I haven't seen The Big Parade since it screened at the National Film Theatre in London in 1979, but Elizabeth's recollection makes me want to see it again!

What you say about American soldiers in WW1 is very interesting. Where did you read this? It would certainly explain Alvin York's reticence about firing a gun. Were religious misgivings common among doughboys? Or, rather, were they recruited significantly from sects likely to have such misgivings?

What you say about WWII makes the Malick film all the more moving. It crossed my mind recently that there is a moment in The Thin Red Line in which a young solider reaches for a butterfly on a blade of grass. An obvious allusion to All Quiet on the Western Front.

Don't know how relevant that was!
Richard