The Big Red One (1980)

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Based very loosely on his own wartime experiences, this late career Sam Fuller movie follows a sergeant and four privates through a myriad of Second World War experiences, all of which they almost miraculously seem to survive despite countless new recruits getting killed in the process. Covering such a large span of time (around three years) and so many key events in just over two and a half hours, 'The Big Red One' often feels rambling and disjointed, not to mention downright random at times - with a battleground birth scene being the height of the film's randomness. And yet, the scene in question provides excellent comic relief (one soldier keeps saying "pussy" rather than "pousser") and the rambling nature of the film sort of seems appropriate to reflect the uncertainties and complexities of war, which is more than just battle after battle. It is, however, hard to deny that Fuller works better on a smaller budget. Impressive as some of the staged battle scenes are here, the quiet intensity of Fuller's earlier 'Fixed Bayonets!' and 'The Steel Helmet' is missing here, not to mention all the great conversation that the characters in those films have about war. 'The Big Red One' is not short on good ideas though with its argued differences between killing and murdering and a memorable "names are the same" moment as the soldiers come across a World War I memorial. Lee Marvin is saddled with a very good character here too with a powerful redemption scene and strong moments interacting with the children of war. Patience is definitely required though to make it through the film's slower patches.

This was a disappointing film for me. It didn't really engage me at all. For a rather long film, I would have expected a little more character development and background story exploration, but we never really learn much about them. In fact I couldn't tell you the names of the main characters, which says a lot about how much the film held my interest.In terms of the filming style, it is rather disjointed, with the action switching between various locations, and from one explosion to the next. At one point we have a ridiculous isolated scene where 3 of the soldiers are delivering a baby in a tank. Who is this woman? We don't know, never find out, and she's never seen again.I can't even recommend the acting quality, with some peripheral characters being extremely wooden, and a little painful to 'see' them acting. The ending scene at Auschwitz is woefully unconvincing, and Hamil is clearly out of his depth.Annoyingly too, the music at points was inappropriate in its style. Normally a good film soundtrack is quite unobtrusive, yet adds to the atmosphere of the film. Yet with this one, the style was sometimes glaringly irritating to me, and not really in keeping with the mood of the film.For a 2 hour 40 minute film, I expected more. I know it's an older film, and it sure looks like it. This falls way below the standard of films like 'Saving Private Ryan' and even the TV series 'Band Of Brothers', which were both much more enjoyable, engaging and convincing.

The Big Red One is very naive try to show us how real battles look like. The most of the time there are nobody other in the battle except that four soldiers with their sergeant. It seems they are completely alone in the war... Also, it is totally unreal and impossible situation that sergeant is assigned command of a squad unit of four of five soldiers. Situation like this never happens in a war. When German tanks coming from a 1 km distance, soldiers dig the two-meters-deep-holes in rocky terrain in less than 10 minutes... in real situation, that work needs few hours... and they dig that holes in the middle of the road - just on the way of the tanks, with illogical intention that tanks drive over their heads. Why??? When they hide themselves in a cave, they kill i-don't-know-how-many Germans, entering one by one into cave... When the soldiers land on the beach in Africa, there are no transports anywhere around - like they just come swimming from America... There are many more situation like that... whole movie is very boring and fake.

In the early 1950s, writer/director Sam Fuller made a name for himself making ultra-low budget war films such as "Steel Helmet" and "Fixed Bayonets". The films shared a few things which appear once again in "The Big Red One"--a relatively small cast, small numbers of extras, clipped but realistic dialog and a grittiness not seen in many other war films. So in "The Big Red One", despite showing battles such as the invasion of Sicily, North Africa and Normandy, the actual number of soldiers in these massive engagements is very, very small. Many times, in fact, it just showed the same five guys! Fuller tried to hide his small budget by focusing on a small number of individuals but it was obvious he couldn't afford more. Compare these with movies such as "The Longest Day" and "Saving Private Ryan"--you'll notice a huge difference. Now this is NOT necessarily a harsh criticism of the film--just an observation since Fuller obviously did not have the huge budgets like Zanuck and Spielberg. This low budget also comes out if you look carefully at the Germans--many of which look rather Mediterranean or Semitic.The film was inspired by Fuller's own WWII experiences--something that made him an excellent war film director. He, too, served with the same unit featured in the film and here he pays homage to the brave men he served with, though it is not meant to be a literal retelling of Fuller's combat career. Like the tough sergeant played by Gene Evans in "Steel Helmet", here we have old reliable Lee Marvin playing nursemaid to a group of rookies as the film begins. The film follows them from 1942 to the end of the war in 1945. In many ways, the film also plays a lot like Leon Uris' "Battle Cry"--which was also based on his WWII experiences.Overall, an interesting homage to the infantry who fought WWII and without the flowery and over-glorified stuff you'd typically find in a Hollywood war film. Certainly not great (as I think Fuller's earlier war films were better and more original) but well worth seeing.