The Big Red One (1980)

The Big Red One
Directed by Samuel Fuller
Written by Samuel Fuller
1980/US
IMDb page
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Zab: [narrating] I’m gonna dedicate my book to those who shot but didn’t get shot, because it’s about survivors. And surviving is the only glory in war, if you know what I mean.

Fuller’s loose account of his service in WWII delivers a traditional war film through an outsider’s eyes. The title comes from the badge worn by members of the U.S. Army Infantry First Division in which Fuller served.

Lee Marvin plays an infantry sergeant who leads his unit of riflemen through WWII in Europe starting from a landing in North Africa through to a V-E Day celebrated in the trenches of Czechoslovakia. The unit is slowly whittled down to just four men.

With Mark Hamill as an aspiring author who looks at his experiences as material for a novel.

In the year following the release of Apocalyse Now, Fuller comes out with a combat film that could have been made in the 50s and 50s. Fuller makes it interesting with his idiosyncratic perspective on reality.