World War II · Film · 1980
The Big Red One
A veteran sergeant of the First World War leads a squad of young riflemen of the US 1st Infantry Division through the whole war, from the beaches of Algeria to Sicily, Omaha Beach and a concentration camp in Czechoslovakia.
Where it happened
Follow the story across 6 places.
Stop 1: Arzew, near Oran, Algeria
The squad's first landing is against Vichy French troops who are expected to change sides but open fire.
Stop 2: Kasserine Pass, Tunisia
German panzers rout the Americans, and the wounded sergeant ends up a prisoner in a makeshift hospital.
Stop 3: Gela, Sicily
Reunited, the four surviving riflemen land in Sicily and fight their way through its hill towns.
Stop 4: Omaha Beach, Normandy
Key location
In the first wave on D-Day, the squad is pinned on the beach and has to blow a gap in the German defences.
Stop 5: Hürtgen Forest, Germany
The squad enters Germany through dark, shell-torn woods where the fighting is at its most brutal.
Stop 6: Falkenau camp (Sokolov), Czechoslovakia
In the last days of the war the squad liberates a concentration camp, and what they find there changes them.
What really happened
Samuel Fuller served as a rifleman in the 16th Infantry Regiment of the 1st Infantry Division, the Big Red One, and built the film on what he lived through: the landings near Oran in November 1942, the defeat at Kasserine Pass in February 1943, the invasion of Sicily at Gela in July 1943 and the first wave at Omaha Beach on 6 June 1944, followed by the fighting across France, Belgium and the Hürtgen Forest.
In May 1945 the division reached Falkenau, today Sokolov in the Czech Republic, a subcamp of Flossenbürg, and Fuller filmed the burial of its victims with a 16 mm camera. The episodes are compressed and the squad is fictional, but the film is one of the few Hollywood war films written and directed by a combat infantryman; a restored cut with more than 40 extra minutes premiered in 2004.
Where to watch
Checking streaming services…
Full details
- Original title
- The Big Red One
- Directed by
- Samuel Fuller
- Countries
- United States
- Languages
- English, German, French
- Released
- 1980
- Period
- –
- Theaters of war
- Mediterranean & Africa, Western Europe
- Themes
- Combat
- Holocaust
- True story
