{"id":231614,"date":"2025-07-02T09:13:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T09:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/231614\/"},"modified":"2025-07-02T09:13:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T09:13:09","slug":"masterpiece-ww2-film-fans-have-never-heard-of-rivals-saving-private-ryan-films-entertainment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/231614\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Masterpiece\u2019 WW2 film fans have \u2018never heard of\u2019 rivals Saving Private Ryan | Films | Entertainment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There\u2019s a hugely underrated war film \u201con par with Saving Private Ryan\u201d fans have branded a \u201cmasterpiece\u201d \u2013 but plenty <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" title=\"World War 2 \" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/latest\/world-war-2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">World War 2<\/a> buffs have never even heard of it. Released in 1980, the movie \u2013 featuring <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" title=\"Star Wars\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/latest\/star-wars\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Star Wars<\/a> icon Mark Hamill \u2013 follows one infantry unit through battle after battle, including the D-Day invasion of Normandy.<\/p>\n<p>Titled The Big Red One, its official synopsis reads: \u201cA hardened sergeant and the four core members of his infantry unit try to survive World War II as they move from battle to battle throughout Europe.\u201d It stars Lee Marvin, Robert Carradine and Kelly Ward, along with Perry Lang and Bobby Di Cicco.<\/p>\n<p>The film is based on writer and director Samuel Fuller\u2019s real life experience in the war as part of the 1st Infantry Division. Nominated for the Palme d\u2019Or at the 1980 Cannes Film Festival, a full restored version was also released in 2004 featuring scenes cut from the original film. Fuller also released a novelisation based on his screenplay.<\/p>\n<p>It boasts a 90% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and has been branded a \u201cmasterpiece\u201d by fans, with one review gushing: \u201cOne of the best WWII movies with an actual historically accurate plot and events [\u2026] Great characters, smartly and tightly written.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Somebody else said: \u201cExcellent movie. Pulls no punches in its depiction of the ordinary GI Joe without whom the Nazis would have continued their despotic reign and the horrors of the Holocaust.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Another review said: \u201cBest WWII movie, has action and drama. Man, I still get emotional remembering it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe best war movie I have ever seen, with Mark Hamill and Lee Marvin!\u201d another commenter echoed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s a hugely underrated war film \u201con par with Saving Private Ryan\u201d fans have branded a \u201cmasterpiece\u201d \u2013&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":231615,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3935],"tags":[37010,90935,77,90936,498,36545,3943,11819,4242,90933,90934,16,15,37008,40281,2642,35974],"class_list":{"0":"post-231614","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-best-war-films","9":"tag-best-ww2-films","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-films-like-saving-private-ryan","12":"tag-hollywood","13":"tag-mark-hamill","14":"tag-movies","15":"tag-saving-private-ryan","16":"tag-star-wars","17":"tag-the-big-red-one","18":"tag-the-big-red-one-reviews","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom","21":"tag-war-films","22":"tag-war-movies","23":"tag-world-war-2","24":"tag-ww2"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114782876654514255","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}