Customer Reviews

Dirty Dozen

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It's usually a waste of time for me to read a book after I've seen the movie. Even though the book is probably better than the movie, it's ruined for me because I already know too much about what will happen.

That wasn't the case with "The Dirty Dozen" by E.M. Nathanson. The movie, a so-called classic, is 20 percent training and 80 percent mission. The book is 80 percent training and 20 percent mission.

In other words, 80 percent of the book was compressed into 20 percent of the movie. You can imagine the extent to which stuff was left out.

Since the two are so different, the movie didn't ruin the book for me. Actually, it was the other way around. I picked up the book because I liked the movie. But after reading the book the movie seemed shallow and silly.

Although Nathanson likely made money by selling the movie rights to "The Dirty Dozen," the result obscures the fact that he wrote a fine book. Mention "The Dirty Dozen" to the average man of a certain age and he'll opine, "Great movie!" He isn't even aware that it started with a greater book that the movie did a disservice to.

This is absolutely one of my all time favorite books. The story is about 12 men, all violent offenders on death row in the army. They are offered a chance to have their records wiped clean if they volunteer for a mission that they will most likely not survive. The training requires discipline that goes against every grain of their fiber, and trust in each other that is almost impossible given the background of each member of the unit. The mission, a raid on a Nazi "country club", is heart pounding; don't plan on putting the book down until during this part of the book! I have been an avid reader for the last 50 years, am NEVER without a book, of the hundreds of book I have read this is one of the all time best!

This was an interesting read: I expected a war story, something that took characters from the beginning, trained them, threw them into combat, and showed the evolution therein, much like The Cruel Sea. Instead, I got a book about criminal minds, psychological testing, team-building, tons of flash-backs, and a minuscule afterthought of war.

When I reached page 450 (of about 550) and the group was STILL training, I realized this was a book more about developing a group of characters from un-usable and despicable to redeemable, almost a commentary on how prisoners can be saved. While I enjoyed reading the book on trips or during some downtime, it was frustrating how slowly the story moved due to random sets of flash-backs that the author includes. The final chapter does read well, and its non-standard format is a good way to end the book.

I have not seen the movie but from reading a wikipedia summary, it seems quite a bit different.

It's usually a waste of time for me to read a book after I've seen the movie. Even though the book is probably better than the movie, it's ruined for me because I already know too much about what will happen.
That wasn't the case with "The Dirty Dozen" by E.M. Nathanson. The movie, a so-called classic, is 20 percent training and 80 percent mission. The book is 80 percent training and 20 percent mission.

In other words, 80 percent of the book was compressed into 20 percent of the movie. You can imagine the extent to which stuff was left out.

Since the two are so different, the movie didn't ruin the book for me. Actually, it was the other way around. I picked up the book because I liked the movie. But after reading the book the movie seemed shallow and silly.

Although Nathanson likely made money by selling the movie rights to "The Dirty Dozen," the result obscures the fact that he wrote a fine book. Mention "The Dirty Dozen" to the average man of a certain age and he'll opine, "Great movie!" He isn't even aware that it started with a greater book that the movie did a disservice to.