Sunday, January 9, 2011

From Hell to Victory aka Heroes Five aka Dirty Heroes(1967)

Really good Euro-war/caper film is not strictly speaking a war film. Set in Holland the film concerns some Americans who escape from a POW camp, get hooked up with the Dutch underground and then plan a jewel robbery. There's more to the plot (a lot more) so it best to get yourself a bowl of popcorn and sit down and relax with this fast moving film.

I really liked this film. Its a perfectly modulated Euro-war film that is no more fantastic than any of the dozen or so films I've been watching recently. To be certain the film has little connection to reality, any notion of that disappears early on, about the time our hero makes good his escape with a little extra help. From the point where Adolfo Celi appears the film suddenly grabs you and you realize that whats going on isn't your typical war film. The film also starts to add on layers of complications that to my mind enhance the film not take away from it.

To be certain if you go into this film expecting a straight up war film with some modicum of reality you're bound to be disappointed. However if you take this film as a neat little crime film set during war time then you're going to have a grand old time.

Honestly I went into this film not knowing anything about the film since it was badly labeled as part of a multi-DVD mult- film set. I had no expectations and I found that I was pleasantly surprised by what I was seeing.

I can't say enough good. The cast is good and the action is first rate. If there is any real problem it would be that the film is probably too long at almost two hours (it seems to end a couple times too many in the final half hour).

I think you should search this film out.

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