The Big Red One

Samuel Fuller's valedictory war picture, The Big Red One follows the First Infantry Division from Africa to Europe during the years 1942 through 1945. Lee Marvin portrays the division sergeant; he's tough and experienced, to be sure, but he takes on his job with cool professionalism rather than ...more

Some critics would select maverick director-writer Samuel Fuller's The Big Red One as the best war movie ever made. It is certainly one of the most terrifying. In its unforgiving and realistic action scenes, it matches the immediacy of the first half of Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan. In its allegorical nature, it presages Terrence Malick The Thin Red Line. Fuller's script is a loosely connected series of vignettes, based on his own World War II experiences, that follow a rifle squad ...more