77
Metascore
19 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100Chicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumChicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumA grand-style, idiosyncratic war epic, with wonderful poetic ideas, intense emotions, and haunting images rich in metaphysical portent.
- 100NewsweekDavid AnsenNewsweekDavid AnsenMarvin's taciturn performance--a moving demonstration of masculine grace under pressure--may be his finest.
- 90Washington PostMichael O'SullivanWashington PostMichael O'SullivanWhat the movie may lack in "Saving Private Ryan"-style gloss, it more than makes up for in authenticity, or, in other words, heart.
- 80The New York TimesVincent CanbyThe New York TimesVincent CanbyThe Big Red One, for all its uncompromising brutality, is viscerally, angrily alive. Fuller was lucky to survive the war. It is our good fortune that this film, a tribute to his luck (and to those who did not share it), has come back to life.
- 80SalonCharles TaylorSalonCharles TaylorFuller was never a poetic director, but in The Big Red One he finds what in himself was closest to lyricism. Fuller's movie is like flowers thrown on a battlefield in remembrance, and it makes the overblown war movies that have followed seem like cheap and tatty Veteran's Day poppies.
- 80The A.V. ClubKeith PhippsThe A.V. ClubKeith PhippsIn some respects a less tidy film than before, particularly when it veers off into a subplot involving a Nazi soldier played by Siegfried Rauch, the new cut mostly retains the original's virtues while adding details and episodes that make it more recognizably a Fuller film.
- 75Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertHard-boiled, filled with action, held together by male camaraderie, directed with a lean economy of action. It's one of the most expensive B-pictures ever made, and I think that helps it fit the subject. "A" war movies are about War, but "B" war movies are about soldiers. (Review of Original Release)
- 70The New YorkerAnthony LaneThe New YorkerAnthony LaneIts kitschy grabs at the surreal--the scene in a lunatic asylum, where German troops are billeted, manages to be at once implausible and offensive--that blocks any close engagement with the drama. That said, you must see this film for one unstoppable reason, and that is Lee Marvin.
- 60Village VoiceJ. HobermanVillage VoiceJ. HobermanCertainly a testament to Fuller's tenacity, but recent raves notwithstanding, it's no masterpiece...The Big Red One isn't even Fuller's greatest war film. Of those, I'd rank it fourth -- but that's not half bad.