I'll tell you why so serious

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Released less than a month before the Armistice of November 11, 1918, Shoulder Arms is an amazing First World War farce. As part of the "Awkward Squad", Charlie finds himself in boot camp dreaming of action on the front lines. Dug in and longing for home, his character experiences the miserable conditions in the trenches while defeating the enemy with unusual tactics which include lobbing Limburger cheese and infiltrating German lines disguised as a tree. This is a daring comedy in which Chaplin remarkably finds a balance between a parody of the events, and an homage to the soldiers who he was portraying.

Shortly before the end of World War I, Charlie arrives as a recruit at the front. First, he waddles patrolling through the trenches, carefree as always, but after a while the hand grenades that keep exploding around him DO make him feel a little uneasy, and he starts dreaming of home... However, there he is now in France, ready to fight the German enemy (whose troops are being presented, of course, at their most ridiculous - a microscopic officer shouting at his huge soldiers, all wearing spiked helmets and groveling before the ridiculous little guy!) And soon Charlie develops into a fearless hero: he captures 13 enemy soldiers (and declares: 'I surrounded them!'), then he becomes a first-class shot, and then he volunteers for a dangerous mission - and only starts feeling a little uneasy when he's told that he might never return... But, there he goes, disguised as a tree trunk, to spy on the German soldiers in the woods, playing hide-and-seek with the dumb 'krauts'; while his best friend, on another dangerous mission overhearing the Germans' conversations and telegraphing their plans to his comrades, is captured...Charlie, meanwhile, finds refuge in the bombed-out house of a pretty young French girl (Edna Purviance, of course) - but not for long, until both are captured and brought before the ridiculous and lustful German officer; and then the Kaiser himself (played once again by Charlie's brother Sydney, who also plays his comrade!) pays a visit to the troops - but what does Charlie do to him?? See for yourself - you won't believe it...Hearing about this hilarious plot, it may seem a bit strange and maybe even tasteless to make such a 'light' comedy about War, and even while the REAL War is still going on - and yet, Charlie once more makes the whole thing look so natural, with all the realistic elements of the trenches, the bombed-out houses, the shooting, the explosions... and AMIDST all that, his gags work just like always! Of course, the War was almost over, and victory was already guaranteed; and so, Charlie was now (after he'd made REAL efforts to help the US army, selling War Bonds and making educational shorts on his own expenses) able to show all the absurdity of war in the shape of a simply HILARIOUS comedy - certainly one of the BEST he produced for First National! A historical document today - and at the same time a WONDERFULLY crazy piece of entertainment...

In these modern times (as subject known quite well to the director of the short film that this German count is going to talk about…), politically correct films are the "leitmotiv" of the modern young filmmakers' projects. "Shoulder Arms" directed by Herr Charlie Chaplin during WWI (the film was released only a few weeks before the armistice) is an obvious example of why the early cinema pioneers were a very bold people, certainly! To direct a humorous film inspired in the terrible, bloody First World War was a complicated matter that only few directors with those dangerous and daring ideas could be allowed to do… to venture upon such delicate enterprise and with success was reserved only to geniuses.As this German count said, "Shoulder Arms" was made during WWI, that time in where definitely the whole world lost its innocence (fortunately not the German fat heiresses of this aristocrat…) and it is a hilarious, inventive social satire about that and any war. The film it is full of great gags and entertaining film continuity for a story in where that tramp will live though risky and courageous adventures in the front …whether a hero for the allies… or not.To mock the war trenches, the unhealthiness, the frontal attacks and the Germans (how you dare!!... by the way, there are a lot of inaccuracies in the film … the German soldiers by that time had moustaches and longer beards not to mention that the Kaiser lacks many medals in his uniform…) in an elegant, funny and delicate way it is even today a film miracle impossible of being surpassed. Keeping in mind those terrible wartime circumstances, the difficult task is only possible thanks to a lot of creativity and talent. Obviously Herr Charlie Chaplin had very much of it.And now, if you'll allow me, I must temporarily take my leave because this German Count must go back to the Schloss trenches.Herr Graf Ferdinand Von Galitzien http://ferdinandvongalitzien.blogspot.com/

The big names in cinema tried to do their part for the war effort, and Charlie Chaplin was no exception. This patriotic and propagandist picture, "Shoulder Arms", is part of his contribution, although the war was nearly over by the time of its release. The tramp goes to war, humorously accomplishes acts of heroism and kicks the Kaiser in the bum. It's a very funny film, although I don't think it nearly one of his best. It's with "A Dog's Life" as his better output for First National before he made his early masterpiece "The Kid". They were his first three-reelers, which contain sustained, more elaborate gags than he could usually orchestrate in his two-reel shorts at Mutual.It can be difficult to balance a pro-war message with slapstick antics and scenes of burlesque on the front, but one wouldn't think so watching "Shoulder Arms". It's also preferable in many respects to a "more serious", dramatic work with a similar message, such as Griffith's "Hearts of the World". Chaplin had become a true virtuoso of screen comedy by this time; he makes it look effortless. He knew very well by then that a film with fewer gags--with more elaboration, refinement and careful timing--could be better than any knockabout, Keystone-type farce with a dozen pratfalls a minute. The sequence where Chaplin is disguised as a tree is a pertinent example. Even with wars raging, Chaplin can lift the spirits of millions.