The director, Brian G Hutton quit directing not long after this. He said "too much hassle, too much bullshit, too much lying, too much cheating, too much screwing. Thank god I'm out of the movie industry"
I like Clint Eastwood's reaction to the louder rounds (put in by the sound crew for better foley) of blanks put into the Thompson M1A1. he was temporarily freaked out.
"Damn lousy equipment. Now I got to lift up this cannon. Carry it all the way to the front line some place. The damn thing is heavier than Kelsey's burgers!"
I knew I recognized the music...well done, Tarantino...this film has always been highly underrated. Also...Don Rickles firing a .50 caliber...priceless!
I have got this movie DVD of Clint Eastwood Telly Savalas and Donald Sutherland in Kelly's Heroes I am dedicating this movie DVD to my old school friends who are both sisters as I hope to see them both again very soon to Chris and Hester from Billyxxx
Some of the comments below crack me up. Was this film mean't to be an accurate WW2 depiction ? NO - no one who made it had that intent . Was this film a funny action movie? Oh YES.
Despite this film being a 10/10 in my book it somehow resembled both the MASH TV show in the balance of drama and comedy as well as the look for video games and Saving Private Ryan. I even think I recognize some parts of a map from Medal of Honor: Frontline from some of these scenes.
They actually did an excellent job on the Tiger mock-ups for this movie. If they’d have added false inner road wheels it would have been very hard to tell.
I just found a sequens where the wheels are seen for a couple of seconds. The Tiger copies in "Night of the Generals" had 5 roadwheels, just like the T-34's. The Leopard 1's had 7 roadwheels.
The movie was made in Yugoslavia. These Tiger tanks were made for another movie if I am not mistaken. They were made onto T34 tanks. The Shermans in this movie were also from The Yugoslavian army. After W.W.2,that country had a mix of military hardware from all around the world it seems. Soviet made. United States made. Probably even British stuff.
US gave a ton of tanks to Russia. So did Britain. The Russians used them in large groups so the logistics were easier. I can see them placing those Shermans in "outlying" countries after the war, bringing home the best T-34 and other Russian made Tanks. Can't have "others" military equipment around the town in post-war Russia. Appearances and all that.
@Jan Natal the film was made in Yugoslavia. it's where they got the 'Tiger-34's" and the Shermans, along with most of the other equipment. it's probably all that was available.
if you go watch the Yugoslavian film "Bridge at Neretva" you'll see a lot of this same equipment. even the Sherman used by Oddball makes an appearance.
@@cuttlefischyou're wrong. The film location is a little village called Visinada, located in Istrian peninsula. Now in Croatia, at that time in Yugoslavia and till the end of WW II it was part of Italy. No ortodox churches there....
Yes, the Tigers are disguised T34's, just as the Tigers in "Saving private Ryan", "Band of Brothers", "Battle of Neretva", Night of the generals" and several other movies.
Funny you mention The Battle of Neretva. These are the same tanks from that film and had been made for it. Brian G. Hutton just used them. They weren't made for Kelly's Heroes.
Strange because i read that the Kelly’s Heroes production team recived unmodified T-34-85’s, also there is a big difference in the quality between the mockups used in this movie and the ones in Neretva.
Quite a lot of World War 2 equipment, both Allied and German, was still lying around in the country then. The countryside also looks very much like France as does the architecture of the villages, quite a number of which were still partly or wholly in ruins from the war. Yugoslavia was an ideal place to film that movie.
Great movie, a classic. But typical Hollywood where a few Americans shoot from the hip and mow down a battalion of Germans who mindlessly run into the open just to die grotesquely for the camera..
Bobby Ricigliano well what do ya hope? It is clearly a comedy Every war movie, no matter from which country, will always have their soldier look bad ass and the enemy are bunch of demon on earth
You probably already know this and just being sarcastic, but the film was made in Yugoslavia with a lot of the equipment being surplus Soviet gear. The Tigers are actually modified T-34s. Of course during the War it was also not unknown for troops on both sides to scavenge whatever gear they could find, with the occasional Eastern Front weapon making its way to the Western Front
The Yugoslav army never got Mosin Nagants. And they got very little other Soviet gear. In 1948 the US gave them a large amount of Thompsons, 105mm self-propelled howitzers, and other useful stuff. The basic rifle of the JNA was the AK47 made in Kragujevac, Serbia. The K98 was also in wide use. In the wars of the Yugoslav breakup I saw lots of Thompsons, which the guerillas regarded as the best combat weapon ever. There were also plenty of captured German weapons.
