“THE FROZEN ASS IS FOR MY DEAD FRIEND KAISER”

Last week I encouraged everyone to head to Film Forum in order to see On the Waterfront. Chances are, however, that you had already seen that brilliant Elia Kazan–Marlon Brando collaboration so maybe rushing downtown wasn’t high on your priority list (although if there are a small group of films always worth a repeat viewing, this is one). I’m guessing the case is a bit different in regards to this week’s revival as most people probably have never seen Sam Fuller’s The Big Red One.

Starting today and running only through next Thursday, Film Forum is showing the new reconstructed version of Fuller’s 25 year old brilliant World War II drama which recently screened (and I saw) at the New York Film Festival. I never saw the original film released in 1980, but most who have seem to indicate that this restoration is a vastly improved and more complete movie. (Filmbrain seems to have seen the original, and he wrote a great review of the new version back during the NYFF.)

Robert Carradine – yes, the same Robert Carradine who became a nerd icon for all of us who came of age in the ’80s – comes closest to personifying Fuller in this "fictional life based on factual death." The film is a jigsaw puzzle of autobiographic episodes from Fuller’s own experience fighting in the War. While a lot happens and there may not always be a single simple narrative storyline to follow, what we get in The Big Red One is a dissertation on war and survival. The Big Red One is neither a pro-war nor an anti-war film. Like other war movies, it definitely depicts "War is Hell," but it tries not to place a value judgment on the entire enterprise.

It also does its best not to judge its characters. In the opening sequence of the movie, Lee Marvin (in what is arguably his best performance, and that’s saying something!) alone and away from his platoon kills a German soldier in World War I only to later discover that the treaty had been signed and the war ended just before. This moral distinctions articulated later by Marvin’s character Sgt. Possum – "We don’t murder, we kill" – hover over the entire film. Fuller manages to depict the experience of individuals acting within the context of a large group better than most other war films ever have. Is it possible to fight for a cause and for the good of a team when your primary purpose is simply surviving and coming out of it alive? Sure, when what’s good for the larger group directly benefits the individual. And ultimately, The Big Red One is as much about just making it through the war as it is winning it.

The film also stars Mark Hamill in what might be called the best example of a what-might-have-been moment. Hamill shot The Big Red One after Star Wars made him famous but before it was the only thing he was known for. His performance as the morally conflicted Private Griff, to whom Possum explains the above comment regardig murder, is full of qualities that I certainly never expected to see out of Luke Skywalker.

Fuller may be one of the closest examples to a neo-realist filmmaker America ever had. He was a maverick who dealt in reality. Even the most obviously staged scenes – such as when this small group of soldiers discovers a German infiltrator in their midst while eating dinner – feel like they could be a part of a documentary; the audience just peeking in to an otherwise natural and normal situation. Fuller’s realism is very matter-of-fact: what you see really is what you get. You don’t need to try to read seven layers of subtext to understand what Fuller shows you, yet at the same time, he’s never heavy-handed.

And through it all, within this "War is Hell" atmosphere, you discover that these men are real people living real lives. That even as they see the latest newbie to their platoon get blown to bits, they march on, accepting their current realities as best they can and enjoying the moments when they’re not directly in harm’s way. The headline on this post refers to a line Carradine’s character, Private Zab, says when trying to fine a local woman who will have sex with one of the soldiers while her "fat ass" is pressed up against a freezing cold window. Creating this scene is Zab’s attempt to honor and memorialize a recent casualty: Private Kaiser really wanted to fuck a woman with a fat ass pressed up against a frozen window. It’s absurd in its simplicity, yet Zab’s determination to have someone fulfill the fantasy of his friend who did not manage to survive is what this movie is all about. The war moves on and the world moves on, and those involved just need to try to get through it, day-by-day.

"The real glory of war is surviving." The real glory of this movie is showing us how "the greatest generation" really did. Most war films aim to be heroic. In today’s age of wars that divide rather than unite this country of ours, it’s fascinating to watch a war movie, particulalrly a WWII one, where survival and life takes precedence over heroism. Go check it out!