War has played a key role in the history of the United States, from the nation's

founding right down to the present. War made the U.S. independent, kept it together, increased

its size, and established it as a global superpower. Understanding America's wars is essential for understanding American history.

Welcome to Key Battles of American History,

a podcast in which we discuss American history through the lens of the most important battles of America's wars.

Here is your host, James Early.

Thank you. host, James Early. Hello and welcome to another episode of key films of World War II in Europe.

This is your host, James Early.

As always.

And as always, of course, I'm joined by my buddy Sean McIver.

Well, this week we're going to discuss another just straight action adventure show. Not a lot of real history, and it is set

during World War II, but it's completely fictional, maybe based on a true story. Sean could

talk about that later, but this is the classic 1970 movie, Kelly's Heroes, which in some ways is kind of a spoof on

war movies, and it's a little bit of a comedy, too, although there is plenty of combat in

as well. The movie is two hours and 25 minutes long on Rotten Tomatoes, 78% of the critics

gave it a positive review, whereas the fans, it's

88%.

On IMDB, it has a good solid average of 7.6.

The director is Brian G. Hutton, who I have never heard of, but Sean probably can tell us

a little bit about him later.

And it has quite the cast.

It stars Clint Eastwood

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