Yes. You read the title correctly. I just finished watching Samuel Fuller's 1980 war film The Big Red One. It's the restored/reconstructed version.I remember first watching Lee Marvin in one of my 8th grade elective classes. The movie was Cat Ballou. I also saw him in The Dirty Dozen. I think that's it. I wanna say that I've seen Paint Your Wagon. But, I may be lying.
Anywah...Yes. I am in love with him. There was just something about him in The Big Red One that got me goin' on him.
The film is moving, daunting and funny. Two scenes that are full of tenderness involved children. One with an Sicilian girl and the other with a Jewish boy. A scene of buoyancy involved these Sicilian women and children freed from German soldiers' hold on them in their village. There was much food, song and laughter. A scene of duality had the guys capture this Nazi boy who kept heil-ing to Hitler and the Sargeant forcing one of his men to shoot the kid. None of them would so the boy got a spankin' and his heil-ing to Hitler changed to him calling out for his papa. A hilarious scene had the guys helping to give birth to a Frenchwoman's child. The "qualified" of the group needed the woman to push but he didn't know the French for the word. The Sargeant said that it was, "pousser." Yep. They had fun with that word! There was a great scene of observation at a dinner table while all the men were eating and the French cook was eyeing and comparing how every one was eating. She caught the infiltrator. Whoops!
Now, there is an asylum scene. The star of that segment would be ... wait for it ... Stéphane Audran. She's a killer (named Walloon) that works for the underground and kills in silence, all the while acting insane in front of the Nazis. Yikes! If you blink, you'll miss her. That's how much time she has in the film. Well, maybe if you blink a few more times than once! She also has this tender, yet extremely carnal and desirous, scene with Robert Carradine. *le whew*
Another scene that took my breath away (and for a different reason than above) had this Nazi in a ward speaking to an injured Lee Marvin and kissing him. Mm. There's was the kiss on the cheek, the kiss on the lips, another on the lips, and then *whoops* here comes the hand of Lee's to the throat of the Nazi.
I thought the rest of the cast (Mark Hamill, Bobby Di Cicco, Kelly Ward) were first-rate. I'm not a war film kind of a gal but I think this one's a great one. The camaraderie of the men! There are many battle sequences but not much on the gore and blood, which I was VERY fine with. I mean, Samuel Fuller could have gone gore-out on the sequence in which Stéphane slashes away at the Nazis but he doesn't. I do understand about making things believeable but it's very difficult for me to watch and I usually don't. If I had a choice between gratuitious violence or gratuitious sex. If I HAD to choose... Well, it wouldn't be violence. But, gratuitous sex can also make me sick. So, I choose... Can I choose neither? Hey! Wait a second! This is my blog. I don't have to answer anything!
The sound on the following clip is a tish out of sync. *boo*
