The Big Red One (1980)

Charles Macaulay: General, World War I Captain

Quotes 

• [the Sergeant affixes a cloth red '1' to his uniform. The Captain is drinking from a bottle of booze] 

  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 hands him the bottle] 

  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 : [narrating]  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.