The Devil's Brigade
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Movie Reviews of The Devil's Brigade
Movie Review: Mediocre WW 2 drama
Summary: 3 Stars
"The Devil's Brigade" was a transparent rip off of the classic film "The Dirty Dozen" and paled by comparison. The plots were similar in that a group of miscreants had to be whipped into an effective fighting force. As is typical for these types of films there was an impressive cast lead by a disappointing and seemingly uninspired William Holden playing Col. Robert Frederick. Holden, terrific in countless other war flicks was off his mark in this one.
Holden had to mold a combination of crack Canadian troops lead by spit and polish Maj. Crown played by Cliff Robertson and a rag tag bunch of Americans lead by Maj. Bricker played by cigar chomping Vince Edwards. The parallels between this flick and Dirty Dozen were all too familiar as the troops, initially at odds with each other banded together to form a cohesive fighting unit.
As in DD, the higher ups had doubts about the fitness of Holden's guys, as evidenced by the doubts of Genl. Hunter played by Carroll O'Connor. However he was overruled by Lt. Gen'l Clark played by an aged Michael Rennie who commisssioned the Devil's Brigade to storm a heavily fortified Italian mountaintop position.
The saving grace of the film was the impressive array of character actors lead by Claude Akins as Pvt. Rocky Rockwell and Jack Watson as Canadian Cpl. Peacock, among others.
Movie Review: Strictly Average DVD
Summary: 3 Stars
This DVD is of strictly average -- maybe even below average -- quality. Video quality is superb, better than the lastest VHS edition for sure and an improvement on the TCM widescreen prints. The audio is 2.0 Mono but probably the best 2.0 mono I've heard. They haven't gone back and restored the audio track to make the gunfire sound clearer or anything like that but the sound does sound better than it did on video and TV. The Spanish sound track is a bit muffled (as always on these older movies) but sounds all right.
Special features aren't too "special". There's a cleaned up theatrical trailer (which has Richard Jaeckel screaming in pain when he falls from the cliff, that's not in the movie) 16 chapter selections, subtitles in English, French and Spanish and as I said the Spanish audio track.
There is no deleted footage, no production notes, no typical MGM booklet, and no feature about the real Devil's Brigade. All of that would have been interesting and improved the quality of this DVD. But, as it is, the transfer of the actual movie is very good and the DVD is worth say ten dollars just for the movie.
As for the movie, you can read all about on the IMDb. I give it 3/stars out of five; the characters were cardboard the could all have been better. That sequence with the brigade capturing 200 Germans in the village was also corny as ever.
Movie Review: Devil's Brigade a Waste
Summary: 3 Stars
I always thought this movie a bit corny. The macho, kid stuff humor and rivalry between the Canadians and mis-fit Americans seems contrieved. This was made when the movies loved to show how a group of reject GIs could somehow beat the Wehrmacht! I question how accurate this movie is, despite all the praise for it from veterans who should know better! The scene where they infiltrate the Germans and capture them is completely foolish. I'd like to see how this bunch would have stood up to a panzergrandier battalion in a fair fight. The finale mountain battle scene is an attempt to make a big play for these guys. Personally I think the battle lacks something, although at least it shows these losers taking some casualties which should have been a lot more than they show in the movie. Also, German equipment is American, always visually distracting. You would think a post war movie like this would have had access to better stuff. William Holden does a gallent job holding this flimsy epic together with his tough commander bit, but personally I think there are better old WW2 battle flicks out there than this. I use to look at this one on TV strictly out of boredum if there was nothing better on. I wouldn't waste my money bothering to own it.Movie Review: Don't Waste Your Time
Summary: 2 Stars
Easily one of the most forgettable Dirty Dozen style type of movies, The Devil's Brigade doesn't even deserve to be mentioned as a Dirty Dozen rip off. This may be based on something real, but let's not take the more realistic does not something better notion here. The Dirty Dozen is a ton better, as well as other films like Kelly's Heroes. The movie may sound like a good find, but that's what I thought. I should have just stopped watching, but I did, and I don't think I was excited once. The Devil's Brigade is a total waste of time and space.
The first seventy minutes dread by with not a single interesting point in the whole thing, with cliched characters, dull dialogue, and uninteresting situations and typical cliched things you've seen done better past and and future. There's not a minute where I was interested in what happens to these characters, they just sit around and talk about ham handed issues regarding racism and what's it like to be in the war. William Holden is absolutely wasted as none of the characters or actors put any acting ability into their roles, they are nothing but bland cardboard cut outs. It's badly acted and slow as molasses, and as soon the scenes are over, you won't even care and just hope that you get to see blown up.
Right? Oh wait, who am I kidding. Once you get past the mindless seventy minutes and finally do get to that mission, you're treated to nothing remotely interesting in terms of action. The Devil's Brigade combat scenes have certainly aged badly, It's dated, tinny, and is not at all convincing in any way. IT's done fairly blase and unmemorable. While other films such as Where Eagles Dare transceded some of their dated production values with creatively, The Devil's Brigade can't claim such a thing. You won't be waiting in awe or wonder, all you'll be diong is checking your watch hoping the damn movie would end. It's that below average and bland. Not a good thing, but at least you'll know to tell your friends this film is a complete joke.
Take my word for it, you'll be wasting your time because this movie doesn't tread anywhere, and you'll immediately forget what you saw after sitting through this overlong movie. If you want a WW2 action war film that's fun and memorable, The Dirty Dozen, Kelly's Heroes, and Where Eagles Dare easily trounce it. And while it may be unfair to recommend it over this, it's safe to say Inglourious Basterds is another choice that floors this one. Either way, don't bother with The Devil's Brigade.
Movie Review: Surprisingly flat "action" flick
Summary: 2 Stars
I wasn't expecting a lot from this movie - but I thought "what the heck, an action movie from the guy who made Chisum and The Wild Geese can't be all that bad." But no. The battle scene (and yes, there's only one battle in the whole movie), when it finally does come in the last twenty minutes of so of this two plus hour movie, is surpisingly dull. The photos I'd seen of extras flying through the air are nowhere to be seen. What you get are too many long-shots of small figures scuttling around amidst too much smoke and dust (which makes it difficult to figure pout who is where and doing what). Now and again we'll go in for a close-up in time to see one of the main actors get killed, but before you know it the Germans have surrendered and William Holden is blahing on about losing too many men (a fact which isn't apparent on the screen). You're probably thinking I'm focussing too much on the action - that there should be more to a movie than this. But let's face it - The Devils Brigade is designed to be an action movie (the characters are all one dimensional and the dialogue between the fueding Canadians and American's is pretty trite stuff, and that, folks, is essentially the plot), so on that level it has to be considered a failure.