What to expect
Raoul Walsh’s film mixes barracks comedy, sexual rivalry, and battle spectacle without allowing one tone to settle the meaning of the others. Its famously profane lip movements also tested silent cinema’s porous boundary with speech.
How to ease in
Expect abrupt movement between comedy and death. Keep Quirt and Flagg’s rivalry in view, but notice when the battlefield makes their masculine performance look inadequate rather than heroic.
Heads-up
Two rival Marines carry their feud and romantic competition into the First World War, where bravado meets mass violence.
The men behave as though rivalry can make war legible, then the battlefield repeatedly exceeds their performance. I watch comedy protect them from fear until it no longer can.
Open the note ↓
The men behave as though rivalry can make war legible, then the battlefield repeatedly exceeds their performance. I watch comedy protect them from fear until it no longer can.
— Momo
Credits & versions
Version map
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