Bullet Points: The Dirty Dozen: Next Mission

On a recent episode of the Bulletproof Podcast, I mentioned one of Lee Marvin’s last films was a TV movie sequel to The Dirty Dozen. Since I brought it up, I figured now is the perfect time to revisit The Dirty Dozen: The Next Mission.

• The Plot: Lee Marvin leads a dozen dirty convicts to assassinate a high ranking Nazi General. The Nazi General wants to kill Hitler, and the Allies are scared Germany will be stronger without Hitler in the picture. Of course, this is setting up a scene where our heroes will choose which evil to kill. The mission is impossible, will anyone survive?

• The Dirty: Joining Lee Marvin are a couple of familiar faces from the original. Ernest Borgnine returns as General Worden, and Richard Jaeckel reprises his role of MP Sergeant Clyde Bowren. We are only missing Charles Bronson. In Bronson’s place we get Ken Wahl from Wiseguy, Larry Wilcox from CHiPs, Gaven O’Herlihy and Ricco Ross from Death Wish 3 and Sonny Landham from Predator and 48 Hrs. The original has a few jobbers, and so does the sequel. With the runtime being around 90 minutes, there isn’t enough time to focus on all of the gang. I don’t know if it was done on purpose, but some of the characters reminded me of characters from the original. For example: Sonny Landham’s Sam Sixkiller reminded me of Charles Bronson and Ricco Ross’ Dregors reminded me of Jim Brown. You could also make a case for characters based on Telly Savalas, John Cassavetes and Clint Walker. In my opinion, the standouts in the sequel are Landham and Wilcox. 

• The Mission: We do have a cool training montage. What awesome action mission movie doesn’t? The Dozen are supposed to take over a train and kill a General. There’s even talk of the train having gold on it. Most of the Dozen are ready to commit mutiny, but Marvin tells them about the treasure, which motivates them to see the mission to the end. There’s also a high speed bus chase, a shootout with Lee Marvin “pretending” to be drunk and a race to the airplane. The Next Mission is a simple “Men on a Mission” movie. There isn’t a lot of deep thought like the original. I’ve written in the past on Letterboxd that The Dirty Dozen is an anti-war movie disguised as a macho shoot em’ up. We don’t go deep in the sequel. We just have some fun, while killing bad guys. I’m a huge Lee Marvin fan, and it is always a pleasure to watch him in action. It has been a long time since my last watch, but I feel very satisfied after my revisit. I wouldn’t hesitate recommending you watch, especially if you’re a huge Sonny Landham fan.

Bonus Bullet Points…

• Directed by: Andrew V. McLaglen, the director who brought us The Wild Geese and John Wayne’s Hellfighters. 
• If you ever: …wanted to see Ernest Borgnine cheat at golf, then The Next Mission might be the perfect movie for you.
• Piano playing: Have you ever see an epic gunfight, and in the middle of it, the good guys start playing the piano? If you answered no, then watch The Next Mission and your answer to my question will change.
• Favorite Quote: “Who’s Beethoven?” Said by Larry Wilcox.
• Even dirtier sequels: There’s two more sequels with Telly Savalas in the lead role: The Deadly Mission and The Fatal Mission. Of course, Telly doesn’t play Maggott, he plays a new character, Major Wright. If the readers of Bulletproof Action want it, I’ll give you reviews to the other sequels as well. All you have to do is ask.