She
Goes to War
is an interesting film in many ways. Obviously it is about a woman who fights
on the battlefields on World War I. This was an odd subject for a film even in
1929 having a woman go into war. The really interesting part is that the film was
cut down to put in sound in some parts and the parts that were cut out were the
intertitles or the title cards with what the characters were saying and an
explanation of what was happening. Without the intertitles you are left to
figure what is playing out in front of you. So here is how I perceived and was
able to follow the story.
Joan
(Eleanor Boardman) is near the fighting in a small (I guess) French town. She
sees men from the Front come and go. They are usually wounded and in urgent
care. Joan watches as a nurse comforts a dying young soldier by singing to him.
After she witnesses this touching and sad scene Joan walks away back to her
home. Before she enters her house she takes a moment to compose herself.
Alarms
sound throughout the village. The men from the village have been called to the
front. Joan’s boyfriend cannot get himself together to he go he has gotten himself
so drunk. He passes out. Joan can hear the one in charge asking about her boyfriend.
She has his uniform on and puts his mask on like all the other men are doing
and takes his place. When the gas masks are ordered off Joan rubs dirt on her
face to hide her features.
Unfortunately
two men figure out Joan is a woman. One of them keeps whistling at her and the
other tries to go after her. When the call to move sounds, Joan follows the two
men out of their foxhole and is yelled at by one of them to stay behind. There
is no way Joan would stay behind with the earth getting blown to bits all
around her.
As
the regiment goes over a hill the enemy rolls down barrels fills with a flammable
substance and sets the field and hill on fire. Joan is horrified seeing men
being burned alive and shot at. She follows the men into a small crowded tank.
The tank goes slowly through the scorching fires in the field. The tank becomes
unbearably hot. One man cannot take the heat he gets out and jumps into the
fire. The tank makes it through the fire and blasts the enemy.
Joan,
when out of the tank, makes it to a foxhole only to be stuck with the same men
she was stuck with before. She manages to get away from them only to be stuck
in barrage of bullets. She winds up killing an enemy soldier who was the
machine gunner. Joan is horrified by what she has done. She screams and faints.
Luckily a soldier comes and carries her away from her trauma.
Now
the three write ups about the film on IMDB say that Joan followed her boyfriend
into war. To me it looked as if the boyfriend was too drunk and passed out to
go to the regiment so she took his place. Eh, who knows who is right.
She Goes to War was good. As I mentioned
at the beginning I thought it was interesting to see a film where a woman
actually goes to the frontlines that was made in 1929. Things in the teens and
even in the twenties were still prim and proper I am surprised this topic did
not create a big stink when the film was released. I think it was a great idea
it is different. But at the same time I feel this was a moral story about why
women are unfit for war because they would kill someone and not be able to
properly handle it like a man. She Goes
to War I will only suggest watching if one, you like films about war or
two, only if you like silent films. You can view She Goes to War in its full fifty minute version on Youtube.
A better review and write up of the plot can be found at this blog: I Thank You Arthur
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