The Big Red One
Action, War
Warner Bros.  (1980) 162 mins R

7.3 (5,241 votes)
Cannes Classics

"The real glory of war," Samuel Fuller said, "is surviving." A decorated combatant with the famed U.S. First Infantry in WWII, Fuller survived. His 1980 film version of his war experiences did not until now. Working with 70,000 feet of vault materials and Fuller's shooting script, critic/filmmaker Richard Schickel heads a reconstruction that adds over 40 minutes and transforms a truncated but admired war film into an epic masterwork. Lee Marvin, in a richly layered performance now revealed as one of his finest, stars as the sergeant of peach-fuzzed riflemen fighting from North Africa to Normandy and across Europe. The film is the squad's combat diary, war as it's fought and sweated and bled, and, maybe, survived....

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Cast and Crew
Lee Marvin  ......  The Sergeant
Kelly Ward  ......  Pvt. Johnson, 1st Squad
Stephanie Audran  ...... 
Mark Hamill  ......  Pvt. Griff, 1st Squad
Robert Carradine  ......  Pvt. Zab, 1st Squad
Siegfried Rauch  ......  Schroeder
Director  .....  Samuel Fuller
Producer  .....  Gene Corman; Douglas Freeman
Writer  .....  Samuel Fuller
Notes
Goofs:
Continuity: In the opening scene (WWI) in the bunker, the officer's shaving cream covers his lip and his chin, then his chin only, then back to his lip and his chin. (more)

Trivia:
The bulk of the picture was shot in Israel, and director Samuel Fuller remarked that it was unsettling after a scene was shot when the German soldiers and SS troops pull would take off their helmets and Fuller would see them wearing yarmulkes, and between takes they would be sitting around the set in full Nazi uniform speaking Hebrew or reading the Torah. (more)

Filming Locations:
Big Bear, San Bernardino National Forest, California, USA (more)

Quotes:
[the Sergeant affixes a cloth red '1' to his uniform. The Captain is drinking from a bottle of booze]
The Sergeant: What do you think?
The Captain: What the hell is it?
The Sergeant: It's a "one". First Infantry Division. The Red One; think General Pershing will like it?
The Captain: Oh, sure.
The Sergeant: I got the idea from the cap of a Hun I killed.
The Captain: When?
The Sergeant: About an hour ago
The Captain: Did he yell out anything?
The Sergeant: Oh, the same old Kaiser stuff, you know, "the war's over," all that junk.
[...]
(more)

Awards:
2 wins & 1 nomination (more)