Featured Audience Ratings

• AJ V

  
  I saw this movie because Mark Hamill is in it, and he gives a good performance, but other than that, I didn't like this movie. It's just another WWII movie, and it's slow and boring too. I didn't care for it.

• xGary X

  
  A rather clumsy and over-long war movie that contains all the usual "madness of war" messages, but they're delivered in a rather ham-fisted way, and it's directed like a TV show. The emotional drama is clumsy at best, and whenever the grittiness you'd expect… More
  A rather clumsy and over-long war movie that contains all the usual "madness of war" messages, but they're delivered in a rather ham-fisted way, and it's directed like a TV show. The emotional drama is clumsy at best, and whenever the grittiness you'd expect in the depiction of violence in an anti-war movie should appear, the director shies away. Half-hearted.

• Walter M

  
  [font=Century Gothic][color=darkslategray]"Fixed Bayonets"(1951) is a Korean War movie directed by Sam Fuller. In the midst of war, the main force of troops has to retreat. In order to convince the enemy that they have not moved, a small platoon of 48 men has to stay… More
  [font=Century Gothic][color=darkslategray]"Fixed Bayonets"(1951) is a Korean War movie directed by Sam Fuller. In the midst of war, the main force of troops has to retreat. In order to convince the enemy that they have not moved, a small platoon of 48 men has to stay behind and convince them that they are a larger force. There are the usual amount of stock characters and it is predictable but Fuller has more things on his mind this time around. Notably, it is the psychological take on what makes for a good leader. Plus, there are several bravura sequences and an excellent performance from Richard Basehart.(Fixed Bayonets is not in the Rotten Tomatoes database. I'll give it an unofficial 7 out of 10.)[/color][/font] [font=Century Gothic][color=#2f4f4f][/color][/font] [font=Century Gothic][color=red]"The Big Red One"(1980) is a movie about a veteran sergeant(Lee Marvin) leading his troops in World War II from North Africa to the battlefields of Europe. This was Sam Fuller's dream project for many years based partially on his experiences in World War II. It was originally released in a truncated version. Last year, Richard Schickel led a team that restored most of the lost footage. I remember seeing the original version sometime in the 1980's, but I don't remember that much about it(somehow Lee Marvin chucking some poor guy's testicle over his shoulder has managed to stay with me) and couldn't really comment on what was added. It's episodic by its very nature and it does start awkwardly but it does get better as it goes along, ending on an emotionally powerful note. And this is the role that Lee Marvin was born to play. And before you deride Mark Hamill, check out Harrison Ford in Force Ten from Navarone(1979).[/color][/font] [font=Century Gothic][color=#ff0000][/color][/font] [font=Century Gothic][color=black]Throughout both movies, there is a consistency. Neither movie glorifies war.[/color][/font] [font=Century Gothic][color=#2f4f4f][/color][/font] [font=Century Gothic][color=#2f4f4f][/color][/font]

• Alec B

  
  If Samuel Fuller had a bigger budget and bigger stars when he originally made the movie and if the newly Reconstructed version had been the one released in theaters I believe the film would have more of a classic status ascribed to it. The only big issue I had with the film is the… More
  If Samuel Fuller had a bigger budget and bigger stars when he originally made the movie and if the newly Reconstructed version had been the one released in theaters I believe the film would have more of a classic status ascribed to it. The only big issue I had with the film is the small side plot of a German officer, who appears to fill some kind of a "villain" role, that seems to go nowhere. I did like the performances of Lee Marvin and mark Hamil and its really great to see a WWII movie made by someone who actually fought in that war. Fuller based much of what happened on his own experience and it gives The Big Red One a sense of authenticity that many war films do not have. Band of Brothers actually owes a lot to this movie.