An American masterpiece by one of the last great American directors.
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01/01/00
The Big Red One (1980)
91
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:43
Fresh:39
Rotten:4
Average Rating:7.7/10
Consensus: The reconstruction of Samuel Fuller’s epic account of his days in North Africa in World War II elevates the film into the pantheon of great war movies.
Runtime: 2 hrs 43 mins
Genre: Action/Adventure
Synopsis: Episodic retelling of the exploits of the American First Infantry Division during World War II, focusing on the squad's sergeant and four of the soldiers. They struggle to survive campaigns from... [More]
Starring: Lee Marvin, Mark Hamill, Robert Carradine, Kelly Ward
Director: Samuel Fuller
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Reviews for The Big Red One
... if you want a World War II story from a real vet's perspective, Sam Fuller is still the man and The Big Red One, drawn from his own war experiences, is the film
04/12/09
meant to be the culmination of a life’s work... It didn’t come to pass.
05/10/05
The combination of old-time Hollywood valor and ahead-of-its-time surprises makes this restoration a big event.
11/12/04
Top CriticPersonal observation bleeds out of every scene, and somehow it feels like a true story in a way that most war movies can't achieve.
09/12/07
The Big Red One celebrates the lucky and the smart who survive the outrages and terrors of war.
01/29/04
The director's gift for bare-knuckles lyricism rescues scene after scene.
12/03/04
Top CriticA big, impressive slab of drama -- maybe not a masterpiece or an epic, but a colorful story that sweeps you up and covers a lot of ground at a fast clip.
01/20/05
Top Critic'The Reconstruction,' which clocks in at 2 hours, 43 minutes, with not a single extraneous frame, elevates the work from a robust genre film to a full-blown epic.
01/20/05
Top Critic[Marvin's] understated authority and sincerity give the entire film a dignity it would otherwise lack.
12/02/04
To see this seamless 'reconstruction' -- consisting of some 15 entirely new sequences as well as augmentations to 23 others -- is to behold a masterpiece revealed.
01/20/05
If you don't elect to watch The Big Red One through the lens of Sam Fuller's mystique ... you'll realize that it has been celebrated in ways that essentially make virtues of its flaws.
12/02/04
Top CriticEven though it has gained more than 45 minutes, it doesn't feel longer. Scenes that were choppy or half-baked are now allowed to play out as Fuller intended.
12/10/04
Fuller wrote and directed The Big Red One with a reporter's respect for detail and a humanist's respect for the moments that shape lives.
01/20/05
The Big Red One isn't even Fuller's greatest war film. Of those, I'd rank it fourth -- but that's not half bad.
11/09/04
Top CriticAlas, the lost version of Samuel Fuller's The Big Red One of 1980 has been found -- reassembled, actually, by the distinguished film critic Richard Schickel -- and it's a lot less than legendary. It isn't even very good.
11/12/04
Top CriticYou must see this film for one unstoppable reason, and that is Lee Marvin.
11/09/04
Top CriticThe splendid reconstructed version of this 1980 film is bigger and better than the original.
09/28/04
It's sometimes so explicit, corny and odd that you can understand why a studio had second thoughts about it. But it also now has the feel of a true epic.
12/17/04
Fuller went a step further, baring not only his soul but the wartime scars inflicted upon it. For all its merits, the 1980 version of the film denied audiences that connection. The new version both restores and reaffirms it.
01/21/05
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