on the Nazis, and despite not being aware of the gold, he decides to go there and share in heroic glory! So Kelly's group has to get to that bank behind enemy lines as quickly as possible.

I love war movies a lot, so I knew a movie like Kelly's Heroes would get my cinemaphilic taste buds in a good spot. The war action was phenomenal. There were more awesome explosions in this movie than all of Michael Bay's movies (damn) and it made for a wild time. Who hasn't wanted to see Clint Eastwood blowing up everything in sight? And the fact that some soldiers were accidentally blowing on top of each other added to the great peril and the comedic value.

That brings me to my next positive point: there was a subtle, satirical side which kept the energy of the movie going strong. Most of the characters had a slight oddball approach and seeing them accidentally blow up their own gear and drop bombs on each other thinking they're enemies felt so realistic because of that character behavior. And Donald Sutherland's performance as the hippie was amazing. That's GOT to be my favorite Donald Sutherland movie, and I think I'm going to keep the "negative energy" thing to tease fans of Kelly's Heroes. I know a guy who would love that kind of reference.

The movie had two problems. The first problem was that the cinematography wasn't really all that spectacular. It was completely standard and didn't fail to get the point across, which is most a positive. But there was nothing fancy about the movie, which kinda bugged me. The second problem is that Eastwood's role felt more standard. This was just Clint Eastwood playing another tough guy who didn't have any other sides to his character; it was essentially Clint Eastwood being Clint Eastwood and nothing more than that. Donald Sutherland and Don Rickles shined more than Eastwood of all people, so Kelly's Heroes really doesn't put Eastwood to the test.

Despite those problems, Kelly's Heroes is a lot of fun and perfect for guys. It's got a lot of action and explosions, and the subtle humor makes everything feel more realistic despite that sense of peril that bleeds from the war scenes. I wanted to like Eastwood's character Kelly more, but as far as war movies goes, this is one of the most "fun" I've ever seen. So if you've got the following two things in your life: testosterone and beer, watch Kelly's Heroes and tell me you didn't have a good time.