thebigred1

Screenwriter / Director Sam Fuller served with the U.S. army's First Infantry Division ( The Big Red One) in World War 2, and drew on that experienc to make a gritty, accurate portrayal of the lives of five men serving in that division. Their leader is the Sarge, played by Lee Marvin. He also served in the Big Red One in World War 1. He's always felt guilty because he unknowingly killed a German who was trying to surrender four hours after the war ended. He's a mentor to Griff ( Mark Hamill- Star Wars) , Zab ( Robert Carradine- Revenge of the Nerds), Vinci , and Johnson. They are the four raw recruits he takes under his wing. Together they fight their way through North Africa , Sicily , and the Normandy landings. Along the way , other recruits come, and die. The men learn to be blase about this, and find that it's better not to get to know anyone else. The whole movie is narrated by Zab, an aspiring author based on Fuller himself, giving us an interesting insight into the mind of a soldier.

This is a pretty entertaining war movie. It really has a kind of Apocalypse Now feel to it. There are a whole bunch of memorable scenes in this. One takes place in a mental asylum that the Germans are using as an artillery observation post. Sarge and the boys attack it, and the inmates decide to help out. A dancing woman clutching a teddy bear makes short work of a couple of drunken officers with a straight razor to the throat, and another inmate grabs a schmeiser sub-machine gun , and fires away , screaming "I am one of you ! I am sane!". My favorite scene is an ambush beside a huge replica of Christ on the cross. A platoon of Germans have smeared themselves with blood, and are waiting to ambush the first infantry when they march through. Despite some implausable scenes, this had a very realistic feel to it, and I suppose that it must have been fairly accurate with Fuller at the helm. Most of the actors were pretty decent too , especially Mark Hamill and Robert Carradine. When I first got this out and saw Carradines name attached I laughed, expecting a clumsy Lewis Skolnick type character, but he's actually pretty good. You'd almost never pick him. Hamill also managed to shed the Skywalker image, at least until The Empire Strikes Back. If you watch this, you'll also note that Stephen Speilberg stole a lot of ideas from this for Saving Private Ryan. This is a lot better, because at least they didn't use James Bond -style sticky tank bombs......