Curiosity Saved the Cat

For our first film, we sat down to take a look at The Dirty Dozen, a classic war film from the late 60s. According to the Save the Cat book by Zack Snyder, this war flick oldie from 1967 is one of the first ‘Golden Fleece’ movies. Like many of the pioneering Golden Fleece (GF) films from the 60s and 70s, the movie stars a team of quirky misfits as they take a long road towards a final, ultimate goal.

The GF comes from the the Greek myth of Jason, the Argonauts and the Golden Fleece. A hallmark of this kind of film is that while the group seems to be after the golden fleece/treasure/mission completion, by the end of the film they realize what they were searching was actually some inner virtue or the conquering of an inner demon.

Read some more of our thoughts about the film after the Beat Sheet breakdown, and I hope this helps you enjoy the movie!

IMDB: The Dirty Dozen

Beat Sheet for The Dirty Dozen (1967)

1. Opening Image

A wispy, scared man is escorted through a British jail by stone faced guards. He’s taken to an execution chamber where he begs for his life, stating he “didn’t mean it.” The guards and an overseeing Major flinch slightly at his words, then pull the lever, delivering him a death by hanging for the crime of murder.

2. Set-up

We discover that Major John Reisman is a rebellious officer within the American army situated in Britain in 1944, near the end of WWII. His superior officer, General Worden, wants him to take on a crazy mission—take 12 convicted criminals and turn them into an elite hit squad for a secret operation. This mission is nearly suicidal, as they’ll be dropped into hostile enemy territory. Major Reisman agrees but negotiates that the prisoners be freed if they perform their duty. Worden and his associates reluctantly agree.

3. Catalyst

General Worden offering Major Reisman the secret operation to take the 12 convicts into German territory and have them assassinate “as many top-level German leaders as possible”. It’s a crazy plan that insinuates a government without much heed for the value of a life. Reisman doesn’t like it, and we have…

4. Debate

Major Reisman interrogates the 12 convicts, and using subtle techniques he coerces each of them into joining his squad. He points out that if any one of them messes up, or tries to escape, they’ll all be returned right back to prison to receive their punishments. This is another psychological ploy that binds them together as a makeshift team.

But before things get too chummy, Maggot, the uber-religious prisoner makes a racial epithet that sets the black soldier (Jefferson) off and they devolve into chaos. This establishes the animosity between Maggot and Jefferson that will find its resolution in the climax. Dealing with these delinquents won’t be easy for the Major, but seeing that they only have severe punishments to look forward to otherwise, they slowly start to open up to the idea of joining Major Reisman.

5. Theme stated

When Reisman interrogates the only black prisoner of the 12 convicts, the prisoner points out he’s got nothing against the “krauts” (Germans), as that’s the Major’s war. “Me I’ll pick my own enemies,” says the man.

This is a theme that comes up throughout the film: who exactly is the enemy? As the Dirty Dozen come together as a team, is Major Reisman the enemy? Is the institution that put them in the position of being “death heads” their enemy? Is the institution the enemy of Major Reisman himself?

One character in the film, the sociopath, Maggot, is an enemy to all. He also sees women as the root of all evil and sees himself as a righteous messenger of God to deliver punishment to those who are due them. He makes friends with none in the group. His instability reaches its bitter conclusion at the climax.

6. Break Into Two

The Dirty Dozen agree to go with Major Reisman, and they all set off in a jeep to a training camp as we move into Act Two. The Major’s first-in-command points out his true feelings about the mission: as soon as one of these “lovers” gets a chance, they’ll probably try to kill the Major. Talk about picking your enemies!

7. Fun and Games

Major Reisman kicks off the training camp by making the inmates actually build the camp itself. It’s a bunch of dated Buster Keaton style hijinx set to a slapstick soundtrack that only an old-timer could love, but the message is clear: the communal labour is bringing them together and some are becoming friends.

Unfortunately, Franco—the loud mouth one—tries to make an escape after everyone is asleep one night. The stakes are high; if he escapes, the rest will go back to jail and death. Before he can escape, a few of the tougher guys including a barrel-chested, no-nonsense Charles Bronson (Wladislaw) repeatedly slap his ass back down. Wladislaw get backed up by Jefferson and Posey thereby cementing their intentions to keep the team together right to the end.

8. B Story

The B story here is the relationship between the inmates, and the relationship they each have with Major Reisman.

We’re introduced to some of the “limp and eyepatch” moments of the various characters. We see that the biggest guy, Posey, has rage issues, while Jiminez, the Mexican, is scared of heights. Major deals with each of them and helps them confront their problems. What a great leader, sigh.

9. Midpoint

The midpoint hits on a high, when after weeks of training, the Major busses in a bunch of escorts for the men, and leaves them to be. It looks like they’re a solid team and everyone’s on the same page. Maggot is left on the watch tower, likely to keep his woman-hating tendencies in check, while reciting religious passages to support a soon-to-come vengeance. But it’s a false victory and can’t last.

