Brian G. Hutton
13 connections found
View:
Connections, in both directions
The Suicide Squad (2021)
Directed by James Gunn
influenced by Where Eagles Dare (1968), Kelly's Heroes (1970)
Plot Visuals Themes
Indeed, Gunn homages the narrative structure of numerous “infiltrate and escape” ‘60s blockbusters, with The Dirty Dozen (1967) and Where Eagles Dare (1968) being the biggest touchstones.
Gunn takes inspiration for the film’s style from The Dirty Dozen and Kelly’s Heroes , Where Eagles Dare , and Platoon .
Cinematically, Gunn draws on all the gritty men-on-a-mission war movies of his childhood ( The Dirty Dozen , The Guns of Navarone , Where Eagles Dare ).
Gunn takes inspiration for the film’s style from The Dirty Dozen and Kelly’s Heroes , Where Eagles Dare , and Platoon .
Director James Gunn also cites early influences like the war films “The Dirty Dozen” and “Kelly’s Heroes” as the impetus not just for the story, but the style of film he sought to make which is gritty and real.
Influenced by movies like “The Dirty Dozen” and “Kelly’s Heroes,” Gunn achieves his goal of presenting a gritty, exciting, and damned funny cinematic experience.
The Lodge has echoes of gothic-horror drawn from a surfeit of films like The Innocents (1961), The Nightcomers (1971), Night Watch (1973), Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte (1964), Images (1972), The Others (2001), and The Shining (1980) although these films work better as atmospheric clues to the story rather than outright references.
Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Directed by Quentin Tarantino
influenced by Kelly's Heroes (1970), Where Eagles Dare (1968)
Music Visuals Plot Themes
But, while QT fans are still waiting for a film that doesn’t rely so heavily on past movie references (the score lifts from Kelly’s Heroes, The Entity (!) and Cat People (!!)), this is assembled with too much class to be anything other than a success.
But this time around he mixes anti-establishment war films like “The Dirty Dozen” and “Kelly’s Heroes” with Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns to deliver a spaghetti war drama that rewrites history.
And this is without discussing the director’s encyclopaedic movie knowledge invoking Where Eagles Dare, The Dirty Dozen, To Be Or Not To Be, The Battle for Algiers, The Alamo, The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly, the original Italian war movie The Inglorious Bastards, and many more.
That's the first pillar of the script: a men-on-a-mission movie, like The Dirty Dozen, Where Eagles Dare or The Guns of Navarone, only with more shocking violence.
All Quiet on the Western Front ) the odd film out among countless movies that made viewers take delight in the wartime exploits of our fighting men ( The Dirty Dozen , The Guns of Navarone , Where Eagles Dare , and on and on and on).
The map leads to tens of millions in dollars in gold that Saddam Hussein stole from Kuwait, and the four guys who go after it are high on "Kelly's Heroes" bravado.
October 3, 1999 -- On the surface, "Three Kings" looks like a remake of "Kelly's Heroes" because the plot is about the same, but it is a curious mixture of cynicism and humanity.
On the surface "Three Kings" may look like a gulf war version of "Kelly's Heroes," but it's got a lot more in common with the movies "Catch-22" and "M*A*S*H."
But throughout the second half of the film, which started out as a Gulf War Kelly's Heroes, it devolves into a strange, semi-Shavian discussion and debate over our common humanity.
Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)
Directed by Christopher McQuarrie
influenced by Where Eagles Dare (1968)
Visuals
Fraser Taggart’s cinematography is impressive, seemingly paying homage to the kind of adventure movies they used to make in the sixties (like Where Eagles Dare and the early James Bonds), and the production design this time is remarkable.
Exactly the same honest claim was made by Richard Burton when explaining, if explanation was needed, why he was making Where Eagles Dare back in the 1960s.
What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
Directed by Jemaine Clement
influenced by Kelly's Heroes (1970)
Themes
Recurring regularly from the 1960s to today, comic ensembles became popular with help from mad combat films like The Dirty Dozen (1967), Kelly’s Heroes (1970), the goofy medical support featured in M.A.S.H. (1970) and later, “slob comedies” like Animal House (1978).
Although many commentators will no doubt immediately compare the new WW II epic "Fury" to Quentin Tarantino's brilliant "Inglourious Basterds," largely because both films star Brad Pitt as a heavily-scarred, drawling Army man leading his men in a quest to kill as many Nazis as possible, it is actually closer in tone to a straightforward and un-ironic guys-on-a-mission tale along the lines of " The Dirty Dozen " or "Where Eagles Dare," with a heavy dollop of gruesome bloodletting depicting the true horrors of armed conflict that have been de rigueur for the war movie genre in the wake of " Saving Private Ryan ."
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Directed by Gareth Edwards
influenced by Where Eagles Dare (1968)
Plot
But it could also be a classic WWII-style action-adventure, derivative of past classics like The Dirty Dozen or Where Eagles Dare.
Modeled after WWII movies like The Dirty Dozen and Where Eagles Dare , the film sends a bunch of scruffy expendables on a suicide mission and aims for a harder, more violent edge than other entries in this family-friendly franchise.
Conceived, co-scripted and directed by Jonathan Mostow, who first captured attention with his 1997 thriller "Breakdown," "U-571" aspires to the level of such popular ¹60s-era World War II "mission" films as "Where Eagles Dare" and "The Dirty Dozen."
Peninsula still holds a number of pleasures; the thrust of the plotting involves desperate mercenaries performing a heist inside a warzone (in the early scenes it briefly appeared like this was going to be a Kelly’s Heroes take on the zombie movie, which is all I’ll be thinking about for a few weeks now), as well as a zombie sport/gladiator coliseum that looks like it could belong in a Mad Max or Conan the Barbarian movie.
Admittedly, there is one point when The Outpost threatens to dip into Kelly’s Heroes-like cliché: It’s the moment when Eastwood’s sergeant, seeing all is nearly lost, grits his teeth, Dirty Harry-like, and seethes “Not today!” — at which point he becomes a one-man fighting machine, rallying his comrades to follow him to inevitable bloody victory.
Companion viewing: “The Dirty Dozen,” “Kelly’s Heroes,” “Inglorious Basterds,” "Live Free and Die Hard"…