For the original 1920 Silent movie Directed by Abel Glance.
- Harsher In Hind Sight: The film as a whole but especially the infamous zombie soldier march dream sequence where the zombie troops feel unappreciated about their sacrifices and march into town accusing relatives and friends of unsavory behavior and telling them that they cannot rest. So long as they know their deaths are respected by the surviving French populace, they would be glad about having died for France. The civilians ultimately repent and give their condolonces and the soldiers march back in peace to their graves, ending the dream........ Considering over 20 years later, another followup War would take place and France wouldn't last more than a month against the same enemies these soldiers died fighting against, the whole movie and especially this dream sequence reinforces the emptiness that World War 1's outcome is seen as today.
- Meta-example- Many soldiers in the film were actual enlisted men within the French army while the war was taking place. In fact some of the battle sequences were actual caught footage (including a tiny amount by director Glance himself)... 80% of the actual serving French army shown in the film would be killed on the nearby battlefields before the movie even entered its true filming stage. IN otherwords upwards half of all the etras featured in the entire film were dead years before the movie's actual theatrical release.
