Review of The Big Red One (1980) by Ryan M — 04 Nov 2009

Looking at recent war films, some of them use large scale battles, millions of bullets, shiploads of blood, handheld cameras and a rousing film score to make you feel the full physical effects of war. There's also an overarching plotline that likes to start off with a big battle, dotting lots of smaller battles along the way before the final, hectic, gigantic behemoth of all battle sequences occurs to knock you off your feet. The characters usually all get together at the quieter moments, pouring their hearts out to each other on their spouses, their life back home, giving us their lifestory so we can identify and sympathise with them to make it all the more heartbreaking when one of them finds the wrong end of a sniper's bullet.

"The Big Red One" doesn't make an anti-war or pro-war statement. It doesn't fill us in on everything about our main characters, there isn't a gigantic battle scene with millions of extras. But I'd still rate it as one of the better war films of that era, probably on par with "The Deer Hunter", above "Platoon" but below "Apocalypse Now".

Sam Fuller served during WW2, and this film is based on his firsthand experiences. He doesn't try to say too much about the nature of man, or make a political statement, he simply concentrates on one squad of soldiers, as the hardnosed Sergeant (Lee Marvin) and 4 other soldiers simply survive, while the other members of their squad get killed off and replaced by somebody else. The battle sequences range from Africa to Sicily, with lots of closeups and very few distant establishing shots to show you where every soldier is shooting from. It's an effective way to show how isolated each soldier is during the fighting, as we mostly see the enemy through the characters POV. It may lack the style of more recent war films, but "The Big Red One" focuses on its characters, not the violence. While we may not know everything about them, we only really get to know them when they are in the heat of battle and how they react to it.

The strongest part of the film is just how well it stays in the moment: The film becomes moments of battle punctuating the quieter moments waiting for the battle. Fuller limits the scope of the film, by focusing on just these 5 soldiers, it makes it look and feel more real. Without the sentiment that other films add in *cough* Saving Private Ryan *cough*, it adds to the brutal nature of war without the use of extreme blood and gore. Sam Fuller wanted to make a war film about survivors, because they are the ones who tell the stories. It contains moments of beauty, moments of madness, moments of joy and moments of sadness. For it's 160 minute running time, it covers a lot of ground in these 5 soldiers lives, that by the end we really do sympathise with them, even if we don't know them fully.

"The Big Red One" will not be a hit for people who need hyper-realism to be immersed in the effects of war. It has achieved classic status because it tells its story with truth, without being too Hollywood.