Loved this one. It's a blockbuster 1927 style with fantastic war footage, both in the air and on the ground. Clara Bow is a delight, and while her role is on the small side, she lights up the screen every time she appears. Both leading men (Charles Rogers and Richard Arlen) are great, full of screen presence and in Arlen's case especially, conveying the trauma of war with his eyes. Director William A. Wellman spares no expense in the grand scenes with all those extras, but also demonstrates sophisticated camera work, with different types of angles, tracking shots, and one early on in a swing, giving the film a feeling of being ahead of its time. The shots in Paris, including at a nightclub, are fantastic. It was also unafraid to show two male friends in a tender embrace at a critical moment.
The two men are actually rivals for a woman other than Bow (Jobyna Ralston) and hate each other's guts initially, but form a friendship during basic training. It would have been easy for the film to make the guy from an affluent background (Arlen) a jerk, but we see him lovingly say goodbye to his parents and then later demonstrate his courage and honor, an aspect I liked. On the other hand, the film mostly moves along plot lines you can see coming, and there are lots of things you'll have to forgive about it. The plot points that have their lives intertwining once the war starts are highly contrived, and the film stretches on at points, such as all the bubbles in the Paris nightclub or in the war footage at the end. For me, these were not issues, as happy as I was with what I was seeing.
My biggest concern was that the film was going to understate the horror of war or in some way glamorize it, and maybe it does that a little bit, but the final half hour or so certainly doesn't. Countless men die horrible deaths, randomly, and while the film proudly shows the Allied side as victorious, the way Arlen's character dies hints (possibly unintentionally) at the fact that, at a higher level, all men are brothers. The film holds nothing back in showing us parental devastation at learning that their son has been killed, demonstrating the true human cost to war. I also appreciated its depiction of Americans of German descent, showing them as just as patriotic as anyone else despite suspicions against them, and in its depiction of Germans, with one of their aerial aces showing uncommon mercy during a battle scene (even though that's also pretty contrived).
It's all a bit melodramatic and something I would not like as much in a modern film, but to see all this in 1927 was impressive to me, and very enjoyable.
The two men are actually rivals for a woman other than Bow (Jobyna Ralston) and hate each other's guts initially, but form a friendship during basic training. It would have been easy for the film to make the guy from an affluent background (Arlen) a jerk, but we see him lovingly say goodbye to his parents and then later demonstrate his courage and honor, an aspect I liked. On the other hand, the film mostly moves along plot lines you can see coming, and there are lots of things you'll have to forgive about it. The plot points that have their lives intertwining once the war starts are highly contrived, and the film stretches on at points, such as all the bubbles in the Paris nightclub or in the war footage at the end. For me, these were not issues, as happy as I was with what I was seeing.
My biggest concern was that the film was going to understate the horror of war or in some way glamorize it, and maybe it does that a little bit, but the final half hour or so certainly doesn't. Countless men die horrible deaths, randomly, and while the film proudly shows the Allied side as victorious, the way Arlen's character dies hints (possibly unintentionally) at the fact that, at a higher level, all men are brothers. The film holds nothing back in showing us parental devastation at learning that their son has been killed, demonstrating the true human cost to war. I also appreciated its depiction of Americans of German descent, showing them as just as patriotic as anyone else despite suspicions against them, and in its depiction of Germans, with one of their aerial aces showing uncommon mercy during a battle scene (even though that's also pretty contrived).
It's all a bit melodramatic and something I would not like as much in a modern film, but to see all this in 1927 was impressive to me, and very enjoyable.