History Film / TheBigRedOne

The film follows a [[TheSquad squad of soldiers]] and their GrizzledVeteran sergeant, members of the U.S. Army's 1st Infantry Division – aka "The Big Red One" – from the beginning of America's participation in the war in the African and European theater to the end. This film is BasedOnATrueStory, specifically that of Sam Fuller, who served in the 1st Infantry Division during the war and observed and participated in many of the events the film depicts.

[[quoteright:310:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Big_Red_7257.jpg]]

It follows a [[TheSquad squad of soldiers]] and their GrizzledVeteran sergeant, members of the U.S. Army's 1st Infantry Division – aka "The Big Red One" – from the beginning of America's participation in the war in the African and European theater to the end. This film is BasedOnATrueStory, specifically that of Sam Fuller, who served in the 1st Infantry Division during the war and observed and participated in many of the events the film depicts.

The original release suffered from heavy ExecutiveMeddling and received lukewarm responses in the 1980s. In that time, the Director's cut and ReCut became common with the re-releases of ''Film/HeavensGate'', ''Film/OnceUponATimeInAmerica'', ''Film/LawrenceOfArabia'' and ''Film/BladeRunner''; and Fuller hoped for a restoration of his long version. He died in 1997 but his widow Christa Fuller and film historian Richard Schickel managed to secure the restoration and release of ''The Big Red One: Reconstruction'' in 2004, which received significant acclaim and allowed the film to be VindicatedByHistory as one of the greatest and most accurate WarMovies ever made. It's forty minutes longer than the original released version, with new scenes and sequences clarifying and deepening the story.

''The Big Red One'' (1980) is a classic American UsefulNotes/WorldWarII movie written directed by Creator/SamuelFuller and starring Creator/LeeMarvin, Creator/RobertCarradine, and Creator/MarkHamill.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Big_Red_7257.jpg]]

''The Big Red One'' (1980) is a classic war movie directed by Creator/SamuelFuller, set during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and starring Creator/LeeMarvin, Creator/RobertCarradine, and Creator/MarkHamill.

It follows a [[TheSquad squad of soldiers]] and their GrizzledVeteran sergeant, members of the U.S. Army's 1st Division--"The Big Red One"--from the beginning of America's participation in the war in the African and European theater to the end. This film is BasedOnATrueStory, specifically the director Fuller's, who served in the US First Infantry Division during the war and observed and participated in many of the events the film depicts.

The original version suffered heavy ExecutiveMeddling and received lukewarm responses in the 1980s. In that time, the Director's cut and ReCut became common with the re-releases of ''Film/HeavensGate'', ''Film/OnceUponATimeInAmerica'', ''Film/LawrenceOfArabia'' and ''Film/BladeRunner''; and Fuller hoped for a restoration of his long version. He died in 1997 but his widow Christa Fuller and film historian Richard Schickel managed to restore ''The Big Red One : Reconstruction'' released in 2004 which received significant acclaim and allowed the film to be VindicatedByHistory as one of the greatest and most accurate WarMovies ever made. It's 40 minutes longer than the original version with new scenes and sequences clarifying and deepening the story.

* ActionGirl / BadassBystander: Civilian women are shown killing on several occasions; the Sicilian peasants who scythe a wounded German soldier, the Resistance woman cutting throats in the madhouse, and the Belgian innkeeper who shoots dead a German infiltrator.

* NotSoDifferent: Lampshaded at the end when it's pointed out the squad have more in common with the German soldier they're carrying to an aid station, than the replacements who were killed before they knew their names. Namely, that all of them are still alive.

* CoolOldGuy: Sarge might order his men to run into their deaths as necessary, but he's clearly neither heartless nor ineffective at being a sergeant.

* UnfriendlyFire: Sergeant Schroeder gets shot in the back by a Panzer's machine gun in the Kasserine Pass. Earlier he'd gunned down one of his men who refused to continue fighting. Creator/LeeMarvin's character is regarded by TheSquad as perfectly capable of this, and on Omaha Beach he starts shooting at Griff when he hesitates to run forward with the bangalore torpedo.

The original version suffered heavy ExecutiveMeddling and received lukewarm responses in the 1980s. In that time, the Director's cut and ReCut became common with the re-releases of ''Film/HeavensGate'', ''Film/OnceUponATimeInAmerica'', ''Film/LawrenceOfArabia'' and ''Film/BladeRunner''; and Fuller hoped for a restoration of his long version. He died in 1997 but his widow Christa Fuller and film historian Richard Schickel managed to restore ''The Big Red One : Reconstruction'' released in 2004 which recieved significant acclaim and allowed the film to be VindicatedByHistory as one of the greatest and most accurate WarMovies ever made. It's 40 minutes longer than the original version with new scenes and sequences clarifying and deepening the story.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:The squad saves Schroeder, but Zab realizes that so many others had died during the whole damn mess.]]

* {{Bookends}}: The movie opens - during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI - and ends - during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII - with Creator/LeeMarvin knifing Germans who both insist their wars are over. They're both right. [[spoiler: the squad is able to save the life of the second German in time.]]

