"Kelly's Heroes" Vs. "The Three Kings"

In My Humble Opinion
1

Obviously “Three Kings” ripped off the plot line from “Kelly’s Heroes” but I liked it matter of fact I like it more each time I see it. Especially them skeet shooting with the M16 off the back of the jeep. Classical.

But as far as the better movie goes it has to be “Kelly’s Heroes”. First I love WWII movies then you add Clint Eastwood(the king of cool) Telly Savalos(sp) (he was so funny in that movie), Donald Sutherland(thinking those positive vibes) and Archie Bunker as a General(he cracked me up to). The movie was awesome and hilarious. I mean if I was in war, I think that is what I would do is find a way of stealing from the enemy(especially a numnut like Hitler). Afterall all is fair in love and war and if I might die I might as well die rich. :wink:

Well which one did ya’ll think was better and why?

Just one more little opinion please. What is your favorite war movie?( answer this after saying which movie was better between “Three Kings” and “Kelly’s Heroes”.)

2

They’re hard to compare because they’re very different beyond the base plot. KH is more or less a straight comedy and TK is a political-message film with comedy elements. I remember hearing that Clinton saw the latter at the White House and was gushing about how right it was about Bush’s handling of the Gulf War.

Forced I’d have to say KH. Begins and ends neatly. The bit with the Nazi tank commander is just too good. I’ve always felt that they cut a lot from the film - there seems to be a battle or two cut from their journey to the town - but in any case it’s just too funny.

TK is introspective and extremely well done but the ending, to use a bad pun, tanks. Also a lot of the jokes fall flat - probably because the film doesn’t seem to know if it’s a parody or a call to arms. Mixed messages are fine, as long as I can figure out what the message is.

3

You forgot Don Rickles hauling the .30 cal. Always whining from what I remember.

4

Three Kings was a better war movie. What a great segment, explaining the infections a gut-shot causes. And the fire-fight over the milk: the camera tracked each bullet.

Kelly’s Heroes was a comedy.

My favorite war movie is The Thin Red Line. I just laughed out loud when Nick Nolte, realizing he was going to have to article fifteen the first guy, went to the second guy and begged him to run up the hill under fire. And the guy did it!

I also loved Apocalypse Now, Glory, Full Metal Jacket, The Odd Angry Shot, 84 Charlie MoPic, Platoon, Streamers, Guns of Navarone/Ice Station Zebra, Stalag 17, Shoah, The Sorrow and the Pity, Kanal, The Longest Day, Patton, The English Patient, The Great Escape, and dozens of others.

5

I’m not sure I can pick one. Each one is a product of its time; KH has a tighter script and some great setpieces, but 3K is more sympathetic to those affected by war and is filmed in a much more inaginative manner. Both have some great performances, IMO: in KH, Sutherland’s anachronistic Oddball, Rickles’ Crapgame, the supporting players (including Harry Dean Stanton!) and Carroll O’Conner’s pompous twit of a general. In 3K, Clooney and Spike Jonze are great, plus some of the supporting players, such as the guy playing the US-educated Iraqi, who delivers a great speech explaining just why he is going to torture one of the Americans.

On the downside, KH certainly shows its age a bit (that ridiculous theme by the Mike Curb Congregation really gets up my snout), and as a previous poster mentioned, one gets the impression that a few essential scenes were left out to keep the running time down. As far as 3K goes, the visual tricks are overdone and the ending is a bit of a mess, IMO.

One thing I find interesting is that despite the obvious similarities in tone and subject, KH has never been highly thought of by critics, while 3K was generally got raves on its release. Resentment of KH seems to have been based on its irreverence twards American participation in WWII, and a certain lack of political correctness at a time when American involement in Vietnam was at its height. Nevertheless, I can’t agree that KH was intended only as a straight comedy; there are certainly political aspects to the story, although they are not expressed as overtly as in 3K.

If you put a gun to my head, I suppose I would go with KH, for being the first, and perhaps for having a screenplay that is a little more subtle about its themes.

Other fave war movies? 12 O’Clock High, Apocalypse Now, Bridge on the River Kwai, Cross of Iron, Catch-22, Das Boot, The Deer Hunter, Full Metal Jacket, MAS*H, Paths of Glory, Stalag 17, and The Train, in no particular order. I’ll probably think of more later.

6

Quibble. KH isn’t a war movie, its a scam/heist comedy in a WWII setting. No sucking chest wounds, no orphan refugees, just a bunch of good ol’ boys having themselves a time. Which is to say, I like it! Best movie Clint Eastwood had been in since Tarantula (he played the jet pilot that toasts the arachnid at the very end)

I saw Apocalypse Now at an afternoon matinee, remember how glad I was that it was daylight when I got out.

Any of those movies that have orchestral soundtracks humming as the Hero makes his speech, any such that drags in such vile notions as “glory” is military mush, the pornography of death. As such, they should be shit on, and then burned.