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Absolutely Fantastic

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

"Shoulder Arms" is an American silent (don't be fooled by the music) movie, black-and-white obviously and stars Charlie Chaplin as writer, director and lead actor. He cast his regular Edna Purviance as lead lady and half-brother Syd is in here again as well. It is not among his shorter works at 45 minutes, but also not among his longest films, not even close. In my opinion, the same is true when it comes to quality. Not one of Chaplin's best, not one of his worst. The year is 1918, so this one will soon have its 100th anniversary. It was made at the end of World War I and Germany are already the enemies in this film. Yep, Chaplin made (like the Stooges) a couple anti-German propaganda films, and here his target are still the enemy forces from World War I, later on from World War II when he went more into full features. I believe the action in "Shoulder Arms" is fairly uninteresting compared to his finest pieces and the emotion is also not really effective. The comedy is okay I guess. The most interesting aspect, however, are the political references. If anything makes these 45 minutes worth a watch, then it is these. As a whole, still fairly underwhelming and I do not recommend it.

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.

Halfway between a short and a feature, Shoulder Arms is a comedy about army life and war on the Western Front. It is certainly unusual for such a film to be made during a war, even if it were done towards the war's end (released in October 1918). Apparently the film was edited down from nearly feature length, as there are not always smooth changes from one scene to another. Despite these shortcomings, Chaplin again demonstrates his creative comic genius that began in 1914 (ironically, at the beginning of the war). A few years later, Chaplin will begin writing, directing, and acting in a string of notable silent features, like The Kid (1921), The Gold Rush (1925), The Circus (1928), and City Lights (1931).Shoulder Arms is divided into three segments of unequal length: (1) Military induction/physical examination, (2) Military training/ boot camp, and (3) Combat. Inadvertently signed on to the US army, recruit Charlie Chaplin – a four-F if there ever was one – drives his military instructor mad as he is unable to drill the army way in boot camp. He even walks like the little tramp! One thinks about the great future comedians who later followed the comedic army act, like Laurel and Hardy, the Three Stooges, and Abbot and Costello. Somehow our recruit passes military drill and moves on to the front lines in France, but his situation is not much better. For now he is dealing with the travails and deprivations of foxhole life, including unsanitary conditions and a flooded trench. The latter finds him sleeping (with ingenuity) below the surface! There are other great gags as well, and there is no need to go into them here. The activities inside the German trench across the battlefield are equally uproarious.The film shows the Germans to be even more incompetent than Charlie. On the battlefield Charlie will capture a 13-man German squad, while encountering the shortest German officer of the war (his explanation: "I surrounded them."). Later Charlie volunteers to undertake a dangerous mission behind enemy lines, disguises himself as a tree, and spies on the Germans. He impersonates a German officer, and hilariously fakes beating up a captured American soldier. Charlie meets a French farm girl and hides in her house; she will help him with his encounters with the enemy. Soon they wind up capturing both the German Crown Prince and the Kaiser! Wow! Then he awakens. Poof!

Shoulder Arms may well be the first war comedy ever released while the conflict was still going on. Opening before the Armistice Charlie Chaplin pokes fun at trench warfare and German officers from the Kaiser to field officers with Napoleonic complexes. In that it had never been done before Chaplin may well have put his career on the line with its release since the public's positive response was not a given.Recruit Charlie drives his drill instructor crazy with his inability to drill properly. Driven to exhaustion Charlie collapses in his tent but is soon on the front lines dealing with the deprivations of fox hole life. On the battlefield he encounters an arrogant German officer, meets a pretty French farm girl and captures the Kaiser.Shoulder Arms serious subject does not get in the way of Charlie's mirth making. A flooded trench with men sleeping in a foot of water, shooting the enemy and keeping score and the over the top charge to the wire are played for laughs and get them. After a hilarious segment with Charlie camouflaged as a tree the films pace slows a little when he impersonates a German officer and captures the Kaiser. Pace killer that it is, it more than likely must have brought cheers from a war weary audience in 1918.