The Big Red One poster

The Big Red One Quotes

"Only chance could have thrown them together. Now, nothing can pull them apart."

PG 1980 · 1h 53m
67
Audience
67
Audience
15 quotes
Reflections on an Unexpected Meal Experience
Private Zab Those Sicilian women cooked us a terrific meal. It's too bad they were all over fifty. We were more horny than we were hungry.
[narrating]
Humor in the Face of Conflict
The Sergeant I can understand you being horny and all, Fritz... but you have bad breath.
[choking the German male nurse who kissed him on the mouth]
Questioning Life and Death in War
Kaiser Did I kill the guy that killed me?
The Sergeant Yes.
Language Misunderstanding in Combat Conversation
Johnson How do you say "push" in French?
[concerning a woman in labor]
The Sergeant Poussez.
Johnson Pussy! Pussy! Pussy!
[to woman]
Memorial Reflections on War's Continuity
Johnson Would you look at how fast they put the names of all our guys who got killed?
The Sergeant That's a World War One memorial.
Johnson But the names are the same.
The Sergeant They always are.
Morality of Killing in War Context
The Sergeant Killing insane people is not good for public relations.
Griff Killing sane people is okay?
The Sergeant That's right.
Survival as the True Glory of War
Private Zab Saving that Kraut was the final joke of the whole goddamned war. I mean we had more in common with him than all our replacements who got killed whose names we never even knew. We'd all made it through we were alive. I'm gonna dedicate my book to those who shot but didn't get shot, because it's about survivors. And surviving is the only glory in war, if you know what I mean.
[narrating]
Tactics for Dealing with Snipers
Private Zab You know how you smoke out a sniper? You send a guy out in the open and you see if he gets shot. They thought that one up at West Point.
[narrating]
The True Glory of Surviving War
Taglines The real glory of war is surviving.
The Distinction Between Murder and Killing
Griff I can't murder anybody.
The Sergeant We don't murder; we kill.
Griff It's the same thing.
The Sergeant The hell it is, Griff. You don't murder animals; you kill em.
Unbreakable Bonds from Chance Encounters
Taglines Only chance could have thrown them together. Now, nothing can pull them apart.
Frustration with Military Invention and Assembly
Private Zab The Bangalore Torpedo was 50 feet long and packed with 85 pounds of TNT and you assembled it along the way. By hand. I'd love to meet the asshole who invented it.
[narrating]
Significance of the Red One Insignia
The Sergeant What do you think?
The Captain What the hell is it?
The Sergeant It's a "one". First Infantry Division. The Red One; think General Pershing will like it?
The Captain Oh, sure.
The Sergeant I got the idea from the cap of a Hun I killed.
The Captain When?
The Sergeant About an hour ago
The Captain Did he yell out anything?
The Sergeant Oh, the same old Kaiser stuff, you know, "the war's over," all that junk.
The Captain Finish it.
The Sergeant Sir?
The Captain Finish it. The Armistice was signed, at eleven o'clock this morning. The war's been over for four hours. You didn't know it was over.
The Sergeant ...He did.
Zab A quarter of a century later that piece of cloth from a dead Hun's hat had become famous all over the world. It was the insignia of the First Infantry Division. The Fightin First. The Big Red One.
[narrating]
Survival at Any Cost
The Sergeant You're going to live, even if I have to blow your brains out.
The Tragedy of Transient Comradeship
Private Zab By now we'd come to look at all replacements as dead men who temporarily had the use of the arms and legs. They came and went so fast and so regularly that sometimes we didn't even learn their names. Truth is, after a while, we sort of avoided gettin to know them.
[narrating]