* CoolOldGuy: Sarge.
* CreatorCameo (deleted scene): Sam Fuller plays a war correspondent.

* FriendToAllChildren: The Sarge.

** Subverted by the one asylum resident who picks up a submachine gun and joins the battle, declaring himself sane in the process.

* MadeOfExplodium: By design, the Bangalore Torpedo is a big pipe bomb. One character has to assemble one of these while being shot at by the Germans. When he hesitates, Sarge shoots at him to keep him moving.

* NotSoDifferent: Lampshaded at the end when it's pointed out the squad have more in common with the German soldier they're carrying to an aid station, than the replacements who were killed before they knew their names.

** Was one of the first war movies to not focus on a specific battle or person, detailing instead the drudgery and sudden shocks that happen in every battlefield any Army unit enters.
* RedShirt: Replacements get killed, but not the 'four horsemen' veterans who've learned to survive on the battlefield.

* ScreamingBirth

* SpotTheImposter (deleted scene): During the Battle of the Bulge the men are dining at a Belgian inn; the woman who owns it realises one of them is a German infiltrator from the way he eats.

--> ''""We'd all made it through we were alive. I'm gonna dedicate my book to those who shot but didn't get shot, because it's about survivors. And surviving is the only glory in war, if you know what I mean."''

* EvilTwin: Schroeder, the German sergeant who keeps popping up on the opposite side of the battlefield from our heroes. [[spoiler:He's the German that Sarge stabs on the eve of Germany's surrender.]]

''The Big Red One'' (1980) is a classic war movie directed by Creator/SamuelFuller, set during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and starring Creator/LeeMarvin, Robert Carradine, and Creator/MarkHamill.

The original version suffered heavy ExecutiveMeddling and received lukewarm responses in the 1980s. In that time, the Director's cut and ReCut became common with the re-release of ''Film/LawrenceOfArabia'' and ''Film/BladeRunner'' and Fuller hoped for a restoration of his long version. He died in 1997 but his widow Christa Fuller and film historian Richard Schickel managed to restore ''The Big Red One : Reconstruction'' released in 2004 which recieved significant acclaim and allowed the film to be VindicatedByHistory as one of the greatest and most accurate WarMovies ever made. It's 40 minutes longer than the original version with new scenes and sequences clarifying and deepening the story.

''The Big Red One'' (1980) is a classic war movie directed by Creator/SamuelFuller, set during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and starring Creator/LeeMarvin, Robert Carradine and Creator/MarkHamill. It follows a [[TheSquad squad of soldiers]] and their GrizzledVeteran sergeant, members of the U.S. Army's 1st Division--"The Big Red One"--from the beginning of America's participation in the war in the African and European theater to the end. This film is BasedOnATrueStory, specifically the director Fuller's, who served in the US First Infantry Division during the war and observed and participated in many of the events the film depicts.

** Subverted by the one asylum resident who picks up a rifle and joins the battle, declaring himself sane in the process.

''The Big Red One'' (1980) is a classic war movie directed by Creator/SamuelFuller, set during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and starring Creator/LeeMarvin, Robert Carradine and Creator/MarkHamill. It follows a [[TheSquad squad of soldiers]] and their GrizzledVeteran sergeant from the beginning of America's participation in the war in the African and European theater to the end. This film is BasedOnATrueStory, specifically the director Fuller's, who served in the US First Infantry Division during the war and observed and participated in many of the events the film depicts.

* AManIsNotAVirgin: Griff gets some grief among his buddies for being a little too shy around women. [[spoiler:Zab spots Griff providing cover for the LaResistance woman during the asylum raid and grins mischievously.]]

* CaliforniaDoubling: Most of the film was shot in Israel. Led to a HarsherInHindsight moment for the director when he noticed a large number of film extras take off their German helmets to reveal their Jewish yarmulkes during lunch breaks.
** Handwaved when someone asks what palm trees are doing in a Belgian monastery. Apparently the monk "had a yen for them".

* UsefulNotes/GaulsWithGrenades: In this case, Vichy and Moroccan Goumier soldiers.

* UsefulNotes/NazisWithGnarlyWeapons
* UsefulNotes/NewRomanLegions: The squad, and pretty much the rest of the 1st Infantry fights Italian troops when they hit the Sicilian beaches.

* UsefulNotes/WorldWarI: The story actually starts with "Sarge" scouting on Nov 11, 1918, and [[spoiler:killing a German soldier after the 11 am official end to the War. It's bookended with the German Sergeant at the end of the movie]]
* UsefulNotes/WorldWarII: Well, duh.
* UsefulNotes/YanksWithTanks

** ValuesDissonance: This is in fact a theme of the film. Soldiers by definition have to be killers during wartime but not peacetime. These circumstances are defined, as Sarge explains to Griff, by their leaders and politicians who arrange an armistice, after which killing is not permitted anymore and a soldier has in fact committed murder. The difference between the two actions is shown to be more meaningful to Sarge, an old soldier from WW1 than it is to the far younger squad of Zab and Griff.