15 Most Bad-Ass Teams In Movie History
2. The Dirty Dozen
The Dirty Dozen is almost the definitive 'men on a mission' movie, and easily one of the best. The bare-bones plot sees Lee Marvin forced to recruit a group of ex-military convicts to launch what is essentially a suicide mission in Nazi-occupied France, based on the reasoning that no serving soldier in their right mind would volunteer.
The narrative boils down to three simple yet effective stages, which follow the genre archetypes down to a tee; the characters are introduced and developed, then they are trained for combat, and the climax is the big action scene as the Dirty Dozen attack the Nazi outpost. What elevates the movie above that simple description is the realistic, three-dimensional characters, great acting performances and some brilliant action sequences.
Of course, it helps that the movie boasts one of the most macho casts ever assembled; along with Lee Marvin as the man in charge, the dozen includes John Cassavetes, Jim Brown, Donald Sutherland, Telly Savalas and Charles Bronson, actors that were more than capable of convincing as hard-edged criminals looking for a fight.