I've grown up with this film, thanks to all the times CBS used to run it, and cable channels since then. I never tire of it. A near perfect combination of action and comedy. The film's wisecracking is not only appropriate to the subject matter but to the environment the film found itself made and released in (the height of the Vietnam War).

The turmoil of the Vietnam era casts a shadow on the film, yet at the same time it stands on its own, very much timeless in a way. The one exception being Donald Sutherland's Oddball character, who remains one of the best things about this 1945-era film while his presence screams Woodstock.

Watching it today, it points out a tremendous flaw in TODAY's Hollywood. The casting. "Kelly's Heroes" is rich with character actors, who are not only able in firing off lines at each other (Rickles and Savalas particularly) but also in holding the screen in saying nothing. I think every fan of the film knows exactly what I mean and would agree with me that the mentality guiding the production of films today is simply horrific.

The story is in the funny-macho style of 'The Dirty Dozen', with more emphasis on the fun... The film is set during World War II in post-D-Day France... The plot is a simple one, guaranteeing the minimum of complexity and the maximum of action...

Private Kelly (Eastwood) abducts a German colonel and accidentally discovers the whereabouts of a fortune in gold...

Being less interested in winning the war than in a little self-enrichment, he decides to liberate the hoard privately...

Being unable to take on the Nazi war-machine single-handed, he sees himself obliged to recruit some fellow conspirators... So he takes Telly Savalas, the top skeptical sergeant who initially vetoes the move, but changes his mind when it becomes clear that he cannot stop his men from going; Don Rickles, the hustler who can easily provide any weapon; and Donald Sutherland, the bizarre leader of a Sherman-tank squad, whose life style consists of getting high on drugs and meditating to unorthodox music... Sutherland, in fact, very nearly steals the film in his role of a spaced-out tank commander...

Certain amusing touches stand out in this piece of satire: The blazing battle led by Oddball's tanks, complete with inspiring music; the very suspenseful climax that makes the audience tingle with the fear that the soldiers' plan may fail; the title song, 'Burning Bridges,' which perfectly fits the mood of the film; and the wonderful parody of 'The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly,' with Eastwood and his gangster force advancing on a German tank guarding the gold to the strains of Ennio Morricone's memorable score...

Carroll O'Connor plays the egotist happy general who sees the move as nothing more than a group of dedicated soldiers taking the war into their own hand...

What films like DESPERATE JOURNEY did for WWII audiences at the time of release, KELLY'S HEROES did for audiences in 1970 in showing the humor and banter of men in trying wartime circumstances determined to carry out a certain mission. Here the mission is the heist of gold behind enemy lines--something Kelly inadvertently finds out about before deciding that his troopers will carry out the scheme right under the noses of the Nazis.

It's all in fun, and some of it is even funnier considering that hippies didn't exist in the '40s so that the flavorsome performance of DONALD SUTHERLAND as Sgt. Oddball is really an anachronism. His quips are strictly from the '70s but his contribution is so full of laughs that it's easily forgiven in the spirit of enjoying a war story that doesn't take itself seriously in the first place.

All the men seem to be having a great time--including CLINT EASTWOOD, TELLY SAVALAS, CARROL O'CONNOR, DONALD SUTHERLAND, RICHARD DAVALOS, GAVIN MacLEOD, HARRY DEAN STANTON and DON RICKLES.

Summing up: Just the right brew for a lighter look at wartime escapades!