Les Croix de Bois - Research Paper Example

Also, portrayed is the courage shown by soldiers in the face of insurmountable odds. Such unwavering commitment is a necessary pre-requisite for success in war. Once commitment wavers, the war is half lost. Even the most accommodating movie can not capture all the realities of the battlefield. Our feature film is; thus, constrained by several factors among them time (Bernard). The film is one hundred and ten minutes long. Among the realities that did not make the cut is the role of women in war.

However, they shall at least get a mention in this paper. The paper shall be brought to a close by studying how the inclusion or seclusion of some aspects relating to the war tie up with traditional French customs (Dorgeles 76). Among the most glaring omissions in Croix de Bois is the role of women. This is even starker considering that the status of the modern day French woman is highly elevated relative to that of the male. However, things have not always been the same. At the beginning of the 18th Century, there was the dawn of the Age of Enlightenment.

One of its famous authors was the French philosopher, Jean Jacques Rousseau. According to this leading scholar, women had a leading role in family affairs compared to their male counterparts. They had to breastfeed and educate their children. This was hardly a progressive attitude towards gender relations. As a consequence, even in the film Croix De Bois, women are virtually anonymous. The understanding then was that their place was the home and, therefore, they had no business in the battlefield (Rousseau).

However, not even in French history has it always been the case that the place of the women is only in the home. A remarkable exception for instance is Joan of Arc. She inherited a lost battle from Charles VII and miraculously managed to do what her predecessor had failed. She drove away the English and secured an important victory at Patoy, in 1429. It might still be argued that Joan of Arc did this with the help of supernatural powers. Conversely, the fact that this supernatural being chose a female figure to accomplish such a huge fete is in itself a confirmation that women can handle the rigours of battlement (Strachan 246).

The movie Croix De Bois censures women as far as their role in the battlefield is concerned. All the cast in the movie are male, for example. They include Fouillard, Gilbert Demachy, Sulphart, Caporal Breval, Vieuble, Brouke, and several others. We witness the fact that women can engage as well as men in combat. As a result, the assumption that their place is only the home is not accurate. Another role that has been performed well by women during war is that of nursing wounded soldiers (Strachan).

The case of Florence Nightingale is now legend. She ably provided her services to the soldiers wounded in the Crimean war. This challenges the French notion that women were not up to the task of war. Very important in Croix De Bois is the socio-cultural impact of the war. War although it happens many miles away can still affect society. Several problems accompany war. One of them is that the young men (Gilbert Demachy in the movie), and increasingly women, who engage in war usually have families to provide for at home.

If they die at war, as is the case in the film, their families are left unattended. There shall be increase in cases of single parent families or even orphans. This directly impacts on society. Crime might