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16  The short film Love and War (James H. White, 1899) described in the introduction establishes a number of narrative elements that will figure prominently in later war films: the hero’s departure and triumphant return; the impact of the war on his family at the home front; battlefield courage and death; field hospitals and ministering nurses. These qualify as the kinds of “semantic units”Rick Altman identifies in his explanation of the foundations of genre. All of these enter into various syntactical patterns as the war film develops over time.1 Love, a major semantic unit of interest in this book, receives little narrative attention in the early film: a kiss before the hero departs for war and an embrace when he returns. But the word itself has primacy in the title, and the lovers in the foreground are the last image we see in the film. The scene thus anticipates the endings that will dominate classic Hollywood films of various genres that conclude with the union of heterosexual lovers in marriage (or the promise of it).2 The three war films to be examined in this chapter—The Big Parade (KingVidor, 1925), What Price Glory (Raoul Walsh, 1926), and Wings (William Wellman, 1927)— offer significant contrasts to the early work’s simplicity and lack of complexity in the treatment of love. A central focus of all of them, love is inflected by war, rather than a separate thread, and is realized in two basic narrative paradigms. The first kind appears in The Big Parade, in which the romantic love between Jim Apperson (John Gilbert) and Melisande (Renée Adorée) is distinct from the equally moving depiction of camaraderie among Jim and his buddies Slim (Karl Dane) and Bull (Tim O’Brien). In contrast, What Price Glory interweaves the two threads, making the bond that exists between Sergeant Quirt (Edmund Lowe) and Captain Flagg (Victor McLaglen) a complication in their mutual love for Charmaine (Dolores Del Rio). Flesh and the Devil (Clarence Brown, 1927) appeared shortly after What Price Glory.Although it is not a war film, its principal male heroes are in the German military and are presented in a similar narrative Paradigms in the Silent Era c h a p t e r o n e situation: Leo (John Gilbert) and Ulrich (Lars Hanson) are friends since boyhood who both love Felicitas (Greta Garbo). Wings, the first film to win the Oscar for Best Picture, works with the same combination of narrative concerns as it presents the love of Jack (Buddy Rogers) and David (Richard Arlen), American pilots who are friends and also rivals for the affection of Sylvia (Jobyna Ralston).3 Examination of the love stories in these films takes us directly into consideration of masculinity and sexuality. I’m particularly interested in contemporary viewers’ responses to these silent war films as well as later critical analyses of their treatment of masculinity and sexuality. Not only are the films significant in terms of film history; they also are the first films to produce critical commentary that deals specifically with male sexuality. One problem posed both by films and criticism comes as we try to reconstruct the epistemological field of the films’ contemporary viewers. Specifically, what discourses were in place at the time of the films’ release that can help us understand what contemporary viewers may have understood about sexuality and masculinity? Since the films are not widely known today, I hope more extended descriptions of their plots will be helpful. The Big Parade King Vidor’s epic film The Big Parade is regarded as one of the greatest war films of any era.4 Its impressive technical accomplishments complement the powerful narrative, which includes a number of motifs and conventions in the war film, such as the varied mix of soldiers of different social stations brought together in foxhole unity and their bonding, the sharing of a cigarette with one’s enemy, a mixture of high jinks in camp and deadly seriousness on the battlefield, and the difficulties of wartime romance. The first part of The Big Parade introduces us to Jim, Slim, and Bull, men from very different social classes who will meet each other and become friends in the service, and shows Jim’s departure from home and his girlfriend, Justyn (Claire Adams).5 Even though Jim is wealthy and the other men are from the working class (Slim is a construction worker, Bull...

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