The Big Red One

The Big Red One
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Samuel Fuller
Produced by	Gene Corman
Written by	Samuel Fuller
Starring	Lee Marvin Mark Hamill Robert Carradine Bobby Di Cicco Kelly Ward Siegfried Rauch Marthe Villalonga
Music by	Dana Kaproff
Cinematography	Adam Greenberg
Editing by	Morton Tubor
Studio	Lorimar
Distributed by	United Artists (original release) Warner Bros. (reconstruction)
Release date(s)	July 18, 1980
Running time	113 minutes R-rated reconstruction version: 162 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$4,000,000

The Big Red One is a World War II war film starring Lee Marvin and Mark Hamill. Written and directed by Samuel Fuller, it was produced by Lorimar and released by United Artists in the US on July 18, 1980. The film details the experiences of several US soldiers from The Big Red One (the nickname of the 1st Infantry Division), serving in an infantry squad as part of a rifle company and the effects of the war on them.

It was heavily cut on its original release, but a restored version was premièred at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, seven years after Fuller's death. Fuller wrote a book, with the same title, which was more a companion novel than a novelization of the film, although it features many of the scenes that were originally cut.

Background

Patch of the United States Army's 1st Infantry Division.

Fuller saw a great deal of action in World War II as a member of the US First Infantry Division, which was nicknamed The Big Red One for the red numeral "1" on the Division's shoulder patch. He received the Silver Star Medal, the Bronze Star Medal, and the Purple Heart Medal for his courageous actions and wounds received during his combat service in Europe. He was present at the liberation of Falkenau concentration camp.

Plot

The story's focus is on four privates and their squad leader, a sergeant, serving in a rifle company, who survive the war from beginning to end. Thus becoming known as "The Sergeant's Four Horsemen" as early as North Africa and Sicily. The body of the movie consists of a series of episodes highlighting the insanity and grotesqueness of war.

The film starts at the end of the First World War and is shown in black and white. A shell shocked black horse threatens the sergeant (Lee Marvin), then a private, and damages his rifle. He then kills a German soldier, with his trench knife, who was approaching with his arms raised in surrender and muttering in German that the war is over. The camera moves away from the action and towards a life-size wooden crucifix in the background, the wood infested with termites.

When he returns to his company's deserted headquarters he is told that the war ended "about four hours ago." Killing versus murder is a theme that repeats throughout the film. The 1st Division patch is shown in color.

The film then transitions to the sergeant as he leads his squad of infantrymen through North Africa, Sicily, then on to the D-Day landings, where they land on Omaha Beach at the start of the Battle of Normandy.

The squad crosses the same field where the sergeant killed the surrendering German decades before, which now contains a memorial:

Johnson: Would you look at how fast they put the names of all our guys who got killed?

The Sergeant: That's a World War One memorial.

Johnson: But the names are the same.

The Sergeant: They always are.

The squad then treks though Europe, ending up at the liberation of Falkenau concentration camp (a subcamp of Flossenbürg) in Czechoslovakia.

At the end of the film, the sergeant is in a forest, at night, having just buried a young boy he had befriended after liberating a concentration camp. A German soldier approaches, attempting to surrender, and the sergeant stabs him. His squad then arrives and informs him that the war ended "about four hours ago." This time, as the squad walks away, one of his men notices that the German is still alive; the sergeant and his men work frantically to save the life of the wounded German soldier as they return to their unit's encampment. While Private Zab (the film's narrator) notes that saving the life of that German soldier was one of the craziest and best things that they did in the war.

Cast

• Lee Marvin - The Sergeant - A First World War veteran, he leads the squad through World War II.
• Mark Hamill - Pvt. Griff - A skilled marksman who refuses to "murder."
• Robert Carradine - Pvt. Zab - Author of "Dark Deadline" and the film's narrator.
• Bobby Di Cicco - Pvt. Vinci - As a Sicilian, he proves an important asset to his squad in Sicily.
• Kelly Ward - Pvt. Johnson - As a civilian, he was a farmer and a medic.
• Siegfried Rauch - Feldwebel Schroeder - The German counterpart to "The Sergeant".
• Stéphane Audran - Underground Walloon fighter at asylum.

