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The Big Red One

The real glory of war is surviving

1980 · 1h 53m · R Drama, War
Directed by Samuel Fuller

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Overview

A veteran sergeant of World War I leads a squad in World War II, always in the company of the survivor Pvt. Griff, the writer Pvt. Zab, the Sicilian Pvt. Vinci and Pvt. Johnson, in Vichy French Africa, Sicily, D-Day at Omaha Beach, Belgium and France, and ending in a concentration camp in Czechoslovakia where they face the true horror of war.

Director and cast

Critics on Rotten Tomatoes

Top critics, in their words

All reviews
90%
Tomatometer
Fresh

A big, impressive slab of drama -- maybe not a masterpiece or an epic, but a colorful story that sweeps you up and covers a lot of ground at a fast clip.

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune
Fresh

'The Reconstruction,' which clocks in at 2 hours, 43 minutes, with not a single extraneous frame, elevates the work from a robust genre film to a full-blown epic.

Kevin Crust, Los Angeles Times
Fresh

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.

Scott Foundas, L.A. Weekly
Fresh

Even though it has gained more than 45 minutes, it doesn't feel longer. Scenes that were choppy or half-baked are now allowed to play out as Fuller intended.

John Hartl, Seattle Times
Fresh

The director's gift for bare-knuckles lyricism rescues scene after scene.

Ty Burr, Boston Globe

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