Babes In Arms

Rating: 9/10 (16 March 2008)

I first saw this at 10 years old, it made a pacifist out of me before I knew what one was. It's not that simple of course: no one gets through life being totally pacific, but I draw the line at trying to kill strangers for my Masters or strangers trying to kill me for theirs. Literally a Milestone film this was the first Great talkie, its primitiveness and simplicity increasing its stark lustre. Film makers learnt quickly how to be more subtle at propaganda but sometimes a sincere message makes a point better.
German boy is indoctrinated by school mouthpiece of the caviar-guzzling class to go to war, he does with stars in his eyes, loses the stars, tries not to get killed, that's all. The squalor and horror of trench warfare in WW1 is relentlessly hammered home  was this how deathlessly romantic Homer's siege of Ilium should have really looked? There isn't any tragic background music or heavy concepts ground out by the main characters to distract - everyone is an ordinary guy whose thoughts are clay. During WW1 representatives of British, French, German and Russian arms manufacturers regularly met in Switzerland to trade, with the blessings of their respective governments. Without them there wouldn't have been a WW1 or this film either. The young Lew Ayres played his heart out, a decade later in WW2 he was a Conscientous Objector. On the journey we're shown Behn's useless harrowing death, Kemmerich's amputation and useless boots, the French soldier uselessly trying to kill Ayres in the crater but not succeeding much to Ayres later passionate useless regret, the Dying Room in the useless hospital  all vividly memorable scenes amongst many others. But none more so as war-bitten Ayres' electrifying diatribe returning to the classroom near the end  telling the kids how it is but unfortunately not providing the answer: Just Say No, and in those days, Scram. The useless but heartbreakingly poignant ending is the last straw: if you have tears prepare to shed them now.
A classic film with a classic message that will apply as long as class based society does. If you too thought the whole world had changed since then just look around, to Iraq/Afghanistan, Chechnya, Somalia, Colombia, Spain et al.