Interesting enough, reading through the comments on this film, I noted only one detractor, some sorehead from Canada who completely missed the point of the film. No, Sr. Canadiense. This is not a serious film about WW2. Read some of the excellent commentaries here about the social and temporal context of this film, i.e., the height of the Vietnamese war. Yes, Sutherland, your fellow countryman, was an active anti-war protester and fully embraced the anachronistic hippie role. The mad-cap story which tweaks the nose of the "establishment," in this case, the military establishment, is plausible when you let go of the blood, guts and glory of the war film genre. And, it is a damn funny film. Eastwood is at his clenched jaw, cynical best; Savalas is great as the Sergeant big-guy; Carrol O'Conner is riotious as the general; Rickles is, well, Rickles. But, Sutherland steals the show. The scenes where they tanks come out blasting the Germans to the tune of twangy Country-Western music is hilarious. Sutherland's out-of-time-sync "...no negative vibes... hey, man...yeah, baby..." is side-splitting. The final confrontation scene between the three striding up to the German tank commander, with Sutherland loosening his side arm, ala Clint Eastwood in Fist full of Dollars is a riot. This film is full of funny stuff. And, you can see it again and again and find new business to laugh about. Buffs will delight at seeing Harry Dean Stanton in a pre-Repo Man role and Richard Davalos who played James Dean's doomed brother Aron in East of Eden. This is a great piece of satire that was overlooked, cast aside and has still survived to the delight of those of us who enjoy it again and again. But, hey, don't just take my word for it. Of the 30 or so commentaries here-- and do read them, as there are some excellent ones-- only one was a detractor.

An anachronism is something that does not belong in a given time period, as it really belongs sometime in the future. For example, if you see a viking film where the vikings all ride about on Skeedoos--that would be an anachronism. Or, if at the Battle of Gettysburg, the Confederates used nuclear weapons--again a major anachronism. Now this movie does not any mistakes THAT obvious, but it is filled with anachronisms--the sort that make history teachers like myself a bit crazy. While the film was very, very enjoyable, I just couldn't get past the character played by Donald Sutherland. I am sure many thought he was the best part of the film, but he also played a beatnik circa 1958 (or later) even though the film was set around 1944. When he and his men played loud music to announce their attack, it looked great in the film--but made absolutely no sense! And, for that matter, the American soldiers' general lack of patriotism is anachronistic--though the story IS based on a real robbery perpetrated by a few American and Germans. The problem is SO MANY soldiers in this film couldn't give a darn about the war or their country--and soldiers at that time were NOT like that--they would have been the rare exception. The attitudes towards war ARE typical, though, of many soldiers in Vietnam in 1970. So, the film takes contemporary sensibilities (and songs, for that matter) and pumps them into a WWII film. In many ways, this infusion of modern sensibilities into a war film is highly reminiscent of the film M*A*S*H--another film that people enjoyed, but really was filled with mistakes and Vietnam-era attitudes.

Now if you can ignore all that (and I could, but with great difficulty),the rest of the film is quite enjoyable though a bit too long. I like long movies, but this one seemed about 15 minutes longer than it should have been--reducing its impact. Still, on a mindless level, it's quite enjoyable and the film is packed full of familiar faces.

Kelly's Heroes is a film that puts forth the notion that with proper motivation, soldiers will perform all kinds of heroic deeds in battle. Of course I don't think that West Point or any of the other military academies had the kind of motivation that this film gives Clint Eastwood and the collection of GIs he assembles for a caper.

Clint Eastwood as Private Joe Kelly interrogates a captured German Colonel and learns of a stash of gold bullion in the town of Clermont which is behind enemy lines and a place that General Carroll O'Connor is anxious to capture. Sixteen million dollars in bullion and as proof Eastwood is given a bar of it as a sample by the inebriated Colonel.

As the war seems to be at a stall, Eastwood decides to grab the gold for himself and some trusted confederates. I don't think he thought this thing through, the problem of hiding it and fencing it assuming you capture it is not really discussed. And of course the stuff is behind the enemy lines.

But where O'Connor can't move, Eastwood finds a way because he's motivated. His crew also gets larger and larger and pretty soon there won't be enough to share.

Kelly's Heroes is an interesting war comedy/drama with a real twist for an ending that I won't even give a hint of. Director Brian Hutton assembled a nice cast of familiar and soon to be familiar names to support Clint. My favorite is Donald Sutherland as the Sherman tank commander nicknamed Oddball and it's an apt moniker. Sutherland is a hippie born 20 years too soon, but definitely a character who would have been appreciated by the film audiences of the Seventies.

Such favorites as Don Rickles and Telly Savalas and Stuart Margolin are all in on Eastwood's caper. This is one fun movie.

But an odd choice for a Memorial Day showing celebrating the fighting spirit of the American soldiers who died in battle on TCM.