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The Big Red One

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You've probably heard the name Sam Fuller mentioned by the likes of Wim Wenders, Jim Jarmusch, and Quentin Tarantino. His name comes up whenever you want to talk about war movies, or truth in cinema. He manages, in all his films, to get at the core truth about violence: that it is always terrible and sometimes unavoidable. In "The Big Red One" he manages to make that most curious thing: a film about the horrors of war in general that convinces you of the necessity of one war in particular, WWII, the war to end all wars. This film is the pinnacle of Sam Fuller's career, the purest expression of what he clearly felt to be a an urgent message, and the novel is an even more intense and complete exposition of the themes of the film.

All his potent visual sense comes across in the rough-hewn language and tight, electric imagery. Soldiers are "dogfaces" and nobody has time for any nonsense. Nearly every line is quotably tough and full of clearly authentic details.

The novel, as Schickel's informative introduction tells you, was not in fact based on the film, and thus suffers from none of the novelized-movie corniness of most books of that genre. It does, however, share the movie's vividness -- you can almost smell the smoke and the sweat, and the point that WWII was a just war, one that truly should have ended all wars, is driven home again and again. This is not a postmodern fable in which nothing means what it seems to -- this is pure, clear realism.

It's wonderful having a new edition of this book because, other than Norman Mailer's The Naked and The Dead, it may be the best and truest novel of combat in World War II. Like Mailer, Fuller made use of his experience with the subject to create a work that's gritty, provocative and rewarding. This covers the length and breadth of the war against Germany, but its focus on a small group of soldiers makes it hit home. Highly recommended.

Sam Fuller, the seminal film director and writer, directed the movie of the same title, THE BIG RED ONE. Though the book and the movie differ, both share haunting images of both horror and beauty, sin and redemption. Sam Fuller ought to know as he fought in many of the major battles of WWII that most of us (younguns) just read about. I am so glad the book was reissued, now let's hope the movie gets released again in theaters--or maybe a remake will happen?