The Big Red One: The Reconstruction

Back in the day, I rented a VHS copy of THE BIG RED ONE from my local Mom and Pop video only to get home and find that the tape wouldn’t play; this being the only copy the store had on the shelf, that was it for seeing what I had been told was one of the all time great war movies - a genre of which I am a big fan. Somehow over the intervening years, I never got around to viewing this classic until recently when I was reminded that the end of the summer of 2017 marked 30 years since the passing of Lee Marvin; an anniversary which prompted me to seek out a copy of the 2004 reconstituted version of what is arguably Marvin’s last great film. It made me think that fate was intervening back in the day, because that old VHS copy was the badly edited version released to theaters, while the film I saw, with more than an hour of restored scenes, is a true and full vision of what famed director Samuel Fuller deemed his masterpiece. My original loss turned out to be a real back handed gain.Fuller was one of Hollywood’s true originals, a former newspaper man and author who fought in World War II in the European theater, serving with the First Infantry Division; after the war he found employment in Hollywood, first as a scriptwriter, then as a director, specializing in B movies with a certain distinctive style, that, in time, would win him legions of fans and admirers, especially among the young film makers of the 60’s and 70’s. A Sam Fuller film often tackled subjects and themes other directors would shy away from, and his war movies, westerns and melodramas were known for their hard edged wit and for not pulling any punches. Fuller’s dream project was to make a movie about his experiences in WWII, one that took him more than two decades to get made, but finally in 1978, he was able to obtain financing and begin filming using a script he himself authored. This movie was to be an appreciation of the men Fuller had served alongside with during the war, and, I think, his way of reminding the generations that came afterward just who had fought so hard to preserve the freedoms they enjoyed. Sadly, the producers took the film away from Fuller once it was completed, cut the nearly three hour film down to less than two and released it in the late summer of 1980, where it did very lackluster business despite a good reception at the Cannes film festival and favorable reviews from critics.Though Lee Marvin and Sam Fuller did not live to see the 2004 reconstituted version of THE BIG RED ONE, I think both would be enormously proud of the restoration of one of their finest films. Though not a “director’s cut,” the DVD, with an exceptional commentary by critic Richard Schiekel, and running nearly three hours, gives us the gritty, infantryman’s view of World War II that Fuller wanted us to see. The longer version has a stronger narrative flow as the movie follows a unit of young American GI’s and their much older Sergeant (a veteran of WWI) through a series of battles with Germans, starting with North Africa and ending with the liberation of a concentration camp in Germany at the war’s end. There is one marvelously staged and striking scene after another, as these young men go from one theater of battle to another, starting out as fresh and nervous recruits and ending up as battle hardened vets, sticking together and surviving one deadly encounter with the Nazis after another, outlasting most of the replacements who come to fill the ranks; and all the time led by Marvin’s tough Sergeant, in a role that fit him as perfectly as his uniform. The young men are played by Mark Hamill, Robert Carradine (as a character based on Fuller himself), Bobby Di Cicco, and Kelly Ward; all of whom should have gone on to be much bigger stars. Seigfried Rauch is Schroeder, a German counterpart to Marvin’s Sergeant, who comes in and out of the story multiple times before the fateful final scene. One of the replacements is played by Perry Lang, whose face is familiar to anyone who watched a lot of teen comedies back in the day.What struck me most about this film is its lack of typical Hollywood war movie theatrics and heroics, as when Marvin’s Sergeant is reunited with the young men in his squad after being briefly captured during the battle at the Kasserine Pass, where most of his untested squad threw down their rifles and fled the Germans. You expect Marvin to tear them a new one when he finds them relaxing on a North African beach, which would have happened if John Wayne (who had once been considered for the part in the 50’s) had played the character. Instead, Fuller stages the reunion in a long shot, we don’t hear a word, but the emotion of the moment is clear. Hamill’s sensitive Griff, has a problem with pulling the trigger when face to face with the enemy, yet in every other way, he is a competent, brave and effective soldier (especially in the D-Day sequence), yet Griff is never confronted by his fellow infantrymen, never called “yellow” and forced to prove his courage to the satisfaction of others. There is a point to this subplot and Fuller resolves it in the finale. We get the full sense of the combat soldier’s view of this world, where the ground was constantly shifting under their feet: they are charging into a German held building and taking fire in the afternoon, and then one of them is having sex with female partisan that evening; being shot at from snipers on the way to eliminating an 88 gun, and once the deadly mission is completed, sitting down to dinner with grateful Italians. There is the constant presence of children, over and over, Fuller returns them and shows in vivid ways the impact of war upon them; this is another thing rooted in Fuller’s own wartime experience. This has to be the first film to note that American soldiers died from heat attacks on the front lines. The film had a limited budget, but Fuller did amazing things with it, they only had a couple of tanks to use, but you would never know it except from Schiekel’s commentary; the D-Day scene may pale in comparison with the one in SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, or THE LONGEST DAY, but it works within this movie. There is the expected blood and gore, but nothing like what Sam Peckinpah would have done if he’d been the director; I think Fuller would have considered that exploitive and disrespectful.With his gray hair and weathered face, Lee Marvin had his last great role as the unnamed Sergeant; he was a wounded Marine veteran of the Pacific and knew this character inside and out. Reportedly, he and Fuller were in perfect harmony on the set, each knowing what the other wanted. He clearly trusted Fuller implicitly, even going so far as to allow a degenerate German orderly to kiss him on the lips (surely a first in Marvin’s career) in the Tunis sequence when the Sergeant has been captured. I think the final sequence between the Sergeant and the small boy he has liberated from the Nazi death camp is the finest thing Marvin did in his long career; it is simply unforgettable. As the 80’s wore on, Marvin’s years of hard drinking and living caught up with him, he would pass away in 1987, and be buried at Arlington. Quite fitting for the man some of us consider to be the greatest American badass ever.Why did THE BIG RED ONE fail at the box office? By the summer of 1980, the era of the big World War II epic of the late 50’s and 60’s had passed and there seemed to be nothing more to say about a conflict fading into history; APOCALYPSE NOW was playing in theaters and audiences wanted to see movies about Vietnam; they wanted to see Mark Hamill fight Darth Vader with a light saber, not shoot Germans with an M-1 rifle. The only person anyone wanted to see fighting Nazis in the 80’s was Indiana Jones. Another good movie had fallen victim to bad timing. After the failure of THE BIG RED ONE and the shelving of his controversial film, WHITE DOG, the following year, Sam Fuller turned his back on Hollywood for good, working in Europe for many years; truly our loss.Yet, it stands now as one of the great American war films, and a definitive statement on the men who defeated Hitler’s war machine. THE BIG RED ONE is moving, but brutally unsentimental, horrific and funny at the same time, a film that gets better with repeat viewings. Wherever they are, I am sure Lee Marvin and Sam Fuller would be well pleased with how it turned out.

