This 1930 film, No. 54 on the AFI's Top 100 list, still holds up as a surprisingly forceful and honest antiwar drama. Indeed, the modern sensibility is almost as startling as the sometime stagey acting of Lew Ayres, which can be excused by the fact that, three years after the introduction of sound, actors were still applying stage techniques to talking pictures. Ayres plays a German college student during World War I, who is brainwashed into enlisting in the Army (along with the rest of his class) by a zealously inspirational college professor. Once in uniform and on the front lines, however, he quickly discovers that the glory of the Fatherland is of little concern to a soldier dodging bullets and explosions, whose comrades are dying in his arms. As powerful in its way as
Platoon almost 60 years later, it remains a classic tale of young soldiers' confrontations with the possibility of imminent and arbitrary death. Director Lewis Milestone shows a surprising range of techniques in this film from the formative years of moviemaking with sound.
--Marshall Fine
1 Almost Like A Documentary
Granted, the film does look dated, sometimes scratchy in parts and the sound isn't the best. The film however does not make light of war through a glamor Hollywood version of war. The film was shot in 1929 and released in 1930. The infancy of sound in film.
I was suprised how realistic many of the scenes were and almost seemed like you were watching real World War I film footage. This is a good film to watch for film history and I would say for adults who can sit still and forgive the datedness of the film and realize it was made in 1930. The film accurately catches the grit, dirt and ugliness of war. It is a good film for teenagers to see if they want to learn a little about WWI. The other reviewer is right....Kubrick's Paths of Glory is a good film....however, I think this film has merits too. I forgive some on the film's flaws because of the date it was made. I think it is a restrained film (Not obviously a Hollywood hack job story) for it's time. Good film to see if not just for history.
2 The book can be read in several hours. Do that first.
"Some time ago there was an army theatre in these parts. Coloured posters of the performances are still sticking on a hoarding. With wide eyes Kropp and I stand in front of it. We can hardly credit that such things still exist. A girl in a light summer dress, with a red patent-leather belt about her hips!" After some more description of this girl, the narrator continues---in these words from "All Quiet on the Western Front": "The girl on the poster is a wonder to us. We have quite forgotten that there are such things, and even now we hardly believe our eyes. We have seen nothing like it for years, nothing like it for happiness, beauty and joy." In the film, of course, this is replaced by the poster itself; for we get to see it as well. Which do you think is more effective in conveying the longing of these soldiers, a simple poster of a girl, or the words (as indicated) above? I don't think there is any question which is more successful. Some things are better left unseen, even in films, I'd argue. The scene in the film would have been much more effective if, say, we got the details from one or two of the soldiers, perhaps sitting around having a drink, describing it to the others. Such would draw us into what they were feeling. Instead we see a picture for a few moments and then the scene changes & we carry nothing from the scene with us as the film progresses. This is not the only example of such herein either. In short, what I am suggesting is that the book is far more effective than this film. Big surprise, you say---most films in this category are inferior to the lauded books on which they are based. I'd agree. I'm just saying that you will not get anywhere near the effect of this book by just watching this film. There ought to be two categories for famous books brought to the screen: those that are complementary, ie., can be either read or seen (or both) without detracting from the work on which it is based, and those that cannot. "All Quiet on the Western Front, I'd suggest, falls into the latter category, but at least I'd hope that you'd invest the few hours it takes to read this book first---borrow it from your library, say---before instinctively looking to give me negative feedback simply because I'm not chiming in with a review of this film that, perhaps, simply reinforces your previously held predilections. Why ought one to go to the trouble of writing a review, after all, if one is not going to be honest? Cheers!
3 most important anti-war film ever
this film is amazing. granted nothing is ever as good as the book, but this film is pretty close. All Quite on the Western Front is defintly the forerunner of Platoon. but i dont know how people compare saving private ryan to it. i dont even consider SPR an anti war movie. yes the begining is horrifing, but after the first thirty minutes it turns into a typical war movie with a few americans destroying a much larger german force. AQOTWF is truely the antiwar film at its best, and really it created the genre. yes the acting is somewhat stiff but the message is still powerful today. and frankly i think its good that americans see a movie from a diffiernt point of view, showing the german soldiers to be nothing more then men serving their country the same as the allied troops did, because americans still have problems with viewing are enimies as evil especially germans even years later.
