The Big Red One: The Reconstruction

‘See, there’s no way you can portray war realistically, not in a movie nor in a book’, wrote Sam Fuller, the cinematic poet laureate of hard-boiled America, in his posthumously published autobiography. ‘You can only capture a very, very small aspect of it… For moviegoers to get the idea of real combat, you’d have to shoot at them every so often from either side of the screen. The casualties in the theatre would be bad for business.’ When Fuller made The Big Red One, a cinematic labour of love and a deeply personal memoir of his time in the most renowned U.S. infantry unit of WWII, he stuck to his principles – he filmed war not as it is, which is strictly speaking impossible, but as it’s remembered: as a series of images and sensations, beyond which lies an unimaginable universe of horror. When the film was released in 1980, it was cut drastically, for reasons of length, fashion and, perhaps, decorum. Over the years, the complete Big Red One remained a cinematic legend. Now, thanks to the efforts of Schickel and Jamieson, it has become a reality, and the final result is perhaps the most beautifully realized of all Fuller’s films. What was once a stately, old-fashioned epic following the progress of a hard-bitten sergeant and his four young charges, is now a singularly eloquent film, and a great one as well. And Fuller’s film is anchored by the quiet miracle of what may be Lee Marvin’s greatest performance. (KJ)