This is one of the misplaced World War propaganda movie. It talks of patriotism, but frankly it was anything but that. In WW2, one could justify allies declaring war, there was a humanitarian reason behind it, which justified. Of course that was not really though of, till Pearl Harbour happened. But nothing justifies the WW1, in which, if one looks a bit dispassionately, Allies aided terrorism. How about the world powers uniting and declaring war, when retaliatory actions were taken post 9/11? In this case the act of terrorism was even worse, since not only the future head of state was murdered, but also not a tyrant, in fact may be their, AD Franz Ferdinand and Countess Sophie's life-story probably was as romantic as his aunt, Sissy's . The war was declared when Serbia procrastinated in taking actions against the assassins, or even may be, as some literature hint, triggered the war actively.
Going back to the movie, it hovered between sympathy for the killers and the backers up (the people who stayed and made the money to be used by the killers, as said by the heroine). But probably, considering the time, when the propaganda, even for a wrong cause, was necessary, I would gloss over it.
In this confusion, not only the heroines, but also of the director/ script writer's the whole plot become confusing. At one moment the public opinion was made to support the soldier, and the next moment, the civilian. To justify the heroine's aversion, the statement that more doctors were being killed than army person, was if nothing, but over-exaggeration of the ground realities.
The way the plot developed, the whole sympathy would go not to the lead stars, Dexter and Swanson, but to Tim Forman and Wanda Hawley, both of who were wronged against, one by unrequited love and other additionally by both the lead players. When the script didn't develop their roles, Dexter and Swanson ended up as negative characters of the story, which I am sure wasn't intended.
I wonder, when a person is, as looks, still on saline drips, would a doctor let him see his disfigured face? In fact actively encourage it, by ordering a nurse to get a hand mirror so he could?
Not good enough, even for 1919.