Edward Navoy its a mosin nagant and that scope is a soviet scope from the mosing nagant. Very strange because the only american bolt action rifle was the springfield but in the ww2 the m1 garand the m1a1 thompson the grease gun the bar the m1 carbine the m1 bazooka the 30cal the m1911 and the m1919 browing machine guns were the most used american infantry weapons.
What the heck. American soldiers died in tons and were completely unsuitable for fighting against GREAT GERMANY! The main role was played by Soviet soldiers, but only with little US support. Glory to the 2 brotherly peoples who died in the war.
clint: "I know what you're thinking, did I fire 29 shots or 30? to tell you the truth, in all this excitement.. i kinda lost count.. you have to ask yourself a question, do you feel lucky, kraut?"
Next two t34 chassis Tigers haha 0:43 The machine gun is also positioned incorrectly. When he shoots the main cannon, he generally does not move. And diesel smoke comes out of the exhaust.Tyger had an HL210 gasoline engine.
It doesn't really matter what it is, since he's clearly firing it down the street and nowhere near those men who are falling and tumbling about like circus acrobats.
So ein Film muss man auch mit Logistik betrachten und nicht nur wildes rumgeballerrei sondern auch ein paar Verluste bei den Amerikanern und nicht nur bei den deutschen
Are You quite sure?. In the "destroying Warshaw" segment? They even had T-34 type turret hatches. I can't find the scene now, but I remember that it was the first movie I saw, where I thought: "Those are disguised T-34's".
@hinausauto Probably coz there´s only one Tiger left in working condition, and getting a good mockup done is vastly expensive. But yeah, the iconic interspersed wheels and wide boxy layout made this tanks profile so iconic...it´s harsh seeing "bad" mockups because they look nothing like a Tiger.
These looked sufficiently like the real thing for the movie's purposes. Would you prefer they use M47 Pattons painted gray like in Battle of the Bulge?
@@williamhiers1280 No, I'd prefer they not use T-34s which are just too smol and have their turret in the wrong place... A M47 dressed up like a Tiger would probably fit the size better. But there would probably be other issues. Again, I said a good mock-up is vastly expensive so I understand why they do it this way, however, they could also not write into their script "and then they run into a TIGER TANK!" because of the cool factor...they could chose something more reasonable or easier to get a working version off.
Not all that much. Basically, this was a caper film disguised as a war film and made as a comedy. It works brilliantly. MASH was the anti-Vietnam War film disguised as a comedy about the Korean War.
If someone explains the turret of the tiger was so far forward due to T-34 modification, how about Tiger (P)? I mean the tank was experimental of course but it can be possible.
Not sure what you're talking about, but these three tanks were fake Tigers (made out of plywood) built on surplus Yugoslavian T34 tanks. They were originally built for the film "Battle for Neretva" in 1969 and then used in 1970 for THIS movie.
Actually no it isn't. The movie armorers in Yugoslavia couldn't get a BAR, so they used a Polish WZ28 light machine gun to stand in for an American BAR.
Well, I'll not argue at this time, because I haven't found a clear enough film to see the wheels and other details. I just have a very clear memory that I immediately thought: "Those are disguised T-34's", when I saw the movie at a theater. Those scenes were actually filmed in Poland, or at least an Eastern Europe country. The armoured car that is attacked by partisans from a window is a Russian model. And Yes, the "Panters" are M-24's, just as those in "Is Paris Burning?"
Not Chaffees but the 'upgraded' Walker Bulldog, with added side skirts and a 'muzzle brake' to resemble the German style ones. The one thing I picked up in 'Is Paris Burning' is that they were simply too lightweight to move like proper panthers but by golly they certainly looked the part.
My main complaint with this movie is that not a single one of them gets killed in this final melee. It would have made the ending more bittersweet in an epic sort of way.
the ending to a "war comedy" movie doesn't need to be bittersweet. Don Rickles' character was wounded, and two characters already died earlier in the movie. that's more than enough.
This was an ambush. Against prepared strength this American unit would have taken heavy casualties. But the Germans were not ready for an attack and Kelly managed to keep them disorganized. Despite that the remaining Tiger would have been bad news if they had not managed to negotiate.
But if there were 4 instead of 3 Tigers and if there were more than 30-40 infantry and they had heavy weapons like a Panzer Faust or a panzerschreck and or a flamethrower and some stick (potatoe masher) grenades. Or if there were more German soldiers inside the bank?!?
Dutch army Leopard 1s, no less. The local kids (it was filmed in Deventer) all got the day off school to watch the filming and the highlight for them was the Dutch tank driving over the bridge.
