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"The Big Parade" has been called by Western critics as no more than a propagandistic film. Is this really so? Looking at the movie more than two decades later, it still emerges as more interesting and humane than most films made in the West by Hollywood, where idealistic individualism is eulogized with no recourse to thought or reflection. Chen Kaige's second feature film at least do not fall into that category.The film is an examination of a group of cadets (ranging from their teens to their thirties) who undergo intensive drills in order to take part in the 35th National Day Parade of PR China. It starts fairly conventionally, showing the recruits as juvenile individuals, but at around half an hour into the movie, frays begin to show. A recruit rebels against the harsh training under a punishing sun (over 40 degrees Celsius) where trainees start to pass out. A teen cadet runs off. The trainer himself have qualms about who to lose and who to select. Two older trainees have physical problems. The question of glory and submission is correctly identified by some as the film's primary tension - between individual and collectivist ideals. Chen Kaige appears not to make any stand, leaving the audience to draw their own conclusions.Zhang Yimou's photography, which is outstanding, has been well looked into by a previous reviewer, so I won't dwell into it. The movie ends with the 35th national day military parade, as well as a last shot of a soldier in the sun. However, the effect of this shot is as far away from propaganda as you could get from, say, "Top Gun" or otherwise. It is even, one might say, deliberately ambiguous.A severely underrated film of Chen Kaige's early career. If you are in your teens, you are advised to keep an arm's length from this film until your education in international cinema has been completed. Recommended for lovers of Chinese cinema.
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