The second half of Lee Marvin's final film is given over to the stuntmen, special effects team and armourers.
Based on the 1985 hijacking of an American airliner, it's set mainly in Beirut but inevitably shot in Israel (described by Robert Vaughan as "America's best friend in the Middle East"), the dirty dozen this time round being twelve swarthy, sweaty, wild-eyed sadists and psychos under the command of a moustached Robert Forster during the career limbo from which Tarantino rescued him ten years later.
Although Marvin is billed below Chuck Norris it's basically an ensemble piece. Personally directed by Cannon's Menahim Golan himself, it's a triumph of his and Globus's organisation and showmanship rather than actually filmmaking, having assembled an amazing cast which includes George Kennedy as a priest called William O'Malley and Martin Balsam in a rare overtly Jewish role. As usual there's a glamorous blonde fraulein aboard, but as played by Hanna Schygulla in her only English-language role she's a stewardess rather than one of the hijackers.