Restored scenes

• Extended scene after the beach landing in North Africa when the squad are resting and eating, more quirky scene involving an Arab boy.
• The Sarge and the 'Horsemen' are trapped in an ancient Roman colosseum, and are relieved by French Spahi Moroccan cavalry. The scene ends with the Moroccan Goums cutting off the ears of dead Germans.
• Extended Sicilian landings where the squad engage a machine-gun nest.
• Omaha Beach, D-Day, extended scene that includes the whole of the company including Zab encountering casualties (this was how director Fuller earned his Silver Star on D-Day).
• Schroeder receives a massage from a French woman, whose husband has been killed by German soldiers.
• Aftermath of the attack on the lunatic asylum, where Griff has sex with a Walloon.
• Belgian innkeeper uncovers a German infiltrator as the squad eat a meal.
• Scene showing the general giving an interview to a war correspondent (played by Sam Fuller).
• Tree shelling scene extended to include the German artillery piece being destroyed by a Bazooka.
• Schroeder booby trapping a castle, then killing the Frau of the house after he finds that she hates Hitler.
• The squad approach a derelict castle, losing one man to a sniper. They capture the sniper to discover him to be an adolescent boy.
• The squad encounter a protest march of old Germans, who refuse to let the squad pass until the Sarge threatens to shoot the leader.
• Schroeder removing his equipment and thus ending his responsibility to fight.

Notes

Marvin enlisted in the US Marine Corps at the beginning of the Second World War. In the Battle of Saipan in June 1944, while engaged in combat operations against the enemy as a scout-sniper, he was badly wounded in the buttocks by Japanese fire which nearly severed his sciatic nerve. He received the Purple Heart Medal and a medical discharge after recovering from his wounds in a Naval Hospital. Lee Marvin is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Production

Warner Brothers was strongly interested in filming The Big Red One in the late 1950s to early 1960s sending Fuller on a trip to Europe to scout locations and also had him film Merrill's Marauders as a dry run for the film. When Fuller argued with Jack Warner and his studio over cuts they made to Merrill's Marauders the plans to film The Big Red One were dropped. Ironically, the company that ended up producing the film, Lorimar Productions, would be acquired by Warner Bros. and thus the latter studio owns the rights to the film today.

The film was shot on location in Israel and Ireland, with some snow scenes featuring Marvin shot in and around Big Bear and the National Park before the four horsemen were cast.

Trim Castle in Trim, County Meath was used as the derelict castle where the adolescent sniper kills one of the GIs (Boyne) as he crosses the river. It was also used as the main location by Mel Gibson for the making of Braveheart in 1994.

Originally, the film was to have been made with John Wayne as The Sergeant but Fuller felt that he would not have been right for the role.

Originally rated PG by the MPAA. When the film was reconstructed by Brian Jamieson and Richard Schickel in 2004, it was re-rated R for "war violence and some language" by the MPAA.^{[citation needed]}

Reception

The Big Red One ranks 483rd on Empire magazine's 2008 list of the 500 greatest movies of all time. Terry Lawson of the Detroit Free Press called it the greatest war movie of all time.

The film was entered into the 1980 Cannes Film Festival.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times awarded the film three out of four stars, concluding his review by stating, "It's one of the most expensive B-pictures ever made, and I think that helps it fit the subject. "A" war movies are about War, but "B" war movies are about soldiers." However, he would later add the movie to his "Great Movies" listing.

It is currently listed 'Certified Fresh' by the critical website Rottentomatoes.com with a 91% rating and aggregate score of 7.7 based on 44 reviews.

References

Bibliography

• The Fighting First: The Untold Story of The Big Red One on D-Day by Flint Whitlock - 2004. ISBN 0-8133-4218-X
• The Big Red One (novel version) by Samuel Fuller - 1980; republished in 2004.

External links

• The Big Red One at the Internet Movie Database
• The Big Red One at AllRovi
• The Big Red One at the TCM Movie Database
• Review of the Reconstruction
• D-Day 67 Years On by Robert Farley on Lawyers, Guns and Money" - June 6, 2011 Video Interview of Mark Hamill on his meeting with director Sam Fuller