The Big Red One (1980) is a classic war movie directed by Samuel Fuller, set during World War II and starring Lee Marvin, Robert Carradine, and Mark Hamill. Show It follows a squad of soldiers and their Grizzled Veteran sergeant, members of the U.S. Army's 1st Division—"The Big Red One"—from the beginning of America's participation in the war in the African and European theater to the end. This film is Based on a True Story, specifically the director Fuller's, who served in the US First Infantry Division during the war and observed and participated in many of the events the film depicts. The original version suffered heavy Executive Meddling and received lukewarm responses in the 1980s. In that time, the Director's cut and Re-Cut became common with the re-releases of Heaven's Gate, Once Upon a Time in America, Lawrence of Arabia and Blade Runner; and Fuller hoped for a restoration of his long version. He died in 1997 but his widow Christa Fuller and film historian Richard Schickel managed to restore The Big Red One : Reconstruction released in 2004 which received significant acclaim and allowed the film to be Vindicated by History as one of the greatest and most accurate War Movies ever made. It's 40 minutes longer than the original version with new scenes and sequences clarifying and deepening the story. Advertisement: This film provides examples of:
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