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 1st 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 1st Division. The 1st
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.
