The Big Red One
United Artists | Release Date: July 18, 1980 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
77
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 19 Critic Reviews
Positive:
16
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0
Watch Now
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
A grand-style, idiosyncratic war epic, with wonderful poetic ideas, intense emotions, and haunting images rich in metaphysical portent. Read full review
100
NewsweekDavid Ansen
Marvin's taciturn performance--a moving demonstration of masculine grace under pressure--may be his finest. Read full review
100
L.A. Weekly
To see this seamless "reconstruction" - consisting of some 15 entirely new sequences as well as augmentations to 23 others - is to behold a masterpiece revealed. Read full review
90
VarietyStaff (Not Credited)
It's a terrific war yarn, a picture of palpable raw power which manages both Intense intimacy and great scope at the same time. (Review of Original Release) Read full review
90
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
What the movie may lack in "Saving Private Ryan"-style gloss, it more than makes up for in authenticity, or, in other words, heart. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesKevin Crust
Marvin's performance, much enhanced by "The Reconstruction," is a marvel. Read full review
88
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
The combination of old-time Hollywood valor and ahead-of-its-time surprises makes this restoration a big event. Read full review
80
The New York TimesVincent Canby
The Big Red One, for all its uncompromising brutality, is viscerally, angrily alive. Fuller was lucky to survive the war. It is our good fortune that this film, a tribute to his luck (and to those who did not share it), has come back to life. Read full review
80
SalonCharles Taylor
Fuller was never a poetic director, but in The Big Red One he finds what in himself was closest to lyricism. Fuller's movie is like flowers thrown on a battlefield in remembrance, and it makes the overblown war movies that have followed seem like cheap and tatty Veteran's Day poppies. Read full review
80
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
In some respects a less tidy film than before, particularly when it veers off into a subplot involving a Nazi soldier played by Siegfried Rauch, the new cut mostly retains the original's virtues while adding details and episodes that make it more recognizably a Fuller film. Read full review
80
TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)
Powerful, humorous, and touching. (Review of Original Release) Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Hard-boiled, filled with action, held together by male camaraderie, directed with a lean economy of action. It's one of the most expensive B-pictures ever made, and I think that helps it fit the subject. "A" war movies are about War, but "B" war movies are about soldiers. (Review of Original Release) Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Reissued with the addition of 50 minutes trimmed from the original 1980 cut, Fuller's only A-budget movie is still among the lesser works of this frequently brilliant filmmaker. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy Burr
There are sequences in The Big Red One that you can't forget, and every one of them could have been made better with a bigger budget and a realism that was beyond Fuller's grasp at the time. Read full review
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerBill White
In his lifetime, Fuller longed for a restoration of what he considered his most personal film. Schickel's version is a labor of love that, despite the controversy it is bound to ignite, comes close to fulfilling the director's vision. Read full review
70
The New YorkerAnthony Lane
Its kitschy grabs at the surreal--the scene in a lunatic asylum, where German troops are billeted, manages to be at once implausible and offensive--that blocks any close engagement with the drama. That said, you must see this film for one unstoppable reason, and that is Lee Marvin. Read full review
60
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Certainly a testament to Fuller's tenacity, but recent raves notwithstanding, it's no masterpiece...The Big Red One isn't even Fuller's greatest war film. Of those, I'd rank it fourth -- but that's not half bad. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Lee Marvin, it must be said, is terrific as the platoon commander, and Fuller deserves props for the film's one sustained sequence: the D-Day attack, in which the platoon gets pinned on the beach for a hellish eternity. Read full review
40
Washington PostStephen Hunter
Though 45 minutes longer than the original release, still feels thinner, less complex, more mythic and far less compelling. Read full review
More From This Movie

77 Critic Reviews

8.0 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 72 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL