Considering the high reputation of this famous film, I was little surprised to see how much comedy relief there was in the first hour of this film. I had always assumed that this was for the most part a very serious war drama.
MGM's big star from this era, John Gilbert always seemed like a pretty boy actor for the most part. However King Vidor or someone had him trim his mustache and he actually looks like a real person for a change. He gives a decent performance as well.
King Vidor was one of those American film directors who could impose a person style even in a cookie cutter studio like MGM. The battle scenes are very impressive and have an interesting visual style to them.
After consideration The Big Parade is a very good film somewhat hampered by some of the usual Hollywood storytelling, a love story, funny soldier buddies, settings that look like studio backlot sets, etc.
141 minutes, written by Laurence Stallings and Harry Behn.
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