This movie is much better than the shorter version.

I LIKED THE MOVIE...

In regards to this movie, despite it's shortcomings, I believe it is a worthwhile movie that preceded the truly great 'war' movies that were to come in a few years after its release such as Saving Private Ryan and with some reserved feelings, Platoon as well.Now, one can watch the Normandy D-day invasion scenes and sure enough, it must have influenced Saving Private Ryan, probably the best movie I have ever seen. How about on the shore where you see the blood red water? We see that in Private Ryan and that isn't the only instance of this occurring. Private Ryan has those trivial conversations in it between the soldiers, perhaps not as well done but we have that in this movie too. But that is not even where the similarities stop.One drawback I find is honestly, I don't think it is period proper. That is done in movies we see now. Well, these Privates wear their hair fairly long for what you'd expect of the dogfaces. Also, how about when they invade Italy. Fairly well done but I think the town where they are in Sicily would actually be flying the Italian flag which is similar to the regular flag we know of except it has a symbol or coat of arms in the center of it. I'm not sure if that flag is period proper. Note, if you ever read about the Italian soccer/football teams that won 2 World Cups in the 1930s, at least the 1938 World Cup champions used the flag with the coat of arms in the middle and in that, may be a Cross, maybe that is a flag for "Royal" Italy, I'm not sure. Of course, if you read up, Italy lost more soldiers actually in World War I fighting on the side of the Allies, in fact, more than twice as many according to sources than were lost in World War II. Of course, other countries likewise made their brave sacrifices too.Continuing with the thought from the last paragraph, actually, I don't agree with one premise the movie seems to be based on in that "surviving" is what it is all about. Many men and women have fought and died for this thing we call freedom. They are the ones we honor for making the ultimate sacrifice.I know I will watch this one again even if some are saying it was on a low budget, it's rather intriguing and well done all the same. Yes, in parts it is hokey but I take that with a grain of salt considering when it was made and other factors involved. It really does not compare to the classic "Dirty Dozen" when all is said and done.

Lee Marvin at his best.Good movie.

The Big Red One (1980) is a U.S. WWII film written & directed by Samuel Fuller. The film stars Lee Marvin alongside Mark Hamill, Robert Carradine, Siegfried Rauch, Bobby Di Cicco, & Kelly Ward. The film is based on Fuller's own experiences & was produced independently on a low budget & heavily cut on its original release, but a restored version, The Big Red One: The Reconstruction (2004) features many of the scenes that were originally cut & improves the film in my opinion. Here are the pros & cons of this film as I see it, I hope this helps you.Pros:1. In my opinion, the second-best WWII movie made after Come & See (1985)2. The film is very accurate, in fact I use to listen to the stories from a Scottish gentleman inn the 1970s who served in WWII as a medic until the end of the war, & it is amazing how similar some of his experiences were to those in this film3. Lee Marvin does a great job in this film and brings credibility to many of the scenes4. Funny, I never was a Mark Hamill fan, but I like him & his acting in this film5. Since this film was based of the WWII experiences of the director, it gives credibility to the filmCons:1. If you are looking for a WWII film with constant action, special effects, computer effects, & pointless excessive gore, then this WWII film may not be for you2. Some may find this film a bit disjointed, but that is actually a more accurate portrayal of how service was in many cases in WWII & how companies experienced the war from location to location