4 Very dated
I'll have to go against the trend and give this movie only 3 stars. I am sure that when the movie came out in 1930 that it was well received and deserved several awards. Seeing this film for the first time last week was a dissapointment for me. The acting is very ordinary and the battle scenes are dissapointing. The film has dated. For a good WW1 DVD get "Paths of Glory" by Stanley Kubrik. This film was also set in WW1 and was in black and white. In my opinion a far better movie. For it's time "All quiet on the western front" was a landmark film. Today it seems almost corny.
5 A generation of men destroyed by war
For a movie in the 1930's, Lewis Milestone's adaptation of All Quiet On The Western Front, based on Erich Maria Remarque's novel, follows the book reasonably well. However, rather than starting with the soldiers lining up to get the cook Ginger's stew per the novel (that part comes later), it starts with Paul Baumer's school teacher telling him and his fellow students that they are the light of the Fatherland, the iron men of Germany, the brave heroes who will repulse the enemies when called to do so. In other words, he's exhorting them to enlist, which they do, pressed into patriotism in what was initially thought to have been a quick war with small losses.
From the start, the recruits are eager to get into uniform and to the front, and are puzzled by the behaviour of burned-out experienced soldiers like Tjaden and Kat. This latter, a large, pleasantly ugly man has a knack for scrounging for food and finding enough for the group, and soon, all the recruits stick with and respect this man, especially after their first bombardment. When one of the recruits realizes he has wet his trousers, Kat tells him not to worry about it, as it's happened to better men.
The stages of attacking, the bombardment, attack, counterattack, and repulse, is presented in graphic detail for that period, with the shots of men dying by artillery shells, being bayoneted, or machine-gunned. Some recruits go crazy waiting in the bunker during the bombardment, and one of them rushes outside, only to get cut down by bullets. And the aftermath isn't pretty for some. Franz Kemmerich ends up in the infirmary and has his leg amputated. From the grueling experience of phantom limb pain to the realization that one has lost his limb, the greed of some like Muller who wants Franz's nice boots, to the unconcern of the doctors who see Franz's death as another free bed, war is hell.
War changes people's perspectives. Paul fights and stabs a French soldier at close quarters in a foxhole, and he pleads and apologizes to the dying man, telling him that without these uniforms, they could be friends, and promising to write to his wife. And on leave, Paul is clearly alienated from the older civilians who have no clue that war has burned out his soul, and just keep telling him to give those Frenchies a licking and push on to Paris. I'd go for Tjaden's solution to war: get the politicians and generals wearing just their underpants into a big field and fight it out with clubs. But the discussion of the soldiers yields something still relevant: manufacturers want a war to sell more arms.
The subplot involving the butterflies is new, but the shot of the soldier reaching for the butterfly before being shot by a sniper symbolizes a soldier's whose burned out soul is suddenly heartened as seeing something beautiful, and suddenly thus illuminated within, reaches toward it.
All Quiet On The Western Front deservedly went on to win four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, in the US. However, Joseph Goebbels' antics in Berlin demonstrates how Germany was in a state of war denial. The incident at a theatre of the second night showing of the movie involved Goebbels' men starting disturbances and yelling anti-Semitic epithets that resulted in the film's termination after ten minutes. Goebbels hadn't even seen the film; he merely wanted to demonstrate Nazi power in Berlin and discredit Albert Grzesinski, Prussia's Interior Minister who was a Social Democrat. When the film was banned by the Board of Censors because it "endangered Germany's image abroad", the headlines of Goebbels' newspaper Der Angriff (German for The Attack) read "Grzesinski Defeated."
One of the few war films I'll watch due to its pacifist message, denouncing the glorification of war. The prologue at the movie's beginning, taken from Remarque's book, says it all: this story is neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all, an adventure. For death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. It will try simply to tell of a generation of men, who even though they may have escaped its shells, were destroyed by the war.
