Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

After watching Corvette Summer for the sole reason of seeing Mark Hamill and being so disappointed I was very hesitant to see The Big Red One for the same reason. However, I knew B-Ware had it and when I spotted a positive review of it in the British magazine Empire I thought I would give it a go. And I must say that in a world without Saving Private Ryan, I would have been impressed.

The Big Red One follows the exploits of a troop of infantry trying to get out of WWII alive. It’s pretty raw and quite brutal. Not a ‘rah rah, war is cool’ flick by any stretch. Lee Marvin plays the sergeant. Quiet, tough, fought in WWI. Mark Hamill plays Grif, sensitive cartoonist and sharpshooter who, upon the occasion of his first battle, discovers that he can’t kill another human even if that human is shooting back. Robert Carradine plays Zab, a writer who signed up looking for research material, he’s also the narrator. The other 2 main guys slurred together for me. They commented how you tried not to get to know the replacements because you knew they were "dead men that temporarily had use of their arms and legs," but the character I remember best was one of them, Kaiser played by Perry Lang. He was cannon fodder, but he was nice and memorable (at least for me.) It really is hard to tell the guys apart most of the time because they’re dirty.

And this was one of the more impressive things about the film. Considering that it’s 20 years old, it’s very realistic. The guys are dirty, they eat while they march, they’re horny, they swear, they don’t know what’s going on, a couple of them get killed when Grif freaks out at the wrong time. And there are flashes to the other side of the line attempting to give the enemy humanity. (I didn’t think those worked very well, too few, too far apart.) However, in the interim, Saving Private Ryan was more realistic, more brutal, and more people die in good, bad, and other times. Different audience.

Unfortunately, the movie lacked plot. They weren’t going to do something/ save someone/ blow something up. They were trying to get through Europe with all the appropriate body parts intact. I suppose this it more realistic, but the human mind craves structure and without it one is left confused. There was a bit of plot about the sergeant’s guilt over a German soldier he killed in the previous war that is resolved in the end. And there’s also a bit of plot about Grif’s inability to shoot another human (also neatly if heavy handedly, resolved.) But both of these subplots are so underplayed as to be nonexistent.

So if you get the irresistible urge to watch The Big Red One, rent Saving Private Ryan. It makes more sense.


Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older