The Big Red One

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Videos & Photos

  • Official Trailer

Movie Info & Cast

Director:

Samuel Fuller

Producer:

Gene Corman, Douglas Freeman, Richard Schickel

Release Date:

Jul 1, 1980

Runtime:

1hr 53m

Synopsis

A hardened sergeant and the four core members of his infantry unit try to survive World War II as they move from battle to battle throughout Europe.

Cast

  • Lee Marvin
  • Mark Hamill
  • Robert Carradine
  • Bobby Di Cicco
  • Kelly Ward
  • Stéphane Audran
  • Siegfried Rauch
  • Serge Marquand
  • Charles Macaulay
  • Alain Doutey

Letterboxd User Reviews

3.7
22.7K
16.4K
4.6K
RATINGS 25 FANS
3.7
  • Sep 22, 2024

    classic fuller experience in that it was slightly off-putting from front to back but still enjoyable. lee marvin is tailor-made for this role. poussez joke worked better than it should

    271 Likes
    Karsten
    Karsten
    Sep 20, 2014

    I know there's someone out there that watches this and sees glory and excitement, but I can't imagine what they must be like. Almost every soldier I've ever spoken to has mentioned how unrealistic war movies are, but that hardly means the movies don't adequately convey some…

    143 Likes
    Sally Jane Black
    Sally Jane Black
    Oct 14, 2018

    "By now we'd come to look at all the replacements as dead men who temporarily had the use of their arms and legs. They came and went so fast and so regular that sometimes we didn't even get to know their names. Truth is, after a while, we sort of avoided getting to…

    123 Likes
    Neil Bahadur
    Neil Bahadur
  •
    Dec 2, 2019

    The Big Red One, written and directed by Samuel Fuller, is an epic war movie full of living and breathing characters. Most of them founded on personalities Fuller encountered between 1942 and 1945, and it’s a movie which contains plenty of moments that are comprehensively…

    90 Likes
    Paul Elliott
    Paul Elliott
    Dec 30, 2023

    An absolutely elite war film that reads like a hangout movie interspersed with inconvenient battle interludes. It doesn't seem like there is really much of a plot to this. But is there really a plot to war? Samuel Fuller tries to conjure one with the brilliant "Oops I did…

    87 Likes
    Swartacus
    Swartacus
    Jul 13, 2016

    What doesn't this war movie have? - Big speeches - Monologues about 'back home' - Emotional death scenes - Acts of heroism - Anyone with special skills besides a few words of German or Italian Sam Fuller's masterpiece, released in butchered form in 1980 then…

    82 Likes
    Rick Burin
    Rick Burin
  •
    Apr 4, 2020

    ”Don’t panic, live people are watching us…It’s a bushwhack.” War, horror and humor are all brought together in this powerful series of war stories as seen through the eyes of a battalion led by the marvelous Lee Marvin. It’s not a perfect film, but it’s easy to see…

    48 Likes
    📀 Cammmalot 📀
    📀 Cammmalot 📀
    Mar 5, 2021

    [Reconstruction Version] You'd think this longer cut would have enough room for the Hellfish Bonanza story but no.

    44 Likes
    matt lynch
    matt lynch
    May 27, 2025

    A true behemoth of a film. Arguably, Lee Marvin's finest performance.

    38 Likes
    HalloweenH
    HalloweenH
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Queue Community Reviews

84%
Community 172
❤️ LOVE
21%
👍 LIKE
63%
😐 MEH
5%
👎 DISLIKE
11%
Top Reviews
  • MovieDaddy
    MovieDaddy liked
    The Big Red One

    Unquestionably the most underrated WWII film made to date. Mark Hamill steps out of the Skywalker shadow and gives a brilliant performance of a soldier in a platoon experiencing all the horrors of war together. More people need to know about this flick.

    🔥 1 3Y
    David Wintman
    David Wintman liked
    The Big Red One

    Interesting… But it was hard to get past Caradine as a narrator. All I kept hearing was revenge of the nerds.

    1Y
    Clark Griswold
    Clark Griswold is "meh" on
    The Big Red One

    Honestly kinda long and drawn out

    2Y
  • Liam Bonnici
    Liam Bonnici loved
    The Big Red One

    This is definitely it

    1Y
View More Popular The Big Red One Reviews on Queue

Atom Users Reviews

No one has posted a user review yet.

Metacritic

77
metacritic
Based on 19 Critics
8.0

USER SCORE (6)

Generally favorable reviews based on 6 Reviews
100

A grand-style, idiosyncratic war epic, with wonderful poetic ideas, intense emotions, and haunting images rich in metaphysical portent.

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Metacritic review by Jonathan Rosenbaum
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Chicago Reader
75

Hard-boiled, filled with action, held together by male camaraderie, directed with a lean economy of action. It's one of the most expensive B-pictures ever made, and I think that helps it fit the subject. A war movies are about War, but B war movies are about soldiers. (Review of Original Release)

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Metacritic review by Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
100

Marvin's taciturn performance--a moving demonstration of masculine grace under pressure--may be his finest.

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Metacritic review by David Ansen
David Ansen
Newsweek
See All Critic Reviews on Metacritic.com

Frequently Asked Questions

Is The Big Red One (1980) family-friendly?
The movie has been rated as PG (Parental Guidance Suggested). It's generally considered a family-friendly movie.
How long is The Big Red One (1980)?
The movie is 1hr 53min long.
What's The Big Red One (1980) about?
A hardened sergeant and the four core members of his infantry unit try to survive World War II as they move from battle to battle throughout Europe.
Who's the cast of The Big Red One (1980)?
  • Lee Marvin as The Sergeant
  • Mark Hamill as Pvt. Griff - 1st Squad
  • Robert Carradine as Pvt. Zab - 1st Squad
  • Bobby Di Cicco as Pvt. Vinci - 1st Squad
  • Kelly Ward as Pvt. Johnson - 1st Squad
  • Stéphane Audran as Underground Walloon Fighter at Asylum
  • Siegfried Rauch as Sgt. Schroeder
  • Serge Marquand as Rensonnet
  • Charles Macaulay as General, World War I Captain
  • Alain Doutey as Sgt. Broban - Vichy Soldier
Who's the director behind The Big Red One (1980)?
Samuel Fuller directed The Big Red One (1980).
Who produced The Big Red One (1980)?
Gene Corman, Douglas Freeman and Richard Schickel produced The Big Red One (1980).