The Dirty Dozen Kindle Edition

After all these years and countless viewings of the movie, I FINALLY got around to reading this book. Picked up a beat up old 1965 Book Club Edition hardback for about $6.At page 470 out of 495, the Dirty Dozen still had not jumped into France. This book is really about the Dirty Dozen characters themselves. From Franco to Posey to Odell, and to include Captain John Reisman. Oh, the movie captures several big parts of the book. Author E.M. Nathanson really gets into several of the character's backgrounds. Not all of them, but the ones that he does cover, you really get their backstory and see what makes them tick.For example, we get to learn a lot more of Napoleon White (the Jim Brown character) in the book then we do in the movie. He was a Lieutenant (Lt) in the Army via OCS. Some of their stories about what led them to that prison is pretty heart breaking. Nathanson makes the Dirty Dozen human.My only gripe would be what I referenced up top. That the actual jump into France on the day before D-Day was basically glossed over. Most told from a report and not as it was happening. I guess that was the point of the book: about the characters and NOT the actual mission.. I just may look up the follow up by Nathanson that deals with just Captain Reisman.I am glad that I read it. I have now read the books behind 3 of my favorite movies:Die Hard (Nothing Lasts Forever)The Dirty DozenFirst Blood

I was watching the "The Dirty Dozen" with the commentary on when I heard that the movie was based upon a novel. I got a wild hair and ordered the novel and the three other books written by the same author. Believe it or not, the movie is better. The sequel "A Dirty, Distant War" is not quite as good and the first 27 pages of this one are not quite as good as that.

Love the movie and the book is different enough to stand apart if you read it second. Found myself well into the book before I knew it and was satisfied at the end. Sometimes erratic in narrative (flashbacks / letters / etc), but adds to the aesthetic and vibe. Great characters and mostly great pacing. Cool book that you can enjoy, even if you're married to the movie already.

The Dirty Dozen is more a study of human character and psyche than adventure story. The characters are well developed. I really liked that, like the USARMY in which I served, the dirty dozen was made up of all races from various walks if life who were thrown together for a common mission. If there is a central theme for me it is that we are more alike than different. The differences are on the outside but all want for the same things and celebrate and suffer in similar ways. Ultimately, it is personal character not the color of our skin that defines us. The book is not preachy or over the top in this message intentional or otherwise. I found this to be the story of my time in the service and it made a great story all the more meaningful to me. The Dirty Dozen is an excellent story, a great character study an a book that will always be among my favorites.

I liked the book which was a contrast to the movie and complemented it. In the movie the training and the mission was about even in length but the book was more geared to character development and the training for the mission rather than the mission itself. So with the movie you get the action of the mission and in the book you get a chance to learn about the men who carried out the mission. Best of both worlds.

If you liked the movie, you will likely find the book to your liking. The ending is somewhat different from the movie, and the beginning is somewhat hard to get through because of all the background provided for the major players. If the backgrounds are too frustrating or slow, just skip over them. That won't impact on the major story line. I found them so boring that I took one star off my evaluation just for that.

This is a case of the book and the movie mirroring each other...and not mirroring each. The novel is a psychological study of the men comprising the Dirty Dozen. In contrast the movie does some psychological delving but due to the medium of film places more emphasis of the action of the attack on the Nazi leadership (the novel devotes 5% of its last pages to the military denouement). I highly recommend reading the novel first in order to understand the characters and then enjoy the movie. Both are excellent.

I enjoying reading the original having seen the movie several times. I still find the whole premise very weak. The book is quite interesting and much more character driven than the film.

Apart from ONE really glaringly SUPER BAD typo that I noticed... (Location 1182) This book is everything I remember from reading the old Corgi edition some thirty odd years ago. A hundred times better than the film, brutal, violent and a tremendous read. The characters do not become the “Rah,rah, rah let’s get in and get them” figures from the original film. But are The Dirty Dozen right up to the end... I feel that this book is screaming to be made into a proper TV mini-series.

This was a gripping read that had me hooked throughout. The book is somewhat different to the film in that it focuses almost completely on the training of the prisoners, and Reisman's personal battle to turn them into soldiers. There is much more detail on the psychological aspects of the training and the mindset of both the prisoners and Captain Reisman, which I found to be very interesting. I would certainly recommend this book and will be re-reading again at some point in the future.

95 % of the book is about the recruiting and training of the Dirty Dozen. If you've seen the film first you'll find all the big scenes here but unlike the film there is a lack of humour. This book is a bit more psychological and a character study than the film.

Too much foul language for me.

This is no gung-ho war story for war buffs only. It's about true to life characters, and is splendidly told. Highly-intelligent. One of those books that is hard to put down once started.