User Reviews

There are a couple of significant focuses in this second installment, among many. One deals with the "colored" troops who were willing to fight, even though they were treated as less than dirt. We are shown the French fighters, who, while dealing with their own racism, embraced these troops because they were all soldiers, fighting for a common cause. General Pershing resisted allowing these men to fight as Americans. He didn't want to deal with what would happen should they be successful. There was great heroism. They were used for propaganda, but we all know what it would be like upon their return. The second focus beyond the battles themselves had to do with the jingoism and selling of those war. Also the treatment of anyone who even complained in public. If you had a German name, you could be assaulted by vigilantes who would be seen as heroes. Wilson, himself a racist with a messianic complex, thought this whole development was terrific. Of course, beyond these domestic things, the horrors of a war fought by inexperience troops, set up as cannon fodder, is aptly portrayed.