Review of The Big Red One (1980) by Eric H — 15 Sep 2008

Just couldn't get into this one. It's decently made for it's time I suppose, but the action is just too weak compared to recent films. That may be unfair, but it's the way it is. Plus, I've seen older films that handle action better.

I just saw one too many actors fall down weakly when they were supposed to be blown up or shot, it took me out of the film. Not that it is ever very engaging. Marvin is good, but it seems unlikely someone his age would be playing nanny for all these young guys as they make their way through every aspect of the war.

And that is a problem as well, this film just tried to cover too much in too short a time and it skipped right from one battle to another even though all the characters were supposed to have aged a half of year in wartime.

But there is no character development so there is no change and you don't care about them enough to notice a change even if there was one. It should have been easy to develop these characters since there are only a handful of them and there is a constant voiceover narration to describe their thoughts and all, but it still seems like there isn't a single individual in the entire group.

Save your time and go ahead and watch one of the better made recent WWII films.