Joan is a young woman betrothed to Tom Pike, who ships off to France to fight in World War I. Fearful of Tom's safety (and sanity), Joan disguises herself as a man and follows him overseas, where she passes herself off as a soldier and experiences the stark terror of warfare for herself as she desperately tries to find her beloved.
Originally released by United Artists, She Goes to War was a late-entry silent feature boasting sound sequences. In its later reissues, however, the sound sequences were retained while many of the silent sequences and subtitles were eliminated, lending the film a surreal, fragmented, almost dream-like quality. The fiery tank climax, augmented by intense combat footage, remains vivid and impressive over 85 years later.
Director Henry King (1886-1982) received the very first Golden Globe Award as Best Director for The Song of Bernadette (1944), and received Oscar nominations for that film and Wilson (1945). He amassed over 100 acting credits during the silent era before making the transition to directing. Among his many classics (most produced by Twentieth Century Fox) are In Old Chicago (1937), Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938), Jesse James (1939), Twelve O'Clock High (1949), The Gunfighter (1950), The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952), Rodgers & Hammerstein's Carousel (1956), and the 1957 adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises.
BONUS: The Memory Lingers On -- This documentary pays tribute to the events and personalities that shaped history, including Armistice Day in 1918, William S. Hart, the Keystone Kops, Charles A. Lindbergh, Jack Dempsey and Jess Willard, Enrico Caruso, Will Rogers and Franklin D. Roosevelt.