--- title: "The Big Red One" year: 1980 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-big-red-one" fi1m_id: "the-big-red-one" imdb_id: "tt0080437" tmdb_id: 16121 wikidata_id: "Q303136" fi1m_score: 82 critics_score: 84 critics_reviews: 9 published: "2026-09-26T00:47:44.453791+00:00" updated: "2026-09-26T00:47:44.928905+00:00" region: "ES" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # The Big Red One (1980) Directed by Samuel Fuller · 1h 53m · Drama, War ## Identity The Big Red One - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/the-big-red-one - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** the-big-red-one - **IMDb ID:** tt0080437 - **TMDB ID:** 16121 - **Wikidata ID:** Q303136 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080437/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/16121, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q303136 **Fi1m score: 82** · Critics 84 from 9 reviews *In a sentence:* Five men walk from North Africa to the end of the war and refuse to learn the new boys’ names > Samuel Fuller’s account of the infantry war he fought himself is blunt, cheap in places and unsentimental to the bone, with Lee Marvin at its centre doing almost nothing and doing it perfectly. The younger men are types, and the money shows. It still lands. ## Synopsis In 1918, a lone American infantryman bayonets a German who is walking towards him with his hands raised, then learns the war ended four hours earlier. Twenty-four years on that soldier is the Sergeant (Lee Marvin), and he is wading ashore in North Africa with a squad of the 1st Infantry Division. Among his riflemen are Zab (Robert Carradine), a cigar-chewing would-be novelist who narrates, Griff (Mark Hamill), the best shot in the platoon and the one man who cannot fire at a face, Vinci (Bobby Di Cicco) and Johnson (Kelly Ward). The Vichy French on the beach may fire or may not. Replacements arrive, die, and the four survivors agree not to learn their names. A German sergeant, Schroeder (Siegfried Rauch), is fighting the same war from the other side. ## Review Samuel Fuller served as a rifleman with the 1st Infantry Division in the Second World War, and he spent the decades afterwards trying to get its story on to a screen. *The Big Red One* is what he got: a sergeant and four riflemen followed from a beach in North Africa in 1942 to the last days of the war in Europe, in episodes joined by a title card and a map. It is told by a man who was there and did not think it needed dressing up. We think it is one of the best American films about that war, and we also think a newcomer may spend the first twenty minutes wondering what the fuss is about. The opening sets the tone. In 1918 a soldier bayonets a German who is walking towards him with his hands up, then learns the war has been over for four hours. The soldier is the Sergeant, played by Lee Marvin, and the film never gives him a name. By 1942 he is leading a squad that includes Zab (Robert Carradine), who chews cigars and narrates the film as if dictating the novel he means to write, Griff (Mark Hamill), the best shot among them and the one who cannot pull the trigger on a man he can see, Vinci (Bobby Di Cicco) and Johnson (Kelly Ward). Replacements turn up, die and are forgotten. The four of them agree not to learn any more names. It sounds like a hard line. Fuller plays it as housekeeping. Marvin does not seem to be acting. He walks slightly stooped, speaks in a flat murmur, and when he does something kind he does it exactly as he does something brutal, without changing his face. The scene we did not expect is the one where the squad delivers a baby inside a tank, and the Sergeant, having pulled rubber over his fingers, talks a frightened woman through it in a language she does not speak. We laughed at the set-up and then the child cried and we were nearer to tears than we were ready to be, because Marvin never once lets the moment know it is moving. Adam Greenberg shoots the desert in hard white light with almost no shadow, so that men stand out against it like targets, which is the point. On the Normandy beach he keeps the camera down in the surf, at the height of a man lying in it. The famous image there is a dead soldier’s wristwatch, returned to by editor Morton Tubor as the water rises and reddens around it. We were horrified by that watch, more than by any of the bodies, and it costs nothing; there is no wide shot of the landing because Fuller could not afford one and did not need one. Dana Kaproff’s score has the good sense to sit out the fighting. The flaws are plain. The four young men are types more than people, and Hamill, who is given the only real arc, plays it with care while the writing does most of the work. Vinci and Johnson are barely there. Zab’s voice-over has a habit of telling us what a scene has just shown. Siegfried Rauch’s Schroeder, a German sergeant who keeps reappearing as the Sergeant’s mirror, is the one device that feels written rather than remembered. Against that, Stéphane Audran turns up as a Walloon woman for a single sequence that is as strange as anything Fuller ever shot, and the second half arrives somewhere we will not describe. The version that reached cinemas in 1980 runs 113 minutes and was cut down against Fuller’s wishes; a longer reconstruction was assembled after his death, and several critics prefer it. We think the short one already says what it means. Fuller made *The Steel Helmet* thirty years earlier, and it is the leaner film. This one is the fuller account, and the one he wanted made. Watch it with the sound up and no phone to hand. It is a 15 certificate, and the deaths in it are quick, frequent and given no music at all. *Fi1m score 82, published 26 September 2026.* ## Straight answers **Is The Big Red One worth watching?** *The Big Red One* is worth watching for anyone who wants a war film told plainly by a man who fought in it, and we scored it 82. Lee Marvin's Sergeant is the reason to see it; the younger riflemen are types, and the low budget shows in places. Give the first twenty minutes time to settle. **How long is The Big Red One, and what is it rated?