Main Cast: Lee Marvin, Mark Hamill, Robert Carradine, Bobby Di Cicco, Stéphane Audran
Release Year: 2004
Country: US
Run Time: 158 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
Iconoclastic film director Samuel Fuller spent decades nurturing his dream project, a movie about his experiences in the Army's First Infantry Division during World War II, but it wasn't until 1979 that he was able to finally bring the picture before the cameras. Unfortunately, Fuller was forced by his producers to work with a scaled-down budget, and he did not have final cut on the film; after his first rough cut ran nearly four-and-a-half hours, the studio took over editing on the project, and Fuller was vocally unhappy with the final results. In 2003, critic and film historian Richard Schickel initiated an effort to restore The Big Red One to a form that more closely resembled Fuller's original vision; using a large cache of newly discovered footage and the director's shooting script as a guide, the 113-minute theatrical version was expanded to 158 minutes, adding depth and detail to Fuller's sweeping and episodic tale of a hard-as-nails sergeant (Lee Marvin) and four inexperienced recruits under his command (Mark Hamill, Robert Carradine, Bobby Di Cicco, and Kelly Ward) as they battle their way across Africa to Europe between 1942 and 1945. Schickel's reconstruction received enthusiastic reviews when it went into limited release in the fall of 2004. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
Samuel Fuller's The Big Red One is generally well regarded, but it does suffer from excess ambition; it wants to examine the second world war's every oddity, irony, combat philosophy and battlefront (excepting the Pacific). And so it was that character development and plot continuity were sacrificed when the studio cut it to under two hours, prompting Fuller to publicly air his disappointment. Six years after Fuller's death, Richard Schickel set out to correct that via The Big Red One: Reconstruction, which restores 45 minutes of highly useful footage. Now instead of this rifle squad bouncing between Northern Africa, Sicily and Belgium in the space of barely 30 minutes, the connecting scenes contextualize their jet-setting (or maybe "boat-setting"). This reconstruction also gives a true character arc to the one German officer the story visits. With certain other characters, however, it seems Fuller never had that plan to give them better dimension. The supposed cowardice of Mark Hamill's Griff is never fleshed out -- at some points he seems morally opposed to killing, at others he fears for his life, but most often he's as jolly as can be, making his character's big moment somewhat unconvincing. One thing undercutting the film's graphic nature is how often it resorts to broad humor, or shows the rifle squad joking and reveling. Certainly, this is part of the duality of war, but The Big Red One comes up short on the gravitas half of that equation, as too few characters who die are significant. On the plus side, Lee Marvin is exceptionally dignified, and surprisingly soulful for a man with his rock-hard countenance. Fuller would be a lot happier with this particular incarnation of his passion project, but by setting such an aggressive agenda, he probably never had a clear path to a fully realized vision. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
Kelly Ward - Johnson; Siegfried Rauch - Schroeder; Serge Marquand - Rensonnet; Charles Macaulay - General/Captain; Alain Doutey - Broban; Maurice Marsac - Vichy Colonel; Colin Gilbert - Dog Face POW; Joseph Clark - Shep; Doug Werner - Switolski; Perry Lang - Kaiser; Marthe Villalonga - Mme. Marbaise; Ken Campbell - Lemchek; Howard Delman - Smitty
Credit
Peter Jamison - Art Director, Arne Schmidt - First Assistant Director, Samuel Fuller - Director, Lewis Teague - Second Unit Director, Mort Tubor - Editor, Bryan McKenzie - Editor, Lee Rich - Executive Producer, Merv Adelson - Executive Producer, Dana Kaproff - Composer (Music Score), Adam Greenberg - Cinematographer, Richard Schickel - Producer, Gene Corman - Producer, Lee Rich - Producer, Merv Adelson - Producer, Jim McBride - Screenwriter, Samuel Fuller - Screenwriter
