As America decides to enter WWI, an artist (Richard Dix) tells his patriotic girlfriend (Elizabeth Allan) that he objects to getting involved in a pointless war "like a lemming." Feeling guilty over her rebuke, he signs up, and after overcoming initial qualms about killing, quickly becomes the best fighter pilot in his squadron, having killed 43 of the enemy. When the pair happen to run into one another on a weekend pass he has in Paris, he tells her that he'll only spend the time with her if she'll have sex with him - that's what he's looking for from other women - and she reluctantly consents (certainly a pre-Code moment). He's gone through quite a transformation, oozing masculinity and aggression so much that even fighting seems to be mostly about personal glory, but he's shaken when he sees real suffering in the hospital, including a man he personally shot down.
The film has elements glorifying war, such as the ragtag fighter crew and their aerial exploits, but it also has elements condemning it, such as the men suffering cruel, lingering deaths, PTSD, and a suicide. Despite having secured an instructor's position, the man feels compelled to go back out and earn more kills to beat some other hotshot's record, something I initially thought might be a metaphor for humanity inevitably continuing the crazy cycle of warfare, but his subsequent actions show a nice (if rather forced) sense of enlightenment.
Unfortunately, despite all these great concepts, the film is rather clunky in its mechanics for delivering them. At times it feels abrupt and at others, confused. It needed some other element with an edge - someone bringing up how ridiculous this particular war was in the first place, a darker change in Dix's character, some kind of arc to Allan's character, or an ending that was less saccharine - to have truly succeeded. It could also have used a little more star power and flair in its performances. I liked the antiwar components and how they reflected the psyche of the country in between the wars, but this one was just average, and not terribly special.
The film has elements glorifying war, such as the ragtag fighter crew and their aerial exploits, but it also has elements condemning it, such as the men suffering cruel, lingering deaths, PTSD, and a suicide. Despite having secured an instructor's position, the man feels compelled to go back out and earn more kills to beat some other hotshot's record, something I initially thought might be a metaphor for humanity inevitably continuing the crazy cycle of warfare, but his subsequent actions show a nice (if rather forced) sense of enlightenment.
Unfortunately, despite all these great concepts, the film is rather clunky in its mechanics for delivering them. At times it feels abrupt and at others, confused. It needed some other element with an edge - someone bringing up how ridiculous this particular war was in the first place, a darker change in Dix's character, some kind of arc to Allan's character, or an ending that was less saccharine - to have truly succeeded. It could also have used a little more star power and flair in its performances. I liked the antiwar components and how they reflected the psyche of the country in between the wars, but this one was just average, and not terribly special.