Clearly this would have been a revolutionary film back in the day with far more explicit battle scenes and vigorous talk and anti-war sentiment than had been seen before. Today it becomes rather difficult to view and the first and middle sections particularly seem overlong. initially we have something of a ballet of guns with a remarkable array of gun firing scenes segued together interspersed with a couple of guys talking about a lady back home. This section, guns/guys/guns/guys/guns goes on for some time before we cut to 'back home' and a mini melodrama unfolds but is again far too laboured for modern tastes. Finally we come to the closing section and the part everyone has been waiting for. Gance trademark, superimposition, overlapping images and kaleidoscopic effects as he even uses horror film techniques to show the rising of the past war dead. Certainly all this is excellently done but we have become rather shell shocked and worn down by now and not at all prepared for the French nationalist propaganda suggesting all is well with the world, just before, as it happens, the outbreak of the Second World War.