Excellent Early Film on the First World War
The Big Parade is a lengthy film but, for the most part, it is lively and fast-paced. At the beginning, I thought the film was the classic tale of a naive, spoiled rich kid (played by the great John Gilbert) drawn to the battle field by the parades and glamorization of the war. It is so much more than that. The main character, Jim Apperson, acually adjusts to soldier life very well. He quickly acquires two close buddies (played by Tom O'Brien and Karl Dane), demonstrates impressive innovation and ambition (creating a shower out of a barrel) and--of course--gets a French girlfriend, Melisande (played by Renee Adoree).
The first half of the film is a bit slow at times, although the antics of O'Brien and Dane provide comedy relief that is often hilarious (especially Dane's character). It is definitely worth the wait when Jim's unit goes off to battle. Melisande desperately clings to Jimmy not to leave (symbolism that foreshadows Jim's ultimate fate). Once on the battlefield, the...
A Great Film that Deserves a Proper DVD Restoration
In many ways, King Vidor's The Big Parade did for WWI films what Oliver Stone's Platoon did for Vietnam War films: it brought home the realities of the war in a fashion that better represented what had actually happened. In the process, it is thoroughly entertaining: scenes of typical silent melodrama are quickly replaced by serious thematics (eg, "patriotic" mob peer-pressure & bursts of nationalist fervor), fun male-bonding scenes, wonderful light romance and comedy, and finally, compelling and often very realistic scenes of warfare. The film is full of marvelous subtle allegorical references (eg, "mother knows best" comes to mind) and plays-on-words (the curse-rhyming soldier songs make one think of the title, which rhymes with the French-originated "charade"). I cannot praise this film highly enough for its modern story-structure and production values, which were eons ahead of the times.
I agree with the previous reviewer who said that the...
The Big Parade Of Life
This is a review for THE BIG PARADE (1925) directed by King Vidor. Apparently THE BIG PARADE is not offically available on DVD, only on a VHS videotape made by WB in 1992.
That is a sad situation, one that should be remedied before long.
I believe that THE BIG PARADE was the war film responsible for the spate of WWI films that came out in the mid to late twenties and early thirties and as such was a groundbreaker. But much more than a trend setter, THE BIG PARADE is a very human story about an idle rich kid, played by John Gilbert, who, when he experiences life in the army, finds himself and is ready for the relationship that comes his way in fields and farms of France with a farmgirl played by Renee Adoree. Along the way the wealthy young man sees and starts to understand how most folks actually live and in the war, how they die.
All of this helps make the young man into a responsible adult and despite his war injury spurs him after the war, into...
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