6 Best Picture Winner of 1929-1930
'All Quiet On The Western Front' was released in 1930 and won the Academy Award for Best Picture of 1929-1930. When you watch it, you will see why.
The films leading star is Lew Ayres, and he gives a very fine performance as a German college student who enlists in the Army during the First World War, along with the other students in his class, because of the professor at the college who makes them all want to become brave soldiers. We then watch the brilliantly shot action scenes, which are very realistic and sad to watch, as they go to fight on the front lines. They certainly discover the horrors of war, while we watch it. The movie is directed by Lewis Milestone, and has a very powerful, and sad ending, that you wont forget it.
Now for this Universal Region 1 DVD. Sadly, the print and sound quality are not really too great in all honesty. However, the film is very old, and still, even if its not in the condition some might like it to be, it is still very watchable. Overall, the DVD is not too bad.
This is an absolute must-have for classic film fans. So if you can pass by the fact that the print used here on this DVD is not brilliant, you will absolutely love this movie.
7 The only true anti-war movie
It would be a mistake to think of this movie as a war movie rather it is the only true anti-war movie I've ever seen. Unlike most so-called anti-war movies there is no glory, no heroics and no over-dramatized deaths in this movie, it is perhaps the most realistic movie I've seen about war, or to put it more aptly, the most likely depiction of war. Put that doesn't mean this movie is boring or an escapade of Art, no this movie is both entertaining and chilling and it is definitely a movie you should see before you die, otherwise you'll regret it, as it will probably be one of Gods favorites, lousy hippie.
8 Way ahead of its time
Long before Platoon and Saving Private Ryan, a pacifist antiwar film dedicated to the soldier's point of view had them queuing round the block. An enormous critical and financial success, All Quiet On The Western Front was made in 1930 for the then enormous sum of $1.25m. The story of the inglorious fate of young German soldiers in the trenches of the Great War, it was made at a time when the actors and the public could remember the panic and the enormous numbers of dead. Thoroughly sensible and honest, this story claims to be 'neither an accusation, nor a confession, and least of all an adventure'. How many other war films have the guts to wear such a broken heart on their sleeve?
9 A Classic That Must Be Experienced..
This review refers to the Universal DVD edition of "All Quiet on the Western Front"(1930)....
I feel privileged that we are still able to view this beautiful film from 1930. It is a moving story of soldiers bonding through the horrors of war. The soldiers are German, the war is WWI, but it doesn't really matter what country they are from or which war it is, it is baby faced boys, going off to kill or be killed, and the physical and emotional scars they are left with.
"All Quiet on the Western Front" won the Academy Award(1929/1930) for Best Picture and it was well deserved. Everything about it is amazing. The acting, the story, the photography, all combined for a film that will stand the test of time and will continue to mesmerize audiences always. Even without all the graphic effects used in today's war movies,Director Lewis Milestone and photographer Arthur Edeson, manage to convey a chilling look at the atrocities these soldiers must endure.The film's stars, Lew Ayres, Louis Wolheim, John Wray and Slim Summerville are all exquiste in their portrayals, making us feel the emotions and anguish they are going through. They are characters you will really care about.Some of the immortal scenes, will touch you and stay with you for quite a while after the view.
The film does show it's age. Although the picture itself is fairly sharp, there are many scratches and lines throughout.
I found myself so caught up in the story though, that these things didn't really bother me,The sound in DD2.0(MONO) is at times a bit muffled but very decent. I think the DVD is absolutely worth having for anyone who appreciates fine filmmaking, or any lover of good war(or anti-war) stories.The price now is more than reasonable for this classic treasure.
There are very informative production notes included on the making of the film, and the author(Erich Maria Remarque) of the book the film was based on. There are some biographical notes on a few of the stars as well. The DVD includes subtitles in English, French and Spanish.Universal has done a nice job in bringing this important piece of ciematic historty to DVD for all to enjoy.
