Empire's All Quiet On The Western Front Movie Review

Plot
An adaptation of Eric Maria Remarque’s legendary novel, in which a class of idealistic young Germans are inspired to enlist for the trenches of WWI. There the horrors of war eat away at their idealism, their political certainties struck dumb by a very real confrontation with death.

Few films, to this day, have struck as powerful an anti-war message as Lewis Milestone’s extraordinary evocation of the tragic folly of war. Arguably, still the greatest WWI movie, his tender portrayal of innocent German youth is juxtaposed with the harrowing immediacy of trench warfare, shot with a telling verisimilitude many modern filmmakers, with all their tools, have failed to match.

Even more than the visceral evocation of trench life, with all its wanton squalor, the philosophical underpinnings of the film reach deep into the heart and head. At the opening, in the dreamy almost fairy-tale safety of their school life, they are resolved, thanks to the stirrings of their teacher, to sign up and fight the good fight. What becomes hastily clear amongst the mud and blood of fellow comrades and shadowy enemies alike is that there is no good fight to be fought, only a terrible one, where victory is a pointless as defeat.

Such a determined, for the time radical message, the soul of Remarque’s novel, finds its most focused point in the scene where Paul, whose eyes we follow to the battlefront, is trapped in a bomb crater in no-man’s land with a French solider, dying from the wound he gave him. Assaulted by remorse, he vainly tries to save him, prying through his clothes to find a name, a person beneath the victim.

The dialogue may feel arch and stagy by today’s standards, the verbose speeches over fallen comrades are hardly realistic, but they are telling, and no concessions are ever made to moral notions of good versus evil (especially as we are seeing it from the German point of view). All is madness, chaos and inescapable loss, captured with poetic and perfect simplicity in the motif of a butterfly watched by Paul from his trench, a reminder of the butterflies he would trap and pin in a glass case as a boy.

RE: All Quiet Still Moving and Relevant 80 years later
A stunning film indeed, only saw it for the first time myself the other day, and it blew me away. A fine review there Phubbs! ... More

Posted by Dr Lenera at 08:42, 18 September 2012 \| Report This Post



RE: All Quiet Still Moving and Relevant 80 years later
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) Based on a novel and probably one of the most realistic war films I have ever see. WW1 is the setting for this unusual look at life for German troops at the front line. Unusual because its a 30's American film focusing on German soldiers and not the more obvious Allies of Britain, France and Russia. Starting off much like 'Full Metal Jacket' the film covers a group/class of young German lads ready to join the ranks and fight for their country. Fro... More

Posted by Phubbs at 04:47, 18 September 2012 \| Report This Post



All Quiet Still Moving and Relevant 80 years later
Still one of the most powerful anti-war films. Banned by the Nazis because of its power. Still shocks and moves. ... More


Posted by lynnshep at 22:29, 23 February 2012 \| Report This Post



This is Brilliant
Strange as it may sound the dated aspects of the film serve it still today. The exaggerated expressions on the students faces at the start is more pwerful than something modern cinema could produce. IT helps if you bear in mind that the movie is from 1930. Moving and what an ending. ... More


Posted by davelogan at 14:49, 07 September 2009 \| Report This Post



RE: Best war film ever
L: Squidward Hark Bugle L: Kilo_T_Mortal They might be trifles but they subtract from the film, I get moved by this film, in places it builds emotions unfortunetl the next minute you have a dead Frenchman staring with a different facial expression every new shot. It just makes me roll around laughing, it really is funny. It doesn't matter if it's 1902 or 2009 that's bad direction and subtracts from the film. That said there are lots of individual shots I could pick out that ... More

Posted by Kilo_T_Mortal at 23:18, 15 April 2009 \| Report This Post



RE: Best war film ever
L: Kilo_T_Mortal They might be trifles but they subtract from the film, I get moved by this film, in places it builds emotions unfortunetl the next minute you have a dead Frenchman staring with a different facial expression every new shot. It just makes me roll around laughing, it really is funny. It doesn't matter if it's 1902 or 2009 that's bad direction and subtracts from the film. That said there are lots of individual shots I could pick out that I love, I also love the funn... More

Posted by Squidward Hark Bugle at 18:58, 15 April 2009 \| Report This Post



RE: Best war film ever
They might be trifles but they subtract from the film, I get moved by this film, in places it builds emotions unfortunetl the next minute you have a dead Frenchman staring with a different facial expression every new shot. It just makes me roll around laughing, it really is funny. It doesn't matter if it's 1902 or 2009 that's bad direction and subtracts from the film. That said there are lots of individual shots I could pick out that I love, I also love the funny ones but for all the ... More

Posted by Kilo_T_Mortal at 18:37, 15 April 2009 \| Report This Post



RE: Best war film ever
L: Kilo_T_Mortal See Paul praying to God over Franz's body/b]He desperately didn't want his friend to die, and he believed in God. Seems perfectly normal. L: Kilo_T_Mortal bayonets stabbed under arms (surely this wasn't an actual technique in WWI?)boys perhaps didn't know how to do it properly, or were frenzied. It's not a mistake in the film. L: Kilo_T_Mortal no bloode was. (I admit it's hard to tell given the lack of colour) L: Kilo_T_Mortal people falling o... More


Posted by Squidward Hark Bugle at 16:44, 15 April 2009 \| Report This Post



RE: Best war film ever
I watched this again last night, this film will always be a classic and it's techniques and message are incredible but parts of this remain some of the funniest, stupidest cinema ever made. See Paul praying to God over Franz's body, bayonets stabbed under arms (surely this wasn't an actual technique in WWI?), no blood, people falling over for no apparent reason and speeded up armies that could almost be set to Benny Hill music and the incredible staring Frenchman who looks different in every ca... More


Posted by Kilo_T_Mortal at 11:02, 15 April 2009 \| Report This Post



Best war film ever
Its age does not matter. This is an anti war film thats showed in devastating effect. It shows that not all German are crazy people who want to conquer the world. The special effects are mindblowing concidering when the film was made. ... More


Posted by solid snake at 21:42, 18 December 2006 \| Report This Post

All Quiet On The Western FrontClassic anti-war movie

All Quiet On The Western Front
Classic anti-war movie