Kelly's Heroes (1970)

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General		Extras
Category	War	Main Menu Audio Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	1970
Running Time	137:38
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (64:07)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Brian G. Hutton
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Clint Eastwood Telly Savalas Don Rickles Carroll O'Connor Donald Sutherland Gavin MacLeod Hal Buckley
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$34.95	Music	Lalo Schifrin

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 1.0 (192Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 1.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English French German Dutch Swedish Danish English for the Hearing Impaired German for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Kelly's Heroes is a film about a group of American GI's who learn about a store of Nazi gold behind enemy lines and plan to capture this for themselves.

    After capturing a German intelligence officer Lt. Kelly (Clint Eastwood) learns about a massive store of gold held behind enemy lines. This is an opportunity too large to pass up so Kelly sets about forming a small crew to seize the bullion for themselves. Getting to the gold will not be an easy task so Kelly enlists the help of the men in his platoon and Oddball (Donald Sutherland) who commands a group of three Sherman tanks. With only limited time the group sets off behind enemy lines but they must avoid their own men as well as the Germans to get to the gold successfully.

    Made in 1970 this film was directed by Brian G. Hutton who was also responsible for another Clint Eastwood WWII film Where Eagles Dare. The film has excellent performances from Clint Eastwood, Donald Sutherland, Telly Savalas, Don Rickles, Carroll O'Connor and all the supporting actors. It is a pleasure to watch this film at its original aspect ratio. Despite being made over thirty years ago, it remains a highly entertaining action adventure.

Video

    The transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and it is 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer is extremely sharp throughout and constantly displays high levels of detail. No low-level noise was detected at any time during the transfer. Lots of shadow detail is displayed during the few dark sections of the transfer at the beginning of the film.

    As expected for a film of this age the colour palette is slightly muted but this is never distracting.

    No MPEG artefacts were detected at any time during the transfer.

    There are quite a number of aliasing artefacts. Some examples of these may be seen at 0:36, 6:07, 13:22, 22:22 and 22:35, and they are slightly disruptive.

    Considering the age of the feature, there are very few film artefacts to be seen. Some examples of the minor artefacts may be seen at 7:14, 13:52, 21:08, 21:36 and 22:42. These are only minimally annoying.

    Eight sets of white subtitles are included on this disc. I extensively sampled the English and English SDH streams. The English stream occasionally misses a line of dialogue and it is off-putting when a character obviously speaks a line and no subtitle is provided. Luckily, the missing subtitles do not significantly impact upon the storyline. These missing lines were included during the English SDH stream.

    The layer change occurs at 64:07 during a static shot in chapter 17 and is unlikely to be detected by most viewers.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The dialogue was clear and easy to understand at all times.

    No dropouts or problems with audio sync were detected at any time during the transfer.

    The score by Lalo Schifrin suits the on-screen action and is complemented by the theme song Burning Bridges by Mike Curb.

    As you might expect, the re-mastered soundtrack is mainly focused across the front three channels. The surround channels are used minimally during the action sequences for effects and the subwoofer is used effectively to support gunshots and explosions.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    The non-animated menu is presented at an aspect ratio of either 1.78:1 or 1.33:1 depending upon the player setup.

Trailer (2:46)

    This trailer is presented with a Dolby Digital 192 kbps 1.0 soundtrack at an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and it is 16x9 enhanced.

    Both versions of this film appear to be identical and I therefore would have no preference for either version.

    Kelly's Heroes is a classic WWII action adventure that should appeal to a wide range of viewers.

    Considering the age of the film, the transfer is extremely high quality, only let down by a number of aliasing artefacts.

    The re-mastered soundtrack is high quality but (thankfully) does not significantly alter the original sound design.

    Disappointingly the only extra included is a theatrical trailer.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall