The Big Parade

Plot synopsis:
In the United States in 1917, James "Jim" Apperson's (John Gilbert) idleness (in contrast to his hardworking brother) incurs the great displeasure of his wealthy businessman father. Then America enters World War I. Jim informs his worried mother that he has no intention of enlisting, and his father threatens to kick him out of the house if he does not join. However, when he runs into his patriotic friends at a send-off parade, he is persuaded to enlist, making his father very proud.
During training, Jim makes friendships with construction worker Slim and bartender Bull. Their unit ships out to France, where they are billeted at a farm in the village of Champillon in the Marne.
All three men are attracted to Melisande (Renée Adorée), whose mother owns the farm. She repulses all their advances, but gradually warms to Jim. They fall in love, despite not being able to speak each other's language. One day, however, Jim receives a letter and a photograph from Justyn (Claire Adams), which reveals that they are engaged. When Melisande sees the picture, she realizes the situation and runs off in tears. Before Jim can decide what to do, his unit is ordered to the front. Melisande hears the commotion and races back, just in time for the lovers to embrace and kiss.
The Americans march towards the front and are strafed by an enemy fighter before it is shot down. The unit is sent to the attack immediately, advancing against snipers and machine guns in the woods, then more machine guns, artillery, and poison gas in the open. They settle down in a makeshift line. Jim shelters in a shellhole with Slim (Karl Dane) and Bull (Tom O'Brien).
That night, orders come down for one man to go out and eliminate a troublesome mortar crew; Slim wins a spitting contest for the opportunity. He succeeds, but is spotted and wounded on the way back. After listening to Slim's pleas for help, Jim cannot stand it any longer and goes to his rescue against orders. Bull follows, but is shot and killed. By the time Jim reaches Slim, he is already dead. Jim is then shot in the leg. When a German comes to finish him off, Jim shoots and wounds him. The German starts crawling back to his line. Jim catches up to him in another shellhole, but, face to face, cannot bring himself to finish him off with his bayonet. Instead, he gives his erstwhile enemy a cigarette. Soon after, the German dies. Fortunately for Jim, he is not stuck in no man's land for long; the Americans attack, and he is taken away to a hospital.
From another patient, he learns that Champillon has changed hands four times. Worried about Melisande, Jim sneaks out of the hospital and hitches a ride. When he gets to the farmhouse, he finds it damaged and empty. Melisande and her mother have joined a stream of refugees. Jim collapses and is carried off in an ambulance by retreating soldiers.
After the war ends, Jim goes home to America. Before he arrives, his mother overhears Justyn and Jim's brother Harry (Robert Ober) discussing what to do; in Jim's absence, they have fallen in love. When Jim appears, it is revealed that he has had his leg amputated. Later, Jim tells his mother about Melisande; she tells him to go back and find her. When he returns to the farm, Melisande rushes into his arms.

Tags: flashback

Review:
The film follows him through his early days in the army, his days in rural France, and then his time at the front, and finally his return home.King Vidor directs this amazing film, one of the best war films ever made, with touches of humor and irony, but never losing sight of the horrors and stupidity of war.John Gilbert would have won the Oscar for 1925 if the awards had started then.
This is an incredible movie.TCM host Robert Osborne mentions that THE BIG PARADE played for an astounding 95 consecutive weeks in New York and that it rivalled THE BIRTH OF A NATION and GONE WITH THE WIND as the biggest money-making film of all time.
One of the Finest Movies of Its Own or Any Other Era. A fine silent classic that has held up very well, "The Big Parade" is one of the very best films of its era and of its genre.
It is a believable, and sometimes subtle, sequence that works quite well.Once the movie gets into the main story, it uses the "parade" imagery well, and combines it effectively with the personal development of the characters.John Gilbert and Renée Adorée work quite well together, and Gilbert's army pals are both used effectively.
"Slim" makes a nice comedic supporting character, who again is finally seen in a different light in the face of battle.One thing I should note, is that the version of this film I saw is the one scored by Carl Davis.
I could try and pick apart some things with King Vidor's The Big Parade - the fact that the resolution is a little hackneyed (not a little, actually, more than a lot being a "classic Hollywood Ending" as you'd hear in the cliché terms), or that the romance that blossoms between the American nice guy Jim (John Gilbert) and the French farm girl Melisande (Renee Adore) is all predicated on the fact that they both find each other charming visa-vi not knowing the other's language at all.
It's both a tender romance and a earth-shattering and horrible story of World War 1 (were there any others that were compelling, I mean that as a compliment by the way, not the 'bad' horrible in terms of quality of the art).Vidor knew how to get in Big Parade not even so much the greatness in the full scope of the story - if you're looking close enough there's some problems - but in all of the little moments and things that you remember, which are all done with truth to whatever the main feeling is, and it's shot and communicated in a way that's sophisticated for the time.
Hours after seeing the movie (and I'm sure this will also be days and weeks later) I'll remember how Jim sort of first piques Melisande's attention by being stuck inside of a giant barrel and walking around in the mud unsure where to go; or when the cake that's sent to Jim is split by him in three parts, the others going to his new friends Slim and Bull and he getting the smallest piece (both of them from other, working class backgrounds, unlike Jim who is more upper-middle class, so to speak, meant to bridge the gap and show war makes everyone equal in the eyes of combat); that moment when the guys are walking in the woods and people behind them just start falling down, one by one, via sniper fire before the bigger strike happens; when Jim and Melisande use the little translation book to try and express their feelings of love and happiness to one another, which is charming in an unironic way.So many scenes and things are choreographed to such a fine point that I want to love the movie even more than I do: there's a sequence where you get Jim and all the other soldiers, who have been sort of hanging out in this French village without any combat, called in to head to the frontlines finally, and as Melisande tries so desperately to find her love (as he is too), and that moment where they connect and can barely let go, that couldn't be done today.
You have to commit to that level of high emotional resonance, but Vidor does and the actors do, and if you happen to be watching the version with Carl Davis's musical score, which verges on the sentimental and even brings up military march music at times, you can't help but go for it 100%.The Big Parade is a long movie, but not really too long, and when it flows from setting up our primary characters and then moves into the war scenarios it's natural and compelling.
On the contrary this seems more like the first part of a double bill with All Quiet on the Western Front (I'd be curious if that ever actually happened in a theater), and by having us spend a lot of time with Jim and his friends, the latter of which get into some shenanigans and do some tomfoolery and all that which is genuinely funny (i.e. a scene in a wine cellar and a frustrated mail scene are the highlights), it makes what they go through all the richer and experience.It's a kind of pure story of heaven and hell found in humanity, and if anything its imperfections make it more endearing than many other films slick surfaces..
For the first 75 minutes of the movie, we get to really KNOW these three lovable and fun-loving guys, long before they actually go into any battle situations in Europe.While in a French village waiting for a battle, Jim meets a villager, Melisande (Renee Adoree).
The long convoys of trucks and marching soldiers advancing into battle is the second use of 'The Big Parade' on the movie's title cards.The battle scenes are very well done showing bombing, large guns, mustard gas, aerial attacks, and hand-to hand combat.
Of course, his homecoming is another 'Big Parade.' However, after the term is used several times on the movie's title cards, it becomes increasingly more hollow and sarcastic.After seeing this movie and Vidor's The Crowd (1928), I am convinced that he was one of the really great SILENT directors!
A young American soldier (John Gilbert) witnesses the horrors of the Great War.The film was groundbreaking for not glorifying the war or ignoring its human costs, exemplified by the lead character's loss of a leg from battle wounds.
It tells the story of Jim Apperson (John Gilbert), an idle young rich man who enlists to fight in World War I.
Directed by King Vidor.SCRIPT: THE BIG PARADE is often acclaimed as the first Hollywood movie to realistically portray war.
There are quite a few powerful sequences here – Melisande pursuing Jim as he is taken to the front; the soldiers' doomed march into the forest, with tracking shots and polished editing; the climactic battle at nightVidor shows a great command of his use of light and shadow during the battle scene.
King Vidor's World War I drama, from a story by WWI vet and distinguished playwright Laurence Stallings, was made for only $250,000 and looks like a zillion, with huge battle sequences, an enormous cast, and expressive art direction.
The film has many pluses--large and rather realistic battles that are very emotionally draining, good acting by the lead (John Gilbert's performance was relatively subdued and very effective) and the story was very touching--such as when the hero's mother sees him towards the end of the film.
Along with the earlier FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE and the slightly later WINGS, THE BIG PARADE is one of the three great World War I films of the 1920s--and the most financially successful.
Made at a point when most producers believed the public only wanted to forget the horrors of World War I, THE BIG PARADE is generally regarded as the single greatest financially successful film of the entire silent era.The story divides into two parts.
The scenes in which Renee Adore searches frantically for Gilbert among the departing men are full of memorable images, as are the the scenes in which the company progresses slowly toward the front, first picked off by snipers, then by machine guns, and then facing the hell of "no man's land." At the time of its release, THE BIG PARADE was considered an anti-war film.
Although THE BIG PARADE doesn't really best the earlier FOUR HORSEMEN, it remains a landmark of the late silent era, a memorable film of World War I made by those actually old enough to remember it.
Not so "The Big Parade."Here you see American soldier James Apperson (John Gilbert) and French farm girl Melisande (Renée Adorée) struggle to build a connection despite not speaking each other's language.
Usually love scenes kill a good war movie, but Gilbert and Adorée are such fine company you enjoy their lulls together.
I don't know if Gilbert had a real issue with his voice when sound came in, or if its myth, but his scenes remind me of Norma Desmond's claim about the superiority of silents: "They had faces then."If I had to recommend a silent movie to a person wary of them, and I didn't want to stack the deck with one of the great clowns or a horror film, I would choose this.
It occurred to me while watching "The Big Parade" that a double feature of it and "All Quiet on the Western Front" would just about be the last cinematic word on World War I.If you're looking for a movie director with range, look no further than King Vidor, who could direct an astonishing war epic like this and then deliver a melodramatic weepie like the equally sensational "Stella Dallas." "The Big Parade" is silent film at its visual best.
It's only one of many scenes that uses parade imagery for increasingly ironic purposes, culminating in a twist at the end that had to have hit audiences at the time, when the war was still a pretty fresh wound in the psyches of many, like a ton of bricks.Not just an excellent silent film, but an excellent film, period, and one that would hold its own with any number of more sophisticated examples of the art form made since.Grade: A.
King Vidor's acclaimed silent drama drew the battle lines which other war films would later follow, moving from low comedy to stark tragedy while matinée idol John Gilbert and his doughboy buddies receive their baptism by fire in the French trenches during World War One. Gilbert (Hollywood's most tragic leading man) gives a surprisingly vital and still very moving performance, which helps relieve the unabashed sentiment of the more maudlin sequences, notably during the inevitable homecoming scene and the earlier romantic interlude with French peasant girl Renée Adorée.
There are no heroes in Vidor's battle plan, and after the Liberty Bond propaganda of earlier war films 'The Big Parade' must have come as a revelation..
Gilbert takes Ms. Adorée for a walk, and falls in love King Vidor's "The Big Parade" is one of the most beautifully produced and directed silent epics of the 1920s.
This is because Vidor makes you think about Gilbert's American and French sweethearts, instead of the obvious ********* The Big Parade (11/5/25) King Vidor ~ John Gilbert, Renée Adorée, Karl Dane, Tom O'Brien.
I love silent film, andI'm pretty familiar with King Vidor's work (The Crowd is one of myfavorite movies) so understandably, I was looking forward verymuch to see this.
Watching some of the crowd scenes and battle scenes I saw that The Big Parade set a standard for World War I films.
Watch for example the battle scenes in The Fighting 69th and you'll see how much influence The Big Parade had on future films.John Gilbert is the central character of The Big Parade a rather aimless young man whom his father Hobart Bosworth could use a little discipline in his life.
The American Army was being trained in the hell that was trench warfare.The Big Parade is as much a love story as a war story and Gilbert and Adoree were quite the screen couple.
Big Parade, The (1925)**** (out of 4) One of the all-time great war movies made John Gilbert a star and rightfully so.
This film is certainly one of the best war movies out there but it also features a lot more than just battle scenes and in the end it's certainly one of the highlights of silent cinema..
At first I hesitated to engage in this adventure, because I doubted that I could bring myself to watch a black-and-white silent film as much as 150 minutes, but this combination of romantic comedy and anti-war drama is shot so great, that I did not have the impression of watching a movie almost a hundred years old.
King Vidor's big break (though not his first film, by a long shot) remains one of the best WWI movies ever made.
To conclude my Silent-film cycle, I watched King Vidor's celebrated war drama THE BIG PARADE, made by MGM in 1925.The film was conceived on a grand scale and, in fact, can be divided into three sections: the first in which our hero, idle rich-kid John Gilbert, enlists for WWI, leaving his family and childhood sweetheart behind; then we follow his battalion as it is mobilised in France; finally, we get to the battlefield and Gilbert's return home.The opening sequences set the tone for the rest of the film: we are introduced to the main characters, emphasising especially their place in society as we can then see how this will affect them later on; Vidor here shows us the intoxicating appeal of military life and the pride in serving one's country, only to have it shattered during the film's tragic third act.The middle section is the longest in the film: here we see Gilbert going through all sorts of scrapes with his best buddies (Karl Dane and Tom O'Brien), while also finding time for romance in the shape of lovely French-girl Renee' Adoree'.
When Gilbert returns home, he is greeted as a hero, but he now feels estranged to the world he once knew; his old girlfriend, meanwhile, has conveniently fallen in love with his workaholic brother, and so he leaves once again for France and the welcoming arms of Renee' Adoree'.THE BIG PARADE features a number of memorable sequences:· Gilbert teaching Adoree how to chew gum, which she immediately swallows;· Gilbert and his buddies sharing an over-baked cake;· Adoree's emotional farewell to Gilbert before he leaves for the battlefield - their tender embrace broken up, she hangs desperately to his leg and then to the truck carrying him away, after which he throws her several of his personal belongings as a keepsake, including one of his boots!;· Gilbert's battalion massacred while marching through sniper-infested woods;· Gilbert, finally catching up with the enemy soldier who killed his best friends, discovers him to be a mere youth who lies dying - frightened and alone - and is unable to extract revenge: the boy motions him for a cigarette and Gilbert gives him the only one he has left; when the former dies in his arms, Gilbert pushes his face away in disgust - a clear gesture by the director at the futility of war, emphasising its cruel and debasing nature.The film made a big star of John Gilbert and it's easy to see why.
Anybody that doubted John Gilbert's acting talents needs to watch this classic silent film from Director King Vidor.Gilbert plays James (why do I have to work) Apperson, a poor little rich boy the son of wealthy parents (Hobart Bosworth, Claire McDowell).
"The Big Parade" (MGM, 1925), directed by King Vidor, is a super production set during the Great War focusing on three strangers of different backgrounds who become friends after being called to the war, with one being the central front focus of the story.The plot begins in the spring of 1917 in which the three aforementioned characters are introduced: "Slim" Jensen (Karl Dane), a construction worker of skyscrapers in the big city whose habit is chewing and spitting out tobacco; "Bull" O'Hara (Tom O'Brien), a bartender; and Jim Apperson (John Gilbert), a shiftless young man denounced by his hard-working aristocratic father (Hobart Bosworth), and pampered by his mother (Claire McDowall).
See how director Vidor handles this scene without making it seem trite.At first glance, "The Big Parade" may seem to be a trifle slow, especially during its plot development in the first half of the story, but after an hour or so, after getting acquainted with the central characters before leading to the "war is hell" theme, then the story gets moving.
As Jim endures the horrors of battle, Justyn doesn't even wait for his return before she takes a passionate interest in his own, nerdy brother, of all people.More than any other silent director, King Vidor's exceptional work in both this picture and "The Crowd" succeeded to awaken my appreciation to the very special beauty and value of the silent film.
It's to great fanfare that a rich young American (John Gilbert) enlists, and it is nice that the film (eventually) contrasts this tone of those scenes to the reality of war, since this is precisely the disillusionment the world went through.
King Vidor, like descendant such as Steven Spielberg, became the biggest, most famous directors of their time both for their willingness and desire to give the people what they wanted, across as many genres as possible, to as many people as possible, and The Big Parade depicts that desire in plentiful spades.The film is nominally a war film, taking place during World War I, where the wimpy, idle son of a rich businessman (John Gilbert) is forced by expectations to join the Army, and he is sent to the frontlines in France, where he befriends a few working-class soldiers, as well as finding a sweetheart, French cutie Renee Adoree.