The Big Red One (1980)
Grade: 42
It is World War I, and an American soldier (Lee Marvin) stabs and kills a German soldier who is trying to surrender. He later learns that the war has ended, and that he realizes that he has committed a murder.
Flash forward to World War II. Marvin leads a platoon of soldiers on various missions in North Africa, Italy, France and Europe as they fight the hated Germans. His platoon has a low survival rate since they do such heavy front-line fighting. Only four soldiers survive mission after mission. Vinci (Bobby DiCicco) is a conceited, cigar smoking, Italian-American writer. Another is cartoonist Griff (Mark Hamill), who must confront his fear of combat with every mission. The other two soldiers aren't that interesting and aren't worth describing.
Mark Hamill hit the jackpot with the Star Wars movies, but hasn't been seen much elsewhere. This is his only other big budget film that I have seen. And his is just a supporting role.
The title of the movie comes from a patch that the soldiers wear, with a large "1" inside of it, representing their division.
Attempts at black humor don't work here. A hopelessly nervous soldier steps on a mine and is badly hurt. Marvin finds one of his balls, and reassures the soldier that he still has another one. Ha ha.
Another scene that doesn't work has a soldier annoying Vinci, who responds by putting his rifle barrel in the pest's mouth, threatening to kill him. This occurs in full view of a hundred other soldiers, and there are no repercussions from this incredible lapse of discipline.
Marvin is injured in battle, and ends up in an enemy-held hospital. The hospital is liberated, and Marvin leaves it dressed up as Arab. He goes looking for his division. This scene is supposed to be funny, but it doesn't work either.
Another curious episode has a German division playing dead, allowing Marvin and company to walk over them and poke them. The Germans are setting a trap, but they all end up massacred. Except for a German soldier who shown hiding behind a huge wooden cross. He is shown several times, but he doesn't do much of anything, and later runs away.
Germans have set up a base at an insane asylum, which must be taken by the Americans. A beautiful woman is sent in, pretending she is insane, kills several guards, then distracts a room full of soldiers to allow Americans to rush in and fire away. One of the inmates grabs a fallen soldier's guns and, grinning, shoots a bunch of fellow inmates, saying that he is sane as well. The director is trying to show the irony of people killing each other in times of war, and labelling it as sane, but the meaning falls flat.
While searching rooms for Germans, Hamill finds one. Both have rifles pointed at the other. Hamill fires first, and then slowly fires shell after shell at the unfortunate dead German. Marvin stops by after a few dozen shots, sees whats up, pats Hamill on the back and goes on. Hamill continues to slowly waste ammunition for a while longer. Perhaps this is meant to represent Hamill's overcoming his cowardice. Whatever.
Near the war's end, Marvin befriends a sick child, a starving war orphan. He gives the kid food, and the kid puts on Marvin's helmet. The kid seems to be in fair shape, but while Marvin is carting him around on his back, the child suddenly dies. Marvin carries him for another half hour, then buries him. While doing so, he meets a surrendering German soldier, and stabs him. The German collapses. Soldiers from his division meet him and have news: the war has ended. Marvin has repeated his crime from the first world war.
http://members.tripod.com/~Brian_Koller/movies.html
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