The Big Red One (1980)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

Samuel Fuller

Writer:

Samuel Fuller (written by)

Release Date:

28 May 1980 (France)

Genre:

Action | Drama | War

Tagline:

The real glory of war is surviving.

Plot:

The story of a sergeant and the inner core members of his unit as they try to serve in and survive World War II.

Plot Keywords:

Sergeant | French | Concentration Camp | Omaha Beach | Sicily

Awards:

2 wins & 1 nomination

US TV Schedule:

Mon. Nov. 16

6:00 AM

AMC

Cast

Lee Marvin	...	The Sergeant
Mark Hamill	...	Pvt. Griff, 1st Squad
Robert Carradine	...	Pvt. Zab, 1st Squad
Bobby Di Cicco	...	Pvt. Vinci, 1st Squad
Kelly Ward	...	Pvt. Johnson, 1st Squad
Stéphane Audran	...	Underground Walloon fighter at asylum (as Stephane Audran)
Siegfried Rauch	...	Schroeder (German sergeant)
Serge Marquand	...	Rensonnet
Charles Macaulay	...	General / captain
Alain Doutey	...	Broban (Vichy sergeant)
Maurice Marsac	...	Vichy colonel
Colin Gilbert	...	Dog Face POW
Joseph Clark	...	Pvt. Shep (soldier on troop transport)
Ken Campbell	...	Pvt. Lemchek (#2 on Bangalore torpedo)
Doug Werner	...	Switolski

Also Known As:

The Big Red One - The Reconstuction (USA) (DVD box title)

MPAA:

Rated R for war violence and some language. (2004 reconstruction)

Runtime:

113 min | 162 min (reconstructed version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English | French | Italian | German

Color:

Black and White | Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital (reconstruction) | Dolby (original release)

Certification:

Canada:PG (Ontario) | Canada:14A | West Germany:16 (f) | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 (1980) | Singapore:PG | Sweden:15 | UK:15 (video rating) (1987) | UK:AA (original rating) | USA:PG (original rating) | USA:R (2004 reconstruction) | Iceland:16

Filming Locations:

Big Bear, San Bernardino National Forest, California, USA

Company:

Lorac Productions

Trivia:

In the "Reconstruction" Documentary, Robert Carradine says that when he, Mark Hamill, Bobby Di Cicco and Kelly Ward first met Lee Marvin, Marvin didn't say anything at first. After they got into a taxi to drive out to the shooting range where they would hone their skills, Marvin finally said "Which one of you is Carradine?" To which Robert Carradine answered dutifully "I am." Lee Marvin's response: "Fuck you, Carradine." A short time later, after they'd been working together, Carradine asked Marvin why he said that to him to which Marvin replied "Cause yours was the only name I recognized."

Goofs:

Miscellaneous: When the sergeant and his unit are in Sicily, they walk in front of a wall with the portrait of Mussolini and a sentence in big capital letters written in Italian. The writing is incorrect. It reads "Se avanzo, Se guitmi! Se indietreggio, uccidetemi! Se muoiu, vendicatemi! Mussolini". It should be "Se avanzo, Seguitemi! Se indietreggio, uccidetemi! Se muoio, vendicatemi! Mussolini". It means "If I move forward, follow me! If I move back, kill me! If I die, avenge me!"

Quotes:

Griff: I can't murder anybody.
The Sergeant: We don't murder; we kill.
Griff: It's the same thing.
The Sergeant: The hell it is, Griff. You don't murder animals; you kill 'em.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Beauty (1981)

BR1 was excellent. Reconstruction is awesome & different movie.

BR1 has been my top WWII movie for 25 yrs, incl. Private Ryan. Spielberg wishes he could have created something this real, this moving. No smoke and mirrors, just the gritty reality.

The Reconstruction is a different movie. About 3 minutes of original film to 15 of new. It's so obvious, if you know the first movie, that Hollywood forced Sam FUller to trim away most of the grit and pain. BR1 is tough and real, but squeaky-50s-clean compared to the Reconstruction. All the real impact was trimmed away. That must have hurt.

There was a point, about 2 hours in, I thought, "I can't take much more of this." And it hit me that Fuller intended that. Pushed us to that limit, so we would experience a tiny bit of the exhaustion, the overload, the need to just get away from it for a while. Private Ryan never even got close. I can't think of any WWII movie that got close. And I've watched them all.

Band of Brothers is the only work I would put in the same frame as the Reconstructed BR1. If you haven't seen either, buckle up. It's going to be a bumpy night.