Film di vecchia data bellissimo per chi ama questo genere. Il resto si commenta guardandolo. Consegna perfetta come al solito GRAZIE Amazon

Endlich! Der am meisten unterschätzte Kriegsfilm in seiner wahren Gestalt. Der Film selber hatte mich schon als Teenager beeindruckt. Besonders die Rahmengeschichte, die dem Sergeant unmittelbar nach Kriegsende/Waffenstillstand widerfuhr, gab den Film die Richtung vor. Hier geht's nicht um große Knallerei, Heldentum, Befreiung oder Sieg. Einzig dem Wesen des Krieges und der Absurdität desselbigen sowie der Auswirkung auf die Menschen, die daran teilnahmen, stehen hier im Vordergrund. Samuel Fuller (der Regisseur) drückte es so aus: "Der wahre Kriegsruhm besteht darin, am Leben zu bleiben." Damit kann sich der Film durchaus mit den Kernaussagen von "Black Hawk Down" und "We were Soldiers" gleichstellen, wenn nicht sogar an die Spitze stellen, da er fast 20 Jahre vor diesen entstand.Die große rote Eins ist das Zeichen für das erste amerikanische Infanterie-Regiment, die so ziemlich immer als erste an der Front war. Geschildert werden hier die (fiktiven) Erlebnisse eines Sergeants und eines Kerns seiner Soldaten, die alle Einsätze im 2. Weltkrieg überlebten: Afrika, Sizilien, Normandie usw. Die Story selber ist zwar fiktiv, beruhen aber auf den Erlebnissen Fullers, der im 2. Weltkrieg Frontkämpfer in der U.S. First Infantry war. Schon zu Beginn erscheinen die Worte: "This is Fictional Life based on Factual Death".Die Rekonstruktion durch den Kritiker und Filmemacher Richard Schickel hält sich an die letzte Drehbuchfassung Fuller's, der am 30. Oktober 1997 verstarb. Schickel wertete die noch vorhandenen 21.000 Filmmeter aus und rekonstruierte anhand des Drehbuchs, was Fuller einmal wirklich auf die Leinwand bringen wollte. Laut Fuller sollte der Film selber mal 4 Stunden gehen, in die Kinos kamen damals nur knapp die Hälfte. Nun ist der Film ca. 2 1/2 Stunden lang. Dafür sind die Szenen schlüssig zusammengesetzt. Bild und Ton sind makellos aufgearbeitet und entsprechen dem heutigen Standart. Das der Film 25 Jahre alt ist, merkt man nur am Fehlen heutiger Special Effects, die die Kämpfe wie in "Saving Private Ryan", "Black Hawk Down" und "We were Soldiers" so fotorealistisch aussehen lassen. Das schadet aber weder der Story und noch der Aussage des Films.Lee Marvin zeigte hier einer der besten Leistungen seiner Karriere. Und Mark Hamill bewies, das er mehr als nur Darthvaders Sohn spielen kann. So gut wie hier war er nie.Ich hoffe, das sich niemand an der neuen Synchronisation stört. Aus verständlichen Gründen war dies für die deutsche Sprachfassung wohl nicht anders zu lösen. Jedenfalls finde ich diese Lösung besser, als die nur neuen Filmszenen mit anderen Sprechern nachzusynchronisieren oder ganz auf deutsche Sprache zu verzichten und statt dessen nur Untertitel einzublenden.Ich wünsche mir, das mehr verstümmelte Filme so anständig restauriert und aufgearbeitet werden würden. So wird auf der Bonus-DVD nicht nur dem Regisseur, sondern auch den Restauratoren, allen voran Richard Schickel durch gelungene Dokumentationen Tribut gezollt. Außerdem gibt es noch Szenenvergleiche, nicht verwendete oder alternative Szenen, ein Promo-Special von 1979, sowie Trailer, Radiospots und eine Fotogalerie.Also Rundum ein gelungener Film, zwar kein Director's Cut, aber eine würdige Rekonstruktion.

When a film is really, really good its running time is hardly noticed. Although the reconstruction is 40 something minutes longer than the theatrical release it doesn't feel like it. Excellent performances by all the cast. Lee Marvin's best for sure.One may wonder, how many films have been ruined by the studios like the theatrical release of this one? Must be thousands, and for this film to have been "reconstructed" to close to what Mr. Fuller had originally intended is a miracle.I remember seeing this when it was first released and, outside of a few scenes, it was pretty much a run of the mill hollywood war film.Re-constructed it is a now masterpiece and should be remastered into its own UHD Blu-ray disc; keeping all the excellent extras like interviews with Sam Fuller, running commentary from Richard Schickel and the people who reconstructed it. Excellent Bang for the Buck.

This redux version is quite simply brilliant. Sam Fullers largely autobiographical telling of his wartime experience has an air of authenticity and engages you completely. The characters are flawed but plausible young men, little more than boys, led by the wonderfully grizzled old warrior played by Lee Marvin in his greatest role. It's a wonderful film and up there in the pantheon of great war movies.

Great movie - Lee Marvin the ultimate tough guy.