Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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38 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fullers masterpiece restored to it,s full gory glory, 8 Jun 2005
This film originally premiered at Cannes in 1980. Unfortunately the producers, fearful it would seem of bringing down another "Heavens Gate" on the film industry, had eviscerated director Sam Fuller's original lengthy cut to less than two hours. This rendered the film so incomprehensible that it needed a voice over, a la "Bladerunner", to bridge the gaps where the original footage was missing so it made some sort of vague sense to the audience. The producers had deemed also that Fullers film was too violent. Imagine a war film too violent. It's a bit like complaining about a comedy because it's too funny.
Last year Cannes was treated to this restored version of Fullers bloody visceral masterpiece and it went down a storm. At last this film was seen as Fuller originally intended it, eight years after his death? Restored with original material by a team headed by film critic Richard Schikel, who provides a typically dry but informative commentary, this is a film with the resolute stamp of empirical authority. Fuller had fought inWW2, taking part in the Omaha beach landings and his minds eye view of proceedings lends the film a veracity few films can match.
The main characters are all part of the First Infantry, the "Big Red One", so called because of the red ribbons they wore on their shoulders. Ex Marine Lee Marvin in his last great role plays the gruff Sergeant along with Privates Griff, Zab, Vinci and Johnson. Griff is played by Mark Hamill at the peak of his "Star Wars" fame, and we see him morph from a reticent soldier to a diffident pitiless killer. We follow them from the Omaha beach landing right through to the liberation of a Nazi death camp and the film is essentially a series of intense brutal action sequences interspersed with periods of quiet refection, ennui and the cold dread of impending death. There is a grim humour in the script- you'll probably laugh as one unfortunate soldier gets a testicle shot off- but there are also flashes of poetry and one or twice it is quite moving though not in the sly knowing way that a Spielberg or Stone can be.
Films about war are now being made by people who have either learnt about them second hand or are referencing other war movies and while The Big red one doesn't have anything quite as viscerally shocking as that famous opening sequence from "Saving Private Ryan" but unlike that slightly preposterous bravura jingoistic film it has genuine stamp of authority and a sense of almost documentary realism. As the slogan at the films beginning says: "This is factual life based on actual death"
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36 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sprawling, just like war, and beats all other war movies, 8 May 2005
An amazing film - you can understand why the producers didn't like it because it's too sprawling, and serious, funny, desolate and thoughtful all at the same time. How do you make sense of something of the scope of this movie in 2.5 hours. Yes, the film is sprawling, and the gaps are noticable, but the sheer number of scenes describing the full diversity of human feeling are to be treasured.And if you like Lee Marvin then you need to see him in this, possibly his best acting role ever. This man doesn't need words as his face speaks volumes, like all the great actors of yester-year. There's some great supporting actors here too, and you'll finally realise Mark Hammill could act before he got his Star Wars cheque-for-life. But I digress, so back to this movie. Put simply, if you like Saving Private Ryan or (the great) Band of Brothers then you need to see this movie, to realise how much they depend on it. But forget those action movies. This is a far more complex film, as it tries to make more sense of the senselessness of war more than any other war movie, bar perhaps Mallick's Thin Red Line and Kubrick's Paths of Glory. They're the only other war movies with this depth of thought, emotion and humanity. And, of course, the sheer waste of war. Watch this and discover a lost gem, a multi faceted look into the affect war has on us.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Private Ryans Dad..., 31 May 2006
Without doubt this version is one of the greatest examinations of the effects of war on the individual. While it still displays the lack of realism in the battle sequences which are redolent of it's roots in the war films of the 60s and 70s, drawing comparisons to recent war films special effects and approach to realism being pointless given it's age; it's ability to shock by using the transformations that overtake the men as a result of the continual fighting and the horrors of war is the point of the film and the humanity displayed by them despite the ordeal. It also draws an interesting parallel to elements of both "Saving Private Ryan" and "Band of Brothers", it must have been inspirational in both cases. Far more than an action film and a fine example from it's era.
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