Saturday, September 4, 2010

The Big Parade

Directed by: KING VIDOR
1925, TSPDT Rank #798

Okay, if you're honest with yourself, this movie isn't that good anymore. It was important when it was released, specifically for not glorifying war, but showing it as something where decent young men get injured or killed for a cause that doesn't truly matter to them. Which was groundbreaking at the time. Many of the characters (excluding the American soldier and the French peasant he falls in love with) are really one-sided, or used for cheap laughs, which gets pretty old after a while. And the anti-war themes are pretty heavy-handed. On top of that (and I understand this isn't really fair of me to say), after seeing something like Napoleon, the technical aspects of The Big Parade seem pretty basic and average. So if you're interested in an early silent anti-war film, maybe check it out, but otherwise leave it to history.

(Rating: 5/10)

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