The Big Parade (1925)

At the start of World War I, spoiled rich boy John Gilbert is encouraged by friends to enlist despite the misgivings of his family. While in France, he makes new friends, falls in love with a local girl, and witnesses firsthand the horrors of trench warfare. Obviously inspirational to later Great War epics, those other films tend to resonate with me more than this one does. As it might have been for those actually fighting, it quickly jumps in tone from the home front to the mundane life of privates to the brutal realities of warfare. This jump works better in some aspects than others. I preferred the camaraderie of the men as they face new challenges over the burgeoning romance that takes much of the focus even as it too must adjust to the approaching battle.