The Dirty Dozen/Trivia

• Actor Allusion: Jim Brown, an absurdly good, multiple record setting NFL Running back, has a scene where he outruns explosions in an extended take. Clearly, the guy's pretty good at running.
• Creator Backlash: Despite being one of his biggest hits, star Lee Marvin reportedly wasn't happy with the final product, which he described as a "dumb moneymaker" that didn't properly capture how this situation would have really played out in the actual war - and he would know being a World War II veteran himself. Marvin even went so far as to compare this film, rather unfavorably, to his later WWII epic The Big Red One which he said was a much more accurate depiction of WWII.
• Hey, It's That Guy!:
  • Nearly every Dirty Dozen guy plays Badass heroes throughout the Sixties and Seventies.
  • You got Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, George Kennedy and Robert Ryan too.
  • Marvin, Borgnine, and Ryan were all the heavies in Bad Day at Black Rock.
• Playing Against Type: Major Armbruster is a bureaucratic staff officer, complete with Nerd Glasses, who is clearly more about logistics and statistics than front line action. He's played by George Kennedy!
• Throw It In: Originally, Posey (Clint Walker) was supposed to be the character who ends up imitating a general, but Walker felt uncomfortable about doing the scene, so the director had Pinkley (Donald Sutherland) do it instead. This ended up helping Sutherland get cast in M*A*S*H.
• What Could Have Been:
  • At one point, John Wayne strongly considered taking the role of Major Reisman.
  • Jack Palance refused the role of Maggott when they wouldn't rewrite the script to make his character lose his racism.