One of the best films ever produced about World War II that spent 24 years incomplete
Probably one of Samuel Fuller’s most praised films, Red One: Shock Division, is considered one of the best films ever produced about the Second World War, although the reality is that it is precisely one of the best known. The director and screenwriter, who had been in the service of the United States Army Infantry during the war, put all his knowledge and military experience at the service of his work, which ended up resulting in the film being highly praised by of criticism.
In Rotten Tomatoesin fact, The Big Red One -original title- has a score of 90% and, with the passage of time, it has been recognized that the film was less valued than it deserved and unfairly went unnoticed. Despite its virtues, The film’s reception upon its release in 1980 was quite lukewarm, with just over $7 million grossed. Furthermore, the version of the film that reached theaters was not Fuller’s original, but rather an edited cut in which several scenes had been removed. 24 years later, with the filmmaker already deceased, the original version of the film, uncut and 40 minutes longer, would be screened at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival.
In the cast of One Red: Shock Division big stars converge, like western legend Lee Marvin (The man who killed Liberty Valance) and one of the most beloved Star Wars actors, Mark Hamill, who had just gained international fame with his role as Luke Skywalker in George Lucas’ then newborn saga. Likewise, Robert Carradine, Bobby Di Cicco and Siegfried Rauch completed the cast.
1942: An experienced US Army sergeant (Marvin) lands with his troops (including characters played by Hamill, Carradine, Ward and Di Cicco) in Algeria to confront the Wehrmacht, which dominates there. After tough but ultimately successful battles, the soldiers get rid of the German occupiers also in Sicily and then participate in D-Day, the Allied landings in Normandy.
Amid all these battles, the combatants, who have now grown together to form a close-knit unit, talk about their longings and life in their homeland, which for a long time seemed like a different world to them. But before the brutal conflict ends three years later, they still have a long way to go: they will be ambushed, tragically lose their comrades, and have to liberate a concentration camp.
The 1980 film is a semi-autobiographical summary of the personal experiences of its director and screenwriter., whose infantry unit was precisely called ‘The Big Red One’. In later interviews, Fuller acknowledged that Carradine’s character was a kind of alter ego and that his work was a kind of tribute to his fallen comrades.
So when the studio took the film off his hands after filming to reduce Fuller’s proposed cut, the filmmaker was devastated. For the rest of his career he would claim this, but unfortunately the late reconstruction came when Fuller was no longer alive to see it.
