- Actors: Lee Marvin, Mark Hamill, Robert Carradine, Bobby Di Cicco, Kelly Ward
- Directors: Samuel Fuller
- Writers: Samuel Fuller
- Producers: Brian Jamieson, Douglas Freeman, Gene Corman, Richard Schickel
- Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Colour, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Widescreen, NTSC
- Language English
- Subtitles: English, French
- Region: Region 1 (US and Canada DVD formats.)
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9 - 1.85:1
- Number of discs: 1
- Classification: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) (US MPAA rating. See details.)
- Studio: Warner Home Video
- DVD Release Date: 27 April 1999
- Run Time: 113 minutes
- Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
- ASIN: 0790741814
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 42,698 in Film & TV (See Top 100 in Film & TV)
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Reviews
Amazon.co.uk Review
In Saving Private Ryan, Steven Spielberg depicts the D-day landings with a realism lauded by veterans. The Big Red One 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 Pickup on South Street and The Naked Kiss. The Big Red One 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 Europe, 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 humour 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, The Big Red One 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. --Robert Horton
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape
This film is very true, in the way that great art can be true. It is not, admittedly, GREAT film making, yet it does, especially given the period within which it was made, tell many truths about both warfare and the Second World War in particular. We have been spoilt since the late eighties by a stream of realistic war films, which should nevertheless not prevent us from enjoying The Big Red One. With what now seem like school play production values when compared to such as Full Metal Jacket, incedentally filmed at Bassingbourn, Cambridgeshire, and the Isle of Dogs - before development, realistic it is not, yet it is one of the most truthful depictions of warfare yet made.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
great film ,all the way from north africa to the horror of the camps.very believable and the actors are true to the war (i was there ) bit weak at the end ,however very enjoyable .
Format:DVD
This film is fantastic. It's not quite Saving Private Ryan or Band of Brothers, but I don't think it's about the same thing. Obviously it's about the second world war, but the way it goes about doing it is different. There are many powerful moments, especially the end one, and all the actors are brilliant, Mark Hammil being better than he was in Star Wars.
At first it seems a little disjointed and sketchy, but that's the way it was meant to be filmed, and when you get into it it really is one of the best war films ever. Seriously. You need to watch this.
At first it seems a little disjointed and sketchy, but that's the way it was meant to be filmed, and when you get into it it really is one of the best war films ever. Seriously. You need to watch this.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Absolute rubbish
If you are thinking of buying this movie - don't bother. It is disjointed, boring and there's minimal decent action in it. Read more
Published on 4 Aug 2003 by Neil Sawyer
Neither worst nor best.
This offers nothing new to war films, but is better made than most. It has some surprising moments, and captures the mixture of black humour, grimness and downright misery of... Read more
Published on 13 May 2002
Possibly the nadir of entertainment!
This film has the dubious distinction of being the only 'film' other than the star wars trilogy to star Mark Hamil and only confirms that he has the acting abilities of a plank of... Read more
Published on 20 Jan 2001
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