10. Bad Guys Closing In

Because Colonel Breed, the Major’s direct commanding officer, wants to butt in to the Major’s operation. The problem is, the Major and the rest of his troops are sworn to secrecy on this top secret mission. That doesn’t stop Breed, who send two soldiers to beat up Charles Bronson, who still won’t talk, so decides to command a squad or two to take over Major Reisman’s base. It’s a pretty nutty move, and Reisman’s response is nuttier—he climbs a barracks and fires a machine-gun in the direction Breed and his men to scare them off.

Again, the idea of picking your enemy comes up—just who’s fighting who here?

11. All is Lost

Well, after the stunt, the General brings all the officers into his room and tells Major Reisman that the mission is cancelled, stating that he shouldn’t have fired on his superior officer and his Dirty Dozen squad is a joke—they’re getting called back to serve their time and punishment.

Things look bad.. until…

12. Dark Night of the Soul

The Major gets one last chance. It’s decided that the Major will have to lead his merry band of criminals into a wargames scenario with Colonel Breed to determine if their secret mission will continue at all. The condition is set: if the Dirty Dozen can successfully capture Colonel Breed in the wargame, they win and the mission is still a green light.

And in a moment of triumph, they pull together, and break all the rules to win the game. Go criminals!

13. Break Into Three

After they’ve proven themselves, they get the go-ahead to go for the mission. On board an aircraft, the Dirty Dozen prepare to be dropped into German territory. They’ve been preparing for this for the whole movie, and you can see the tension on their faces. They’re not scared to go in, they’re scared about whether “they’re getting out.”

We get a whiff of death as they all land on the ground, and Ibanez (the Mexican afraid of heights) dies on the way down—looks like the Dirty Dozen isn’t going to make it out without sacrifice.

14. Finale

The Dirty Dozen pull together to sneak into the Frech chateau occupied by German officers during a party. Major Reisman and Wladislaw infiltrate the chateau through the front door, thanks to Wladislaw whoc an speak a bit of German. The rest of the squad set up outside as they planned for months.

The rest of the group uses grappling and organizational skills they learned from the Major to distract guards and get inside the house… and all seems well… until… Maggot encounters his vice: a woman. He entices her to scream—pure serial killer inclinations shown—before he stabs the woman in cold blood. Maggot then starts firing on the other squad members in a fit of blissful rage. This was his purpose! His moment to be the instrument of God’s revenge! He chooses his enemies unwisely though, and in a moment of synthesis the Jefferson (the black soldier) gets his revenge for the epithet and kills Maggot.

But it’s too late, things have gone to hell. Chaos ensues, and the Dirty Dozen fight on in efforts of improvised chaotic scrambling to completely trap the German officers in a bunker in order to load it with grenades and gasoline and blow up the whole chateau. However, only 3 of the members make it out of the chaos.

15. Final Image:

A hospital bed—Reisman and Wladislaw are all sitting in bed, healing their wounds. The General walks in and casually thanks the officers and lets them know he’ll be glad to have them continuetheir service to the army. Another moment of synthesis: we started in a jail, and while we ended up in a hospital, these murderers are now jailed to their new jobs as soldiers.

Neil’s Notes

This movie was sorely lacking in character change, and it made the film extremely disappointing. It’s almost as if the cliche ‘golden fleece’ film was based on looking at why a film like TDD had so much promise with the big, fun cast and why it falls on its face near the end.

In a modern cliche film, the story would likely have each of the character’s quirks and weaknesses addressed in the finale. So, for instance, Posey, who had a rage problem, would encounter a problem where he raged up in the face of an Uzi-touting Nazi but would regain his senses thanks to his teachings. These are the moments of change that audiences love, but were completely missing at the end.

It was almost comical how one-dimensional the final battle was. It was pretty much a bunch of people shooting plastic guns at each other for 30 minutes. The only surprise was the religious nut stabbing the woman and then attacking the rest of the unit.

The movie suffered from slow pacing as many older films do, but really, it was the fact that about 40 minutes in, everybody in the audience had a sense that these Dirty Dozen weren’t people, but just pawns imbued into the plot with the bare minimum of quirks.

There were good moments. The first 30 minutes of the movie established Major Reisman as a pretty smart cookie. The problem was that he had almost zero weaknesses and so we never really felt any suspense for his character development.

Another issue was that we barely saw a villain throughout the film. There were almost no stakes in there, and for my two hours, I like to feel some tension about some impending doom or evil about to happen to my protagonists.

The best moment of the movie was—hands down—when Charles Bronson bitch-slapped one of the Dirty Dozen for trying to escape. If there was one positive here it was that I learned just how badass Bronson was. He makes Chuck Norris look like a young Donald Sutherland (who was featured in this film as a semi-retarded criminal, Pinkley).

