I wanted to but couldn't!

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Charlie is a boot camp private who has a dream of being a hero who goes on a daring mission behind enemy lines."Shoulder Arms" proved to be Chaplin's most popular film, critically and commercially, up to that point. This is understandable given the interesting themes and visual gags. The tree is pretty funny, and the underwater sleeping arrangements are amusing.What I find particularly interesting about this film's success is how it seems to be now more or less forgotten. I mean, of course any Chaplin film or silent comedy fan will know it. But compared to "The Kid" or "Modern Times" or "City Lights", it is far removed... is this now even one of the top ten most popular Chaplin films?

Shortly before the end of World War I, Charlie arrives as a recruit at the front. First, he waddles patrolling through the trenches, carefree as always, but after a while the hand grenades that keep exploding around him DO make him feel a little uneasy, and he starts dreaming of home... However, there he is now in France, ready to fight the German enemy (whose troops are being presented, of course, at their most ridiculous - a microscopic officer shouting at his huge soldiers, all wearing spiked helmets and groveling before the ridiculous little guy!) And soon Charlie develops into a fearless hero: he captures 13 enemy soldiers (and declares: 'I surrounded them!'), then he becomes a first-class shot, and then he volunteers for a dangerous mission - and only starts feeling a little uneasy when he's told that he might never return... But, there he goes, disguised as a tree trunk, to spy on the German soldiers in the woods, playing hide-and-seek with the dumb 'krauts'; while his best friend, on another dangerous mission overhearing the Germans' conversations and telegraphing their plans to his comrades, is captured...Charlie, meanwhile, finds refuge in the bombed-out house of a pretty young French girl (Edna Purviance, of course) - but not for long, until both are captured and brought before the ridiculous and lustful German officer; and then the Kaiser himself (played once again by Charlie's brother Sydney, who also plays his comrade!) pays a visit to the troops - but what does Charlie do to him?? See for yourself - you won't believe it...Hearing about this hilarious plot, it may seem a bit strange and maybe even tasteless to make such a 'light' comedy about War, and even while the REAL War is still going on - and yet, Charlie once more makes the whole thing look so natural, with all the realistic elements of the trenches, the bombed-out houses, the shooting, the explosions... and AMIDST all that, his gags work just like always! Of course, the War was almost over, and victory was already guaranteed; and so, Charlie was now (after he'd made REAL efforts to help the US army, selling War Bonds and making educational shorts on his own expenses) able to show all the absurdity of war in the shape of a simply HILARIOUS comedy - certainly one of the BEST he produced for First National! A historical document today - and at the same time a WONDERFULLY crazy piece of entertainment...

Halfway between a short and a feature, Shoulder Arms is a comedy about army life and war on the Western Front. It is certainly unusual for such a film to be made during a war, even if it were done towards the war's end (released in October 1918). Apparently the film was edited down from nearly feature length, as there are not always smooth changes from one scene to another. Despite these shortcomings, Chaplin again demonstrates his creative comic genius that began in 1914 (ironically, at the beginning of the war). A few years later, Chaplin will begin writing, directing, and acting in a string of notable silent features, like The Kid (1921), The Gold Rush (1925), The Circus (1928), and City Lights (1931).Shoulder Arms is divided into three segments of unequal length: (1) Military induction/physical examination, (2) Military training/ boot camp, and (3) Combat. Inadvertently signed on to the US army, recruit Charlie Chaplin – a four-F if there ever was one – drives his military instructor mad as he is unable to drill the army way in boot camp. He even walks like the little tramp! One thinks about the great future comedians who later followed the comedic army act, like Laurel and Hardy, the Three Stooges, and Abbot and Costello. Somehow our recruit passes military drill and moves on to the front lines in France, but his situation is not much better. For now he is dealing with the travails and deprivations of foxhole life, including unsanitary conditions and a flooded trench. The latter finds him sleeping (with ingenuity) below the surface! There are other great gags as well, and there is no need to go into them here. The activities inside the German trench across the battlefield are equally uproarious.The film shows the Germans to be even more incompetent than Charlie. On the battlefield Charlie will capture a 13-man German squad, while encountering the shortest German officer of the war (his explanation: "I surrounded them."). Later Charlie volunteers to undertake a dangerous mission behind enemy lines, disguises himself as a tree, and spies on the Germans. He impersonates a German officer, and hilariously fakes beating up a captured American soldier. Charlie meets a French farm girl and hides in her house; she will help him with his encounters with the enemy. Soon they wind up capturing both the German Crown Prince and the Kaiser! Wow! Then he awakens. Poof!

Chaplin is a doughboy in his final film of 1918, a doughboy who can not seem to get the marching down straight. He spends time "over there" in World War One trenches. Several gags stand out: Limburger cheese as a makeshift grenade for one. The cramped quarters of the barracks in the trenches and when Chaplin and his mates are washed out of their bunks by flooding are highlights. Chaplin ends up capturing several German soldiers single-handed, and he spanks the German commander for refusing a cigarette. When asked how he did it, Chaplin replies that he surrounded them. Chaplin hides behind enemy lines as a tree of all things, and those scenes are very very funny. He escapes to a bombed house where he meets up with a French girl played by Edna Purviance. He's tracked down by German soldiers, escapes from them again, and Purviance is arrested for assisting him. Chaplin is able to pull a fast one by bopping a soldier and using the soldier's uniform. He ends up saving Purviance of course and capturing the Kaiser in the process. Along the way, Chaplin employs some sight gags and slapstick in turning back the German soldiers. With this film, Chaplin explored the location possibilities in filming while maintaining the audience's attention for closer to feature length time, something his contract with the Mutual Film Corporation disallowed him. The film also allowed him to poke fun at the enemy, something he would again do to greater effect in The Great Dictator. *** of 4 stars.