John Gilbert (a favorite of mine) is so funny, tragic, and REAL in this film. I really felt for his character (Jimmy). The first night he's away from his comfortable home, I could see the loneliness and longing in his face. The battle scenes were extraordinary - the musical score really captured the chaos and destruction of war. The scenes with the fireworks and explosions with all those men dying were breathtaking and heart wrenching. My favorite scene is when Gilbert is hitting on the French girl by the creek and he keeps stroking his finger up and down her arm and trying to kiss her. He's so nonchalant about it as if it came naturally and was improvised. I found myself smiling and softly laughing at the tender scene. That's really fine acting when a performer can make a small scene stand out like that. To me it is more memorable than the highly dramatic scene when Jimmy is out on the battlefield screaming that the Germans have killed his friend and sets out to kill the enemy - still a wonderfully acted scene, but the former just help to enforce my opinion of Gilbert as one of the finest actors ever to grace the silver screen.
One scene that tugs at my heart is when Jimmy returns home and sees his mother for the first time on crutches, minus his leg. Didn't you get tense too, as the young doughboys make the march through that field with all the snipers in the trees? I also like the scene where he gives gum to Renee Adoree and she's never chewed it before. Very cute! She was another who couldn't survive the transition to sound, not because of her voice, but because of tuberculosis with which she was diagnosed in 1930. She didn't follow doctor's orders and died of the disease in 1933.
Highly recommended. It's one of the only silent films that Warner Brothers has bothered to press rather than burn to DVD in the post-DVD era, and I am grateful for that.
One scene that tugs at my heart is when Jimmy returns home and sees his mother for the first time on crutches, minus his leg. Didn't you get tense too, as the young doughboys make the march through that field with all the snipers in the trees? I also like the scene where he gives gum to Renee Adoree and she's never chewed it before. Very cute! She was another who couldn't survive the transition to sound, not because of her voice, but because of tuberculosis with which she was diagnosed in 1930. She didn't follow doctor's orders and died of the disease in 1933.
Highly recommended. It's one of the only silent films that Warner Brothers has bothered to press rather than burn to DVD in the post-DVD era, and I am grateful for that.