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recently i found a cheapo copy of sam fuller's [white dog, shock corridor] 'the big red one' at my local video store. a b-grade war movie from 1980 that covers the the entire european theatre, begining at the end of WWI and ending with the close of WWII, and follows the exploits of a grizzled seargent [a veteran of the first war, played by lee marvin] and four subbordinate infantrymen [one of whom is played by mark hamill] as they survive various episodes of the war and watch nameless soldiers around them come and go.
as far as b-movies go i think this one actually works pretty well within its limitations, has a pretty strong story coupled with a very efficient episodic narrative, and avoids a lot of the genre's cliches [a big one for me was a general lack of sentimentality], while succumbing to others, but usually pretty gracefully. it has a lot of cheesy dialogue and acting, and looks very dated [other than marvin's and hamill's visible age, i actually was convinced that it was from the sixties].
notable scenes are a mission to take out german officers camped in a still populated insane asylum [possibly owing the idea to 'king of hearts', an excellent anti-war movie from 1966 taking place in an abandoned warfront town that's been repopulated by escaped patients from a local insane asylum]; an odd moody scene of martins wandering blindly through a dark foggy forest surrounded by gunfire; and an ambush scene in which martins returns to the apocalyptic crucifix that he murdered a german under at the end of the first war. supposedly this movie was inspired by writer-director sam fuller's own experiences during the second world war.
i liked this movie, it's silly a lot of the time, but that only adds to much of it's charm. had a few effective moments of moral ambiguity, punctuated with some odd, funny, and disturbing imagery.
anyone else seen/liked this weird movie?
i give 'the big red one' a c
as far as b-movies go i think this one actually works pretty well within its limitations, has a pretty strong story coupled with a very efficient episodic narrative, and avoids a lot of the genre's cliches [a big one for me was a general lack of sentimentality], while succumbing to others, but usually pretty gracefully. it has a lot of cheesy dialogue and acting, and looks very dated [other than marvin's and hamill's visible age, i actually was convinced that it was from the sixties].
notable scenes are a mission to take out german officers camped in a still populated insane asylum [possibly owing the idea to 'king of hearts', an excellent anti-war movie from 1966 taking place in an abandoned warfront town that's been repopulated by escaped patients from a local insane asylum]; an odd moody scene of martins wandering blindly through a dark foggy forest surrounded by gunfire; and an ambush scene in which martins returns to the apocalyptic crucifix that he murdered a german under at the end of the first war. supposedly this movie was inspired by writer-director sam fuller's own experiences during the second world war.
i liked this movie, it's silly a lot of the time, but that only adds to much of it's charm. had a few effective moments of moral ambiguity, punctuated with some odd, funny, and disturbing imagery.
anyone else seen/liked this weird movie?
i give 'the big red one' a c
Last edited by linespalsy; 09-04-03 at 12:18 AM.
