11th Hour, 11th Day

My main focus with this is silent film. I have two favorite films that are of the era, "The 4 Horseman of the Apocalypse" and "The Big Parade" which was just released on Blue Ray.
Most people remember Rudy Valentino as this greasy, pop-eyed Latin Lover with the tent and half-clad women running like hot and cold running water throughout.
The Four Horseman was his breakthrough, at the time as big as when Tom Cruise did "Top Gun".  (Although I find Tom Cruise as utterly interesting as an unsalted soda cracker.)  He dazzles in this film, he dances the tango, he is stunning and so young.  It's brilliant and sparkling even ninety some years later.  He is a dream and so talented. He runs the gamut of young, spoiled boy, to this hardened soldier who is beaten and raw, part of the destruction of World War One, part of the soil of some dampened French field.

How could I resist?  There is so much intensity in this moment of time, it's damned hot, if you want my true opinion.  To dance with Valentino.  Yes, I dream of dancing with him.  He was so filled with emotion.  It wasn't just because he was Italian; his dark eyes, like oiled glass, the thin line of his lips and when he smiled, oh to hell with cliches.  The angels sang.  
Some may think how could I, born 44 years after his death, love him so much?  My first glimpse of him was a very fuzzy film seen on a black and white tv when I was about ten and wide open to any and all silent film.  It was Son of the Sheik and played at the wrong speed but something about this wore me down an drew me in as few things have.  It was his last film.  He ages from late twenties to his own father and it was made to help with his finances.  In reality, Rudy hated the shiek character but he needed him, too.  His last and greatest love had left him, he had a new home to pay for, debt high over his head.  The movie was a smash hit but probably not for the reasons it was made-
you see, Rudy died just after it's release.  He was only 31 years old.  And in the words of the great Kevin Brownlow, he was immortal.
Back to the war...yes, Julio was dragged out and amazing and it showed the terrible hell that WW1 was for any man or woman that fought it.

This is not the image we are the most familiar with -- he is tired and worn,  the character is doomed to die.
As for the Big Parade and John Gilbert, I will save that for another time.
Let's reflect on rememberance this veterans day, something as old as time, the lives of all the people who went to war.