MovieChat Forums > The Dirty Dozen (1967) Discussion > Major fail by the major

Major fail by the major

posted 9 years ago by SnoozeAlarm
7 replies | jump to latest

I'm watching the war games scene and it dawns on me that Maggot performed competently and sanely in this.

And it then dawned on me that when Maggot broke down in the final scene, the trigger was being in the chateau, with women and partying and comfort.

Everyone knew that Maggot's weaknesses were women and luxury. So it was a huge and easily avoidable mistake to choose Maggot as one of the soldiers to go in the chateau. If they had kept Maggot far away from the chateau, then there is every chance that he would have remained focused and the mission could have turned out very differently.

Unless I'm missing something, I believe there is no answer to this question. Like so many questions about movies, the true answer is that it was necessary for the dramatic scene that followed.

If a private venture fails it's closed down. If a government venture fails it's expanded. M Friedman

[–] Noir-It-All 9 years ago

I agree.

[–] stevekaczynski 8 years ago

Having Maggott on the team at all was a guarantee that something would go wrong. The psychiatrist who offered to have him weeded out but was overruled by the major knew what he was talking about. I am not sure he could have been trusted outside the chateau either, especially not with the machine gun that Posey is entrusted with. Imagine if he had gone hallelujah *beep* with that.

"Chicken soup - with a *beep* straw."

[–] JurijFedorov 8 years ago

The psychiatrist said everyone of them were psychopaths or even worse. I would not have used any of them on such a mission. You cannot know who will lose his mind and just run away or do something even worse. Maggott was bad. But I would say half of the group was even worse. Maggott at least had never killed a man before and also didn't shoot anyone before. So he seemed like a good choice for a war only against men. Had he stayed in the room with the black guy then the woman would not have walked right into his room. And he would probably just have done his mission. Think about it this way, only Maggott had an unresistable urge walking right into his arms. The other ones would have done the same thing if their urge appeared.

[–] brettweir3 8 years ago

Right- and why would he pair Maggot & Jefferson together?? Maggot was well known for his racist nature and a psychopath on top of that. Did Reisman actually think that Maggot formed a bond of brotherhood with Jefferson?

[–] johnnm58 (545) 6 years ago

They needed a killer so in goes Maggot.

[–] johnmarti59 (2356) 5 years ago

[deleted]

[–] brux (14774) 4 years ago

He was the one irredeemable convict ... so they gave him a temptation he could not refuse and carried out his sentence. That was the first time I ever say Telly Savalas and after that could never stand him in anything ... not to mention he is one ugly MF'r