A must have for your classic film collection and one to view during the up coming Oscar season....Experience this beautiful film for yourself...Laurie
10 Cinema at its best
I can only re-iterate the comments passed by most of your other reviewers, a real master piece. Dated? maybe, the acting is of another age. but for all that the story and cine-matic quality reigns amongst the greatest of all time. The 1st world war is seen through a young, ordinary lad at first enthusiastic to serve his nation after a barrage of lecturing led by his school master on how glorious to wear a uniform with the girls flocking at your feet, the pride of the nation,ect,ect. He and most of his school mates join up only to be confronted with the reality of trench warfare.The story is quite straight forward but interwoven are really great episodes eg: we digress from the characters to follow a pair of boots as they are worn by various soldiers each one loosing them through death.
There are no glorious deaths no famous last words just the passing of a few young men out of the 9,000,000 who's lives ended between 1914 and 1918.
The final scene is a classic in film history.
The anti war message is as strong now 73 years after its release as it was then.
For those who have not seen this film and are real art lovers
this is a must buy for any film collection.
For me i just think it,s in the top 5 best films of all time and definately the best war movie ever made.
11 Should have been 5...
...but for the flaws of the DVD (although I've seen much worse, and the price is fair), and the missing part ending the book (which was giving the full meaning of the title, and I found this omission unforgivable), the 'communiquŽ', announcing both the armistice and "All quiet on the Western Front": the death of the soldier who was at the center of the story did not have any meaning neither importance for the cannon fodder accountants (especially since the war was over). Lew Ayres, although doing a fine job as the central character, is way beyond Louis Wolheim who is perfect as the veteran who knows better, especially that the first worry for a soldier is not about glory but plain survival.
Boris Vian wrote(about 45 years ago):"War is made by people who don't know each other and fight, for the benefit of people who know each other very well but don't want to fight together"...But they give you some choice, either you die as a hero if listening to them, either as a 'coward desertor' if you refuse to comply to 'military law'; the worst (and it's very well exposed in this movie) being the one who are not fighting but know perfectly what should do those who are.I hope some day we'll see no more of military court-martialing civilians who refuse to go, but civil courts treating military as criminals.
What is most interesting is, the best 2 movies (in my opinion) depicting war as it is AND as it should be seen are this one from a book by a german writer (but an american movie), the 2nd, "Die Brucke, aka The Bridge" in 1959, having been made in Germany by a german director, Bernard Wicki; the main difference being the teacher who's trying (unsuccessfully) to calm down the young ones who want to fight for the "Vaterland": 1914 (when nothing done yet), they had to con them in; 1944 (when it was already lost), you couldn't reason them out.
12 Not a classic...
I've seen the film twice now, and it is dated. A classic stands the test of time: what had been called naturalistic acting in this film is today melodrama. Of course, this is a landmark film, but it does not hold up "suprisingly well." The second time I saw this film was in a film appreciation class, and people litteraly laughed at the movie and couldn't wait for it to end. It's a time capsule film and nothing more: it's important for the time it was made and the effect it had then, but it doesn't hold up. "Grand Illusion" is a classic war film and should be seen as the quintisential WWI film. The only reason to see "All Quiet..." now is for film history.
13 Remarque's "All Quiet": The Stripping Away of Illusion
It is surprising that there are as few classic anti-war movies as there are. ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT is one of them. What is even more surprising is that is was filmed in 1929 when Hollywood was just making the switch from silent to talking films. Director Lewis Milestone adapted the novel by Erich Maria Remarque and lost none of the power of the ghastly images on the printed page. What he filmed has not been topped in the seven decades since then. You will not find any reference to war that has glory attached to it, except perhaps to denigrate glory as a Hollywood adjunct to celluloid combat. There is no call, John Wayne or Stallone-like, to present killing as a means to an end. Here, mass killing and the horror of trench warfare strip away the illusion that war somehow glorifies those who are caught up in it. At the start of the movie, Lew Ayres is German college student Baumer, who one day while in class, gets suckered into the maw of war by his college teacher who regales his class with stirring tales of heroism set amidst some equally stirring martial music. Student Baumer quickly becomes Private Baumer. At their training depot, Baumer and his comrades still think war is simply another side of life. Their collective view of war is not unlike the view that Henry Fleming had at the start of Crane's THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE. Baumer soon finds out that with the first shots of war, the reality mugs the image. What director Milestone succeeds in doing has never been equalled. These new German recruits open the film as happy, confident and goodlooking. Quickly, they learn that war devolves them into blundering atavisms. Not only do they act ignobly and irrationally under stress, but they seem to get uglier as the picture progresses. This ugliness is not simply the result of missing a few baths or shaves, but almost as if they were subject to a regression that swoops tham back to their primeval ancestors. The effect on the audience is startling as it is forced to acknowledge that war destroys both the inner and outer man.
