'' is a
1980 War Film Written and
Directed by
Samuel Fuller . The film was heavily cut on its original release, but a restored version was premiered in
2004 , some years after Fuller's death.
Fuller saw a great deal of action in
World War II as a member of the
US First Infantry Division , which was nicknamed ''The Big Red One'' for the red "1" on the Division's shoulder patch. The movie attempts to portray the horrors of war as it affects the men on the front lines.
Lee Marvin , (who was wounded and almost killed while fighting in the Pacific during World War II), portrays a character known only as "Sergeant" (though he does refer to himself once as "Sergeant Possum").
The film starts at the end of the
First World War with the Sergeant fighting a
German . As he fights with the man, the camera moves away from the action and towards a life-size wooden
Crucifix in the backround. As we get closer we see that while the soldiers are fighting,
Christ is rotting.
When Lee returns victorious to his company's
Headquarter s he is told that the war ended hours ago and that the German was trying to surrender when Lee attacked him. Killing versus murder is a theme that repeats throughout the film.
The film cuts to the Sergeant decades later as he leads a squad of men through
North Africa ,
Sicily , then on to the
D-Day landings, where The Big Red One lands on
Omaha Beach at the start of the
Battle Of Normandy . The squad then treks though
Europe , ending up at the liberation of
Falkenau Concentration Camp (a subcamp of
Flossenbürg ) in
Czechoslovakia . The story's focus is on the four enlisted men (and Lee) who survive the war from beginning to end with their sergeant, becoming known as "The Sergeant's Four Horsemen."
Midway though the film the Sergeant crosses the same field where he stabbed the German decades before now contains a memorial:
Johnson: Would you look at how fast they put the names of all our guys who got killed?
The Sergeant: That's a World War One memorial.
Johnson: But the names are the same.
The Sergeant: They always are.
The battle scenes were generally considered realistic, though some technical details are incorrect, such as the German
Panzer s actually being Israeli
Sherman Tank s painted with German insignia, and the low budget and Israeli location is especially evident in the film's portrayal of the Normandy landings.
One of the more memorable scenes takes place in a
Mental Hospital complete with throat slashings and inmates walking around unconcerned while fighting rages and romantic music plays. As men are killed, one patient picks up an
MP40 submachine gun and begins shooting at everyone in sight, shouting, "I am one of you now! I am sane!...I am sane!".
Mark Hamill of ''
Star Wars '' fame and
Robert Carradine play supporting roles as soldiers under the leadership of the Sergeant.
- ''The Fighting First: The Untold Story of The Big Red One on D-Day'' by Flint Whitlock - 2004. ISBN 0-8133-4218-X
