History Film / TheBigRedOne

''The Big Red One'' (1980) is a classic war movie directed by Creator/SamuelFuller, set during 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.

* {{Bookends}}: The movie opens - during WorldWarI - and ends - during 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.]]

** A deleted scene had Sarge's superior officer from WorldWarI show up as a General by WorldWarII. In RealLife Major General Clarence R. Huebner leading the Big Red One during WorldWarII had served as a Captain in the earlier war.

* WorldWarOne: 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]]
* WorldWarII: Well, duh.

* CaliforniaDoubling: Most of the film was shot in Israel. Led to a UnfunnyAneurysmMoment 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.

''The Big Red One'' (1980) is a classic war movie directed by Sam Fuller, set during 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.

* 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.

* PlayingPossum: Shroeder's men lie among real corpses around a knocked-out panzer and its dead crew, planning to ambush the main troops once TheSquad of Americans have finished their recon. Fortunately Creator/LeeMarvin's character notices the mixed uniforms (panzer troops have red piping on their shoulder tabs, but infantry have white).

* HomeGuard (deleted scene): TheSquad find themselves confronted by Volksturm armed with pitchforks and pictures of AdolfHitler. [[spoiler:It looks like a massacre is about to take place, but they quickly surrender when the Sarge fires his gun over their heads.]]

-->'''German soldier''': Horst Wessel was a pimp, who supplied Hitler with baby faces like you!

* WarIsHell

* TanksButNoTanks: Since most of the film is shot in Israel (see above), [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Sherman Isherman]] tanks are painted with iron crosses to somehow turn them into German Panzers.

* UsefulNotes/GaulsWithGrenades: In this case, Vichy 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.

''The Big Red One'' (1980) is a classic war movie directed by Sam Fuller, set during 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.

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

* TranslationConvention

* MadeOfExplodium: By design, the Bangalore Torpedo: Basically a pipe bomb attached to the end of a long tube. 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.
** Not quite. A [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangalore_Torpedo Bangalore Torpedo]] ''is'' a pipe-bomb; the entire section is filled with explosives, with a fusewell on one end. A round cap goes on the farthest forward section to help the pipe slide over and through grass and debris, and the sections screw into each other to make a continuous explosive charge. When the last charge is connected and the whole 'snake' is in place, a fuse is screwed into the last section, the soldier retreats, and the device is detonated (most of this is shown in the movie). Yes, they are very heavy, awkward, and dangerous.

* TanksButNoTanks: [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherman_Firefly Sherman Firefly]] tanks are painted with iron crosses to somehow turn them into German Panzers.
** Considering where it was filmed, they're probably Ishermans/51hvs (an even bigger gun 105mm!, on a Sherman chassis).

* HeyItsThatGuy: Along with [[StarWars Luke Skywalker]] the other members of the squad include [[RevengeOfTheNerds Lewis]] and a [[{{Grease}} T-Bird]].

* {{Bookends}}: The movie opens - during WorldWarI - and ends - during WorldWarII - with 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.]]

'''''The Big Red One''''' (1980) is a classic war movie directed by Sam Fuller, set during WorldWarII and starring LeeMarvin, Robert Carradine and 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.

* PlayingPossum: Shroeder's men lie among real corpses around a knocked-out panzer and its dead crew, planning to ambush the main troops once TheSquad of Americans have finished their recon. Fortunately LeeMarvin's character notices the mixed uniforms (panzer troops have red piping on their shoulder tabs, but infantry have white).

* 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. 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 Big Red One'' (1980) is a classic WarMovie directed by Sam Fuller set during WorldWarII and starring LeeMarvin, Robert Carradine and 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 movie provides examples of:

** The conversation about killing others between Sarge and Griff are mirrored by a similar conversation between The German Sergeant and his soldier. However, [[CompleteMonster the German]] Sarge shoots his pacifist soldier for being a coward.

* BreakTheCutie: [[spoiler: Near the end of the film, Griff discovers a furnace full of burnt human remains at Falkenau concentration camps. While hesitant to shoot people at the beginning of the film, upon discovering a live German soldier hiding in another over, Griff shoots the German dead, and then shoot his corpse repeatedly until he runs out of ammo. Sarge investigates, and upon discovering the situation immediately gives Griff more ammo to continue shooting.]]