Interesting production insights into Kelly's Heroes

I wish that the uncut version mentioned was available....

https://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/04/15/30-things-you-didnt-know-about-kellys-heroes-clint-eastwood-was-to-sing-the-theme-tune/



Gaines

 

I always suspected/knew the 'Tiger's' were redressed Russian tanks, but that Eastwood was to sing the opening theme song was a surprise. Probably best as I have heard him sing before, great actor, superb director, singer............ On that topic when I first saw the film I was taken aback by the use of what might be called a pop tune for war movie, but after viewing the film as a whole I found it fit the production well.

 

I agree, it is to me a film that dos not fit any catagory exacting, a type of war comedy that usually fail but here it clearly does not. Everytime it comes on I stop what I am doing to watch.

There was a documentary some years ago on Converting surplus T 34's to look like German tanks. Welding sheet steel on to gain resemblance. Sure beats the Battle of the Bulge efforts.!

Totally agree the music is oddly perfect.

Gaines

 

A good film? No. I think it's a low comedy that doesn't try to fool the audience by pretending to be a good film with some clever message. It's all tongue-in-cheek with the audience participating in the joke. It lampoons every GI stereotype that Hollywood had established in earlier films, and it matters because this was the first movie to do that. There is no noble hero, no weepy coward that mans up when the chips are down, no country boy uttering some stale truism his Pappy told him, no guy having flashbacks to the loyal wife waiting at home, no patriotic message, no anti-war message, no pretensions at all. And that's why it's fun.

 

I must be using some socially relevant gauge to say it isn't a "good" film, which is quite unlike me. Yeah, for pure entertainment it's a very good film.

Compare it to MASH or Catch 22, war comedies that are elevated by critics because of the "message" rather than the comedy. Those are considered good or great films even though they seem dated and trite by modern standards.

I don't have that problem with KH. I can chuckle at Oddball or accept the Tiger tank commander's about-face without much thought. I laugh, so it must be a good film.

 

Try watching it while having a few beers first, just to get into the mood.

 

I think I have only watched it once all the way through.

 

Though I know better I will correct the boss once again.

Eastwood did not sing in the theme song for the film, but rather did a version that was not used in the film. I guess he didn't have quite the clout he had in Bronco Billy

 

There is currently one operational Tiger, which appeared in the movie Fury. It belongs to a British museum whose name escapes me.

 

Bovington Tank Museum, near Salisbury, a must see place, has that operational Tiger I in Fury, Samur, another must see, has an operating Tiger II .

Gaines

 

I think France has/had a running King Tiger I saw running in a video awhile back, sounded like it was about fly apart at any moment and was moving very slowly over ideal road conditions.

 

No "negative waves" in here or Oddball will have to change Gavin Macleod's Fez again.

Crapgame: Hey, Oddball, this is your hour of glory. And you're chickening out!
Oddball: To a New Yorker like you, a hero is some type of weird sandwich, not some nut who takes on three Tigers.
Kelly: Nobody's asking you to be a hero.
Oddball: No? Then YOU sit up in that turret baby.

 

are they wearing the full M1 helmet or is it just the helmet liner with cam net on it?
helmet looks a bit small on Clint's head.
maybe he needs a haircut.
I suppose if it was the liner there'd be rivets visable.

 

Clint might be a bucket head, that helmet he's wearing appears to have a liner as well. Notice the liner straps snapped over the front portion of the helmet. Big Joe looks to be wearing the liner/steel pot combination as well. It appears the liner is visible in the front underside near his forehead.

Now with Oddball, his headgear appears to be AAF issue. I've always romanticized the notion that he flunked out of flight school AND glider school, but kept the aviators headgear like Radar kept his teddy bear. There's just some things you can't give up. At least that's the way I thought of it as a kid.