The Big Red One
Conceived in the 1950s, Sam Fuller’s fine war film The Big Red One didn’t make it to the screen until 1980, yet it has the same stoic vision and brass-knuckled poetry of the director’s best early work. Lee Marvin plays a soldier fighting a World War alongside his own demons. With a fine supporting cast including Mark Hamill and Robert Carradine, Fuller’s vision never seems anachronistic in the brave new world of Reagan’s America. Nominated for the Palme d’Or at the 1980 Cannes Film Festival.
About Lewis Teague
A multifaceted filmmaker whose work spans a variety of genres, Lewis Teague got his start under the tutelage of Alfred Hitchcock, Sydney Pollack, George Roy Hill, and Sam Fuller, plus Roger and Gene Corman.
Eventually striking out as a director, Teague submitted some inimitable creature feature fare, including Alligator, Cat's Eye, and Cujo, before pivoting to adventure projects like The Jewel of the Nile, The Dukes of Hazzard: Reunion!, and Navy SEALs.
Never seen it, but it’s only one of three movies that I know of in which Bobby DiCicco starred, along with I Wanna Hold Your Hand and 1941.
“Saving Private Ryan” stole, uh, paid homage to “Big Red One”, a much better film.
Testify, though many films are better than ‘Ryan’.