One of Clint Eastwood’s undervalued strengths that doesn’t get enough play is surely his uncanny comedic skills. It’s fair, given how infrequently the Hollywood legend has even appeared in comedies. Even those he has appeared in have largely included dramatic elements, like Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, or poorly reviewed, like Every Which Way but Loose. But you can see it in subtle ways through many of his roles: the well-timed smirk he gives to an assailant he injured in Dirty Harry after giving his infamous, “Do you feel lucky, punk?” speech. Or the delivery of his dogs**t speech in Sudden Impact. But his comedic skills are sure on display in Kelly’s Heroes, an overlooked war comedy where Eastwood recruits members of his platoon to go into enemy territory to steal Nazi gold.
What Is ‘Kelly’s Heroes’ About?
Kelly’s Heroes is based on an entry in The Guinness Book of World Records, of all things. An incident writer, Troy Kennedy Martin, found out about a robbery of the German National Gold Reserves in Bavaria by a “combination of U.S. military personnel and German civilians in 1945.” Critics had called the plot “preposterous,” but British journalist Ian Sayer confirmed the event years after, per the Saturday Evening Post. The film begins with Private Kelly (Clint Eastwood) discovering the whereabouts of a stockpile of 14,000 German gold bars from a drunk Wehrmacht Intelligence officer. Kelly decides to steal the gold, and recruits members of his platoon, including Supply Sargeant “Crapgame” (Don Rickles) and Master Sergeant “Big Joe” (Telly Savalas), as well as a tank squad under the command of loopy tank commander “Oddball” (Donald Sutherland).
The group makes their way to Clermont, losing one member while walking through a minefield, and two more after engaging with a German patrol. However, news of the group’s progress towards Clermont catches the attention of Major General Colt (Carroll O’Connor), but he assumes that it’s an effort being taken by an aggressive unit advancing on their own initiative, and, looking to take advantage for the war effort, starts making his way toward them. When Kelly and his gang arrive in Clermont, they find that it is being defended by three German Tiger tanks and its infantry support. They make short work of them, except for one tank, parked in front of the bank where the gold is being stored. They are at a stalemate, so Crapgame suggests that they offer the tank commander and his crew a cut of the gold in exchange for them blowing the armored doors off the bank. The commander agrees, and the German and American soldiers divvy the spoils amongst themselves. Colt, still unaware of the troop’s real intent, enters Clermont, but is blocked by a crowd of celebrating French residents, who believe Colt is French General Charles de Gaulle, thanks to Big Joe spreading the falsity among them.
‘Kelly’s Heroes’ Mixes Comedy with the Tragedies of War
Now to be fair, Kelly’s Heroes is a comedy, first and foremost, but like most of Eastwood’s forays into the genre, it does have its share of dramatic elements as well. It’s a heist film that doesn’t downplay the real tragedies of war in its pursuit of comedy. People die, heroes die, as they are all just victims — a reality of war. It would have been very easy for the film to make the ragtag group’s journey easier, with slapstick obstacles, but instead there are actual consequences for their actions, a decision that gives Kelly’s Heroes a gravitas not typically afforded in comedies set in wartime. Those moments are the exception, of course, and not the rule, as Kelly’s Heroes is genuinely funny. Sutherland is a standout for his role as Oddball, the spaced-out hippie tank commander that is so inconsistent with the film’s timeline it borders on farcical, something also true of the mini-skirted townswomen and the use of 1960s era phrases like “freaked out” and “hung up.”
In all honesty, Kelly’s Heroes, with its unique mix of comedy and tragedy, probably shouldn’t work, but yet it does, and the casting for the film is a key part of its success. Heavy hitters more renowned for serious fare, like Eastwood and Savalas, one year removed from his role as Ernst Stavro Blorfeld in the 1969 James Bond film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, were cast. They were up alongside comic legend Rickles and comedian Len Lesser, aka Seinfeld’s Uncle Leo, and O’Connor, who would follow up the film with his role as the iconic Archie Bunker in TV’s All in the Family. Casting actors whose strengths solidified one extreme or the other, bringing the cast as a whole to a comfortable medium, proves to be a winning formula. To overlook Kelly’s Heroes is to pass over comedy — not Nazi — gold.