The highest-grossing silent film of all time, as well as the first realistic war drama, tells the harrowing story of a young man’s (John Gilbert) front-line experiences in World War I. Year: 1927

It’s been a long time since I’ve watched a silent movie and boy howdy this is one of the best. If you’ve never seen one before, this would be a great one to start on. Well, maybe not, it does a great job at setting up a fun and exciting world that romanticizes the idea of going to war, just to realize the bitter horrors that modern technology has to offer. There’s a bullshit happy ending, after all this is classic Hollywood, but I’d like to think that can be explained by WW1 ending only 9 years before this movie’s release and the public still needing to be assured that not everything about the Great War was a futile waste.