** *The Big Red One* runs 1h 53m. It is a drama and war film. **Where can I watch The Big Red One in Spain?** *The Big Red One* is available to rent from Amazon Prime Video from €3.99. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service. **How violent or frightening is The Big Red One, and is it suitable for children?** *The Big Red One* is a 15 certificate in the UK, and the deaths in it are quick, frequent and given no music at all. It is not frightening in a horror sense, but there is a Normandy landing shot from the surf and a dead soldier's watch that horrified us more than any body. Not for children; older teenagers should cope. **How does The Big Red One compare to Come and See?** *The Big Red One* is the drier and more bearable of the two; [*Come and See*](https://film.one/film/come-and-see) is the hardest war film we know. Fuller follows American infantrymen with a flat, unsentimental humour, while Klimov follows a Belarusian boy through terror with punishing sound. Klimov's is the greater film; Fuller's is the one you can watch twice. **What should I watch after The Big Red One?** After *The Big Red One*, try [*Come and See*](https://film.one/film/come-and-see) (1985, Fi1m 92): A Soviet boy walks through Belarus in 1943; the hardest war film we know. Then [*The Ascent*](https://film.one/film/the-ascent) (1977, Fi1m 88): Two Soviet partisans in the snow; Larisa Shepitko’s film is quiet and merciless. ### Reviews we read (9) - **Slant Magazine**, Nick Schager (4/4): Schager praises Fuller’s unsentimental, episodic portrayal of war as absurd, cruel, and inescapable. He singles out the film’s visceral combat sequences and its compassionate focus on soldiers and children caught in the violence. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/the-big-red-one/) - **Variety**, Variety Staff (90/100, inferred): The critic calls it a terrific, powerfully intimate war story that also achieves great scope. They praise its fast-paced telling of the European land war through the eyes of five foot soldiers. [Read](https://variety.com/1979/film/reviews/the-big-red-one-1200424646/) - **Empire**, Angie Errigo (88/100, inferred): Errigo gives the film a strongly positive verdict, calling it a great and unusually immediate war film. She singles out Fuller’s intimate, unsentimental depiction of combat and the soldiers’ lived experience. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/big-red-one-review/) - **Los Angeles Times**, Kevin Crust (85/100, inferred): Crust finds the restored cut elevates the film into a compelling epic. He especially praises Lee Marvin’s performance and the film’s tense, carefully staged action. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-jan-21-et-bigred21-story.html) - **RogerEbert.com**, Roger Ebert (85/100, inferred): Ebert’s Great Movies feature treats the film as a powerful, unsentimental account of war. It especially values Fuller’s humane perspective on the soldiers’ experiences. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-big-red-one-1980) - **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw (85/100, inferred): Bradshaw argues that the film’s brash, expressionistic vision makes a strong case for its status as a crazy masterpiece. He praises its superbly contrived images and ingenuous passion for conveying the madness of war. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2005/apr/29/5) - **Radio Times**, John Marriott (4/5): Marriott considers the film a powerful return to form and one of Fuller's most accomplished features. He praises its poetic, graphic account of combat, anchored by Lee Marvin's performance as the sergeant. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-gsw27x/the-big-red-one/) - **The New York Times**, A.O. Scott (75/100, inferred): The critic views the film as a powerful, unsentimental account of war. He singles out its focus on survival rather than glory. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/02/movies/theres-no-glory-in-war-unless-you-mean-survival.html) - **Time Out**, TR (64/100, inferred): The page identifies this as a review, but the review text is unavailable, so its verdict cannot be determined. No specific praise or complaint is visible in the available content. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-big-red-one) ## Details - **Director:** Samuel Fuller - **Director:** Samuel Fuller - **Writer:** Samuel Fuller - **Cinematography:** Adam Greenberg - **Editor:** Morton Tubor - **Music:** Dana Kaproff - **Producer:** Gene Corman - **Cast:** Lee Marvin as The Sergeant; Mark Hamill as Griff; Robert Carradine as Zab; Bobby Di Cicco as Vinci; Kelly Ward as Johnson; Stéphane Audran as Walloon; Siegfried Rauch as Schroeder; Serge Marquand as Rensonnet - **Runtime:** 1h 53m - **Release (Spain):** 8 October 1980 - **Genres:** Drama, War - **Budget:** $4 million - **Box office:** $7 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D911lxh4tm0 ## Where to watch in Spain - Amazon Prime Video: rent €3.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy €8.99, hd *Checked 2026-09-26.* Also available in: AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, DE, DK, ES, FR, GB, IE, IT, LT, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *The Steel Helmet* (1951): Fuller’s Korean War film, shot in days, meaner and faster than this one - *Come and See* (1985), Fi1m 92: A Soviet boy walks through Belarus in 1943; the hardest war film we know — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/come-and-see.md) - *Cross of Iron* (1977): Peckinpah on the Eastern Front, with James Coburn as another sergeant who trusts nobody - *A Walk in the Sun* (1945): One platoon, one morning in Italy, and the talk between the shooting - *The Ascent* (1977), Fi1m 88: Two Soviet partisans in the snow; Larisa Shepitko’s film is quiet and merciless — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-ascent.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/the-big-red-one