A different perspective (massive spoilers)
First of all I think this is a pretty good movie.
Considering the cast, director and title I had assumed this would be a good, but standard musical, and in a way it is. Boy meets girl, falls in love, almost loses girl, but gets her in the end. All this in a setting of great singing and dancing (Berkeley directing, what would one expect?).
And sure it starts of like that. But then, a couple of things seemed different. For me there's two stand out things that separate this movie from other musicals.
1. Boy gets girl.
Yes, he does, but is it the right boy that gets the girl? Kelly messes up big time with his attempt to dodge the draft, and subsequently reacting very insensitive to Garland losing her brother. His behaviour to redeem himself is admirable, but I kind of had the feeling 'too little, too late'. All this while the script goes out of its way to present an alternative to Garland in the character of Jimmy Metcalf (George Murphy). Even in the finale Murphy is there to console Garland in a way that I would perceive as 'being in love with her'. For me Kelly's character winning out did not feel right.
2. The war.
(Disclaimer: I always go into movie completely spoilerfree, so I had no idea that WWI would be the backdrop for this movie. I am not American, so I may approach this different than those who are. I do not wish to offend, and if I do please forgive me.)
It is clear to me that basically this movie also served propaganda purposes for a) America being a great country and b) supporting the U.S. war effort. The ending, marching soldiers, all main characters going for 'the cause', make this pretty obvious. And, considering the time frame and circumstances, that's fine.
On the other hand, a few details struck me as odd. The obvious one being the questionable behaviour of Kelly's character.
I know that after negative audience response after the first screenings, the ending of the movie was re-shot to put Kelly's character in a more positive light. But still, in my opinion Kelly's character does not fit the morally unquestionable character that one would expect in a movie like this.
And then there's the death of Garland's brother. I did not see that coming at all. First of all, because it stops the movie from having a completely happy ending. Secondly, and even more interesting, one could almost regard this as an anti-war statement. Consider the fact that early in the movie Garland makes a big fuss about her brother wanting to drop out of college, in which we learn that as a future doctor he will make a valuable contribution to the future society. This makes his tragic death feel even more senseless than it already does.
And again, Kelly's character's reaction to his death was completely off putting. Garland's subsequent furious response to this is great by cutting him out of her life. However, her - in my opinion - rather quick and effortlessly getting back together with Kelly in the end sort of contradicts her earlier behaviour.
I know all this depends on how one regards Kelly's character, but anyway... I did not expect to be talking about things like that from a 40's musical
edit: For those interested, a lively debate about this post can be found at the Classic Movies board: http://www.imdb.com/board/bd0000010/thread/145548495?d=145548495&p =1#145548495
voting history: http://www.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=629013