Review of The Big Red One (1980) by Jeff Z — 20 Mar 2010
The recreation of Samuel Fuller's "The Big Red One" has a lot of good action scenes and Lee Marvin. What it doesn't have is a whole lot of characterization of the "four horsemen" of the Big Red one.
We know Hamill of course through "Star Wars" but never really get much on his background or who he is (okay he draws) other than he is reluctant to actually shoot the enemy. The other guys are just as enigmatic.
We get one who is basically standing in for a young Fuller and is a writer. We get even less for Marvin's character who is drawn as a professional soldier--and that's it. While I enjoyed the film more than the original cut down version, I really hoped there would be "more there there".
This review of The Big Red One (1980) was written by Jeff Z on 20 Mar 2010.
The Big Red One has generally received positive reviews.
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