Shoulder Arms (1918)

Purely Joyful Movie!

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

I'm going to get straight to the plot with this film. Private Charlie Doughboy (Charlie Chaplin) is in boot camp in the US Army. Then he is sent to the Western Front in France. From there it's normal trench life. Until his platoon goes across no mans land and captures the German trench. From there Private Doughboy goes on an adventure. Disguised as a tree he saves a fellow soldier (Syd Chaplin) from being executed. Then he meets a girl (Edna Purviance) who ran an inn that was destroyed from artillery fire. Purviance is arrested and taken to a German officer but Private Doughboy saves her again and his comrade from earlier and even takes Kaiser Whilhelm (Syd Chaplin) prisoner. And then as it turns out it was all a dream. Although this was not the most correct representation of the trenches as they were way too clean in this film I still find it to be very enjoyable. I say go see this one.

It's a comedy about the trench warfare just as WWI is about to come to an end. Charlie Chaplin is a doughboy in boot camp. In a series of scenes, he defeats many Germans. Then he wakes up.It's a pretty long film at 45 minutes. There are some pretty funny scenes. The limburger cheese gag is somewhat weak. Capturing the 13 Germans could have used more slapstick. I do love the part where he's in enemy territories disguised as a tree. The Germans try to chop him down for firewood. That is by far my favorite part. The movie's success probably had a lot to do with the timing and the subject. However I can see the immense risk Chaplin was taking by making a comedy about trench warfare.

Chaplin's sense of humor in depicting an Army private dreaming of heroism was apparently enough to boost the morale of Americans everywhere just before the Armistice that ended WWI.But the film, running only 46 minutes and a salute to the guys in the trenches, while containing moments of inventive sight gags (sleeping in water filled bunks, impersonating a tree trunk to fool the enemy, etc.), certainly doesn't rank among Chaplin's best works. There's a hurried feel to the editing which makes one suspect a lot of cutting was done in order to trim the movie down to size, exhibitors wanting a short film--not a feature.CHARLIE CHAPLIN has the tramp-like appearance throughout (especially in the marching scenes where he can't seem to put his best foot forward), and EDNA PURVIANCE is once again his leading lady, doing nicely as a French gal who helps him defeat the enemy.Too bad he didn't redo this one later on when his films had more polish.

In reaction to the dullness of the films of actual combat in that time, the wartime public increasingly turned to humor as escape from monotony and anxiety… Charlie Chaplin feared that his great "Shoulder Arms" would offend people, but it became his greatest hit… In it, Charlie, by luck, courage, and devilish ingenuity wins the war singlehanded and brings a captive Kaiser in triumph to London… The chief difference between this hilarious burlesque and some of the serious war dramas was that in Charlie's case it all turned out to be a dream