Abstract
Clémentine Tholas investigates the issue of homosexuality in the silent war films of World War One. Tholas is interested in the way that these films present issues of gender relationships and friendships as well as homosexuality at a moment when the latter was punished by the US army and viewed as a social threat. Using these films to investigate how Hollywood imagined life on the front lines for soldiers, Tholas notes the displays of male emotion, love, friendships, and femininity within. Accordingly, she discovers that these films tend to reassert a patriarchal and misogynistic vision or masculinity and gender roles. At the same time, they portray the various kinds of male and maternal love, virile friendships and physical desire that can reflect, and effect, social transformation.
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Films
Civilization. Directed by Thomas H. Ince. United States, 1916.
Hearts of the World. Directed by David W. Griffith. United States, 1916.
Johanna Enlists. Directed by William Desmond Taylor. United States, 1918.
Shoulder Arms. Directed by Charles Chaplin. United States, 1918.
The Big Parade. Directed by King Vidor. United States, 1925.
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Directed by Rex Ingram. United States, 1921.
The Little American. Directed by Cecil B. DeMille. United States. 1917.
What Price Glory. Directed by Raoul Walsh. United States, 1926.
Wings. Directed by William A. Wellman. United States, 1927.
Yankee Doodle in Berlin. Directed by Richard Jones. United States, 1919.
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Tholas, C. (2019). Shoulder Arms (1918), What Price Glory (1926), Wings (1927): How Silent War Films Discuss Homosexuality and Gender Representations During World War One. In: Tholas, C., Goldie, J., Ritzenhoff, K. (eds) New Perspectives on the War Film. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23096-8_6
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