When I started watching this movie, I expected a holdovers-esque school story. What I got instead was one of the greatest war movies ever made.  There is a scene early in the film where the students at the Bunker Hill Military School march on parade in full dress. It is a scene that, on first viewing, has little importance other than to inform the audience and the students that the school will be closing next year.  It is only at the end of the film, after the smoke has cleared and the scene plays again, that the weight is laid upon you, the viewer, and the full message is understood.