|
 |
Big Red One
|
by Warner Home Video
Sales Rank: 45167
Price: $14.98
|
|
|
In <I>Saving Private Ryan</I>, Steven Spielberg depicts the D-day landings with a realism lauded by veterans. <I>The Big Red One</I> depicts the D-day landings, too, and it was made by a veteran. Writer-director Samuel Fuller, who served in the First Infantry Division from North Africa to Czechoslovakia (including the Normandy landings), made a career out of swift, punchy B movies, such as <I>Pickup on South Street</I> and <I>The Naked Kiss</I>. <I>The Big Red One</I> became Fuller's nod to A-movie filmmaking, yet it has the solid, matter-of-fact perspective of the ground-level infantryman. The episodic action ranges all over the European theater, as a tough squad of American GIs (including Mark Hamill and Robert Carradine) follow their hard-bitten sergeant (Lee Marvin, at his best) and try to stay alive. Filmed mostly in Israel, the film delivers on the requisite war-movie conventions and tough-guy humor but also introduces notes of poetry. Fuller's D-day doesn't match the pyrotechnics of Spielberg's version, but it creates power from the simple image of a dead soldier's watch, ticking away in blood-soaked surf. A fine and memorable picture, <I>The Big Red One</I> might have been even greater had it been released in Fuller's full-length cut--someday perhaps a restoration will allow the director's vision to be seen for the first time. <I>--Robert Horton</I>
Viewer Reviews
No need to rehash plot points, but suffice it to say that The Big Red One - in all it's restored glory as Fuller intended - is a true masterpiece. One of the best WWII films ever made, with heartfelt performances and great action. Watching Mark Hammill empty a clip into the german soldier who took cover in the oven towards the end is one of the most chilling scenes in movie history - showing the reality of war and how brutal an affair it always is.
Disregard the idiotic complaints here...they are obviously written by kids with no appreciation for real film making. "Too long?" laughable. And for those who didn't find it believable, reality often is stranger than fiction - everything in the film is based on Fuller's own experiences.
Back To Top
|
Big Red One
Available from Amazon
|
|
NOTICE: All product prices, availability, and specifications
are subject to verification by their respective retailers.
Copyright © 2009, Dominant Systems Corporation
info@HowlingVideo.com
Privacy Policy
Last Modified : 1-8-2009
|
