1918 is part of a trilogy of plays by Horton Foote that follow the Robedaux family in rural Texas in the early 1900s. This one deals with the Spanish Influenza epidemic (the Germans sent it to us) and the closing months of WW I and their effects on the family.
Main characters include the effete Horace (William Converse-Roberts), a local businessman who's being pressured into joining up and going to fight in Europe. But he contracts the flu and almost dies. When he finally seems to have recovered, the war ends. His wife (Hallie Foote) deals with his sickness, the death of her baby, and her newfound pregnancy. Her kid brother (Matthew Broderick) is hot for war and goes to the movies all the time to watch Robert Harron (whom he's told he resembles). But when it comes right down to it, he never joins up. Oddly, sources state the film he watches is The Heart of a Nation (1916) but I think it's The Birth of a Nation (1915).
As the "boys" start coming home, the horror of the war slowly sinks in and the small-towners lose their taste for flag waving amid the maimed, the blind, and the shell shocked. There's also a long list of plague victims. The story and characters are partly autobiographical and the films nicely captures the feels of 1918 and the naivete of Americans at that time. Thoughtful and well done.... And nothing seems to have changed except people had manners back then.
