Aristocratic Wars
In addition to hopefully being "The War to End All Wars" as it was being fought, the global conflict that came to be known as World War I is also termed the last gasp of Europe's aristocracy. Imagery is utilized in a tracking shot through von Rauffenstein's living quarters, which are elegantly decorated and adorned even during wartime. The shot includes a bottle of champagne, a copy of a book by Casanova atop which sits a pistol, a table on which is carefully arranged a multitude of other guns and swords, framed photographs, and all in a sumptuous bedroom looked over by a life-sized crucified Jesus. The imagery is an ironic commentary on the formal "gentlemanly" type of war fought for about to be entirely replaced by a much bloodier guerilla style of combat.
Harmonica Music
Although most memorable for its striking visual imagery, the film also effectively engages the sensory power of sound. One scene heightens the language barrier between the German and French soldiers when a French prisoner erupts in anger at hearing the German being spoken by his guard. Despite being enemies, both seem to seek but fail to find common ground. Until the guard leaves a harmonica behind which the French prisoner picks up and begins playing, separated from each other by the cell door, the German guard hums along to the same tune played by the French prisoner. It is a powerful bit of imagery showing the linking of humanity to each other even during the horrors of war.
Drag Show
Preparations for a cross-dressing "drag show" production create an unexpected use of imagery to illustrate the fundamental unreality of war. One of the illusions of war is that it is a certainty that stems from the depths of introductory human psychology. All rationalizations of war being a natural behavior of humanity are undermined by the imagery of men not just dressing up like women but aiming to replicate femininity. The absence of true femininity in war at that time as portrayed on screen subtly questions just how normal war can be when it is only capable of ending life rather than creating life. The cross-dressed men may passingly resemble women, but a male-only population is distinctly incapable of procreation.
Invisible Borders T
The meat of the story is an attempted escape by the French prisoners from their German captors. The film concludes with arguably its most affecting use of visual imagery. Two very small figures are walking across a vast landscape of pure white snow. German snipers take aim at the easy targets and are ready to shoot when an officer orders them to hold their fire as the two have already passed into the neutral territory of Switzerland. The imagery is double powerful: the snow obviates the sighting of any such distinguishable border, but the border itself is already an imaginary dividing line between those who are and those who aren't Germany's enemies.
