Americas 250th Birthday Cinemathon #48: The Bird Red One (1980)

Samuel Fuller was a pulp writer, journalist, and film creator. In the last category he both directed and wrote screenplays. His films were usually low budget affairs. This was necessary when he felt the need to work outside the Hollywood system and dodge some of the restrictions of the Hays Code (for example, he had an interracial romance between a Japanese-American detective and white blonde in The Crimson Kimono). However, there was one dream project he needed more money for, and that was a war movie based on his own experiences as a 1^st Division infantryman in World War II. The movie almost got into production several times, starting in the 50s, but it was not until 1980 that Fuller got the time and funding to finally bring his vision to life.

Fuller was keen to depict World War II without the typical Hollywood sheen. He avoided the typical route of having a unifying character or plot arc. Instead he simply followed a squad of men throughout America’s involvement in Europe, particularly in the Army’s 1^st Division. The 1^st Division’s red insignia is the reason for the film’s title The Big Red One. Negative critics have not been too keen on this aspect, feeling that the movie rambles from scene to scene. However, this was intentional. A veteran himself, Fuller knew that war was a grind for the soldiers, who moved from one battle and incident to the next until the whole thing was over. Many of the more unusual incidents in the movie actually occurred, with Fuller himself having been involved in an incident where GIs helped a French woman deliver a baby inside a tank.

Underscoring Fuller’s attempt at realism was the casting of Lee Marvin as the nameless Sergeant. Like Fuller, Marvin was an actual World War II vet. He had served with the Marines in the Pacific and was involved in many amphibious assaults, getting wounded at the Battle of Saipan. Marvin himself deeply appreciated The Big Red One, bonding with Fuller over shared aspects of their backgrounds. Marvin was in plenty of war films, but often found them ludicrous and far from what he had experienced, so a more authentic film was a big breath of fresh air for him. Marvin could finally avoid macho stereotypes of the heroic American soldier, instead using certain marine officers’ quiet, authoritative demeanor inform his role as the fatherly sergeant of the other lead characters.

Americas 250th Birthday Cinemathon #47: Saving Private Ryan (1998)

 
Saving Private Ryan is the last Spielberg movie to have a major cultural impact. Spielberg had tackled the World War II era several times already, but they were pulpy (Indiana Jones movies), comedic (1941), or dramas showing people overcome horrific conditions (Empire of the Sun and Schindler’s List). Saving Private Ryan was a full-fledged war film focused on the soldiers. The movie revived American pride in its soldiers, particularly of the Greatest Generation, and spawned several war films and shows. In the video game world it helped create a whole subgenre of historical WW2 shooters, with Spielberg himself helping to develop the Medal of Honor series. Several of these games were keen to feature the Omaha Beach landing, with obviously inspired by the start of Saving Private Ryan.

But has the movie held up? General viewers love it, but many history buffs think it has troublesome aspects. Well, let’s get into it. One of the aspects that made this movie so important was how it handled the battle scenes. The one that everybody knows is the Omaha Beach landing at the beginning. The historical context was that the Western Allies, with the US and Great Britain being the largest members, finally created a second western front in Europe when on June 6, 1944 they executed landings on five beaches along the Normandy Coast. Using deception and the cover of bad weather, they were able to face relatively light German resistance. However, this did not mean it was a cake walk.

Of the five beach landings, Omaha Beach has received the most attention. It was a long, horrid slog, with the American soldiers suffering the worst casualties of any Allied group that day. What struck me when rewatching the movie was how long the opening battle scene was. In reality it took hours for the Americans to finally escape the deadly beach and breach the German bunkers and pillboxes, but of course the movie has other things to get through. That being said, Spielberg really conveyed how difficult it was for the Americans to penetrate the defenses, using little tricks and tactics just to advance a few feet.