Nuno Notes

Neil pretty much pointed out the main issues above. My only addition would have to be to re-iterate how this film really failed to deliver on character development payoffs.

In my fantasy-world, I want to believe there was about 15 minutes of additional footage cut out of the chaotic scrambling of the 30 minute climax of just NOTHING going right.

I wanted to see the barrel-chested Posey rage out on a Nazi, then gain control when he’s about to get utterly screwed, and get the winning upper hand.

I wanted to see the Mexican Jiminez actually conquer his fear of heights in order to pull off some crazy stunt. Instead he friggin dies OFF SCREEN… OFF… SCREEN!

I wanted to see the selfish, loud-mouth, anti-authority, rebellious Franko make a 180-degree turn around and do something like sacrifice himself to save the squad!

The only character development payoff we get is Jefferson (the black soldier) getting his revenge on the bigot, religious-spurred, sociopath. But even in the case of these two, the theme of “pick your enemies” could have been fleshed out better. The animosity between those characters could have been explored further. The resolution would have been much more rewarding to an audience.

The beginning of the movie had such a straight-forward premise and setup. It executed the beats dead on. Then it got to a point where it all seems just way too easy—example being the War Games scene; it had no challenges. The Dirty Dozen made it look like playtime at recess in kindergarden.

Then they get to the real thing. And wow, just a cyclone of disaster that leads nowhere good.

If the purpose of the film was to portray the real dangers of war by showing the audience how fast and unceremoniously soldiers can die… then it was an interesting production choice. A wrong one. Considering they gave the audience an infallible, outwitting, fearless, Major Reisman to lead a squad of a dozen criminals who were spontaneous, problem-solving, rule-breaking, survivalists… only to have it all crumble down because for months no one stopped to consider the serial killer MIGHT screw things all up… just no… that was the keystone that brought down the whole integrity of the 2 hours of build up for me.

I wish I could have come out of the experience loving the flick. I truly do, especially considering the love it gets generally. This is simply a case where the fact that it’s an old time flick just didn’t hold up for me. I am very optimistic that a remake of this film would be absolutely spectacular and I look forward to the day it’s released.

Neil and Nuno here!  Welcome to Curiosity Saved the Cat… wait, what?  You must be wondering what that even means.  Let us explain.

We’re just a couple of guys with an interest in writing. Not any specific kind of writing, mind you, but the idea of creating experiences using words. These written experiences then turn into imaginary worlds, interesting characters, intriguing events and situations—all of these things are thrilling to us!

This blog was created as a way for the two of us to collect our thoughts and share them publicly for those who are interested in joining us on this journey of exploration. It all started for us after we read “Save the Cat” (STC) by Blake Snyder.

STC is a quick, conversational guide to script writing in Hollywood.  More specifically it’s about how to design a script that hits all the right story notes as well as Hollywood script standards.  He covers it all: from pitch, to conceptual genre choice, to breaking down the beat sheet, to plot development and structure, to payoffs and character development (and so on and so forth).

One of the reasons the book is so powerful is because he’s done with the book what he advises people to do with their scripts: be pithy.  He’s taken his years of work as a Hollywood writer, his poring over the various existing works of story composition from The Hero’s Journey to Syd Field and organized it into his master work: the Save the Cat Beat Sheet, or BS2 as he calls it.  In this, he highlights the 15 key plot points that every movie will hit, and it’s a really great structure from which to begin a deeper understanding of film.  

We’re on a journey to apply our understanding of Save the Cat to help us enrich our enjoyment and understanding of various types of creative works: short stories, comic scriptwriting, and even flash fiction.  We’re looking at different types of story models every day, from Joseph Campbell to Robert McKee, and all the while we’re both working on personal projects and hoping to turn this blog into a routine that will help inspire us to keep creating, improving and that which is most difficult for a writer: finishing.

Here are some things you can expect in this blog:

• We’ll be breaking down movies into a Beat Sheet as per Snyder’s STC system and then offering our quick overall opinion of the flick.
• We’ll be analyzing plot structure in other written works and possibly how the STC system applies to it.
• We’ll be analyzing character development in creative works; what sorts of characters and events lead to poignant emotional story moments
• We’ll highlight the use of symbolism in works, name choices and archetypal frameworks.
• We’ll spotlight other methods used by professional writers and their process.

Our blog’s main goal is to inspire people to look at creative works with a critical eye and understand why and how things are working or not working. A word of advice would be to remember that deconstructing creative works should be fun. Getting to a point where you can see the “cogs in the machine” can sometimes ruin the experience offered by creative works. We hope that analytic observation adds a new layer to that experience — not detract from it!

Now go on! Get out there and start absorbing some entertainment!

Muriel Rukeyser