Ayres, of course, carries the movie as he alone seems to maintain his precious sense that his humanity cannot be frittered away even if his sanity might. The technology of the time, while quite crude by today's standards, is still stunningly effective in assaulting the eyes and ears of the audience in a crunching cacophany of disorienting images. There is a series of montages of French soldiers attacking entrenched German trenches and getting slaughtered by massed machine gun fire, and then incredibly enough, the Germans counterattack to meet the same fate. By the time the armistice is announced, the "all quiet" of the title, both Baumer, his comrades, and the audience have been stripped of their flimsy illusions that war has some end other than its cessation. ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT serves to remind each new generation that the maw of war will gobble up warm bodies even more rapaciously than it will those illusions that led those bodies into that maw in the first place.
14 The Sound of Silence
Winner of the 1930 Oscars for Best Picture and Director, "All Quiet on the Western Front" remains a stunning and timely film. Based on Erich Maria Remarque's classic anti-war novel, the movie follows a group of patriotic German schoolboys as they are urged to enlist in World War II, and shows how their initially idealistic spirits are forever changed by the brutal reality of death and dismemberment, suffering and sorrow. Beautifully acted by its entire cast (with special kudos going to Lew Ayres, Louis Wolheim, and Slim Summerville), the film also features some incredible special visual effects (those two detached hands clinging to the barbed wire fence never fail to shock) and some meticulously staged battle scenes that manage to put the viewer into the heart of the action. Arthur Edeson's cinematography is often truly astonishing in its artistry; his visual choices are impeccable. Worth a special note is the film's soundtrack; how incredible the terrible sounds of exploding ammunition must have seemed to audiences in 1930, who had first heard Al Jolson speak in 1927's part-talkie, "The Jazz Singer"! The very last sound effect in the film, which abruptly and startlingly leads to the close of the movie, is superbly executed and remains an innovative use of sound technology.
The Universal DVD release of this film features a great sound transfer: on my six-speaker system, the rumbling explosions, staccato machine guns, and whizzing bullets sounded remarkably nearby. Sadly, the visual transfer was sorely lacking; the source was plagued by jumps, scratches, lines, and breaks throughout the film, and the contrast was sometimes out-of-balance. This cinematic masterpiece demands and deserves to be fully restored, and then remastered and rereleased on DVD. (Are you listening, Universal Home Video?) The DVD extras include production notes; cast and director biographies and filmographies; and a Theatrical Trailer from one of the film's many reissues. Warts and all, this DVD edition is definitely worth a look - the film's brilliance is such that it shines above and beyond this rather shoddy presentation.
15 "You'll get to go home before I do"
This is a more realistic view of war, instead of the War Hero type movies you may be used to watching. The reviewer below who wrote "As always, the book is better"(someone by the name of Claire) complained about the sound and the fact that it was in black and white. I don't know if Claire knows it (let alone would care) but I believe this was the 1st movie with sound throughout the entire picture and no subtitles (the original Jazz Singer came out a year before Western Front, but even though it featured Al Jolson's vocals, all dialouge was in subtitles). Not only that, the war scenes (used by a revolving crane) introduced a new form of cinematography. A Cinema professor showed it in class when discussing the beginning of the sound era in movies. Lew Aires (who was 22 during the filming of Western Front) plays Paul Baumer, a soldier during World War I on the side of Germany. As the movie begins, a teacher over-enthusiastically exhorts his students to fight for their country. So Paul enlists and leaves enthusiastically to serve in battle. However, while seeing many of his comrades die in battle and after killing an "enemy" doesn't seem to be all it's cracked up to be, Paul has a change of heart. The DVD version talks about the original book written by Erich Maria Remarque and some of what went on the set and features biographies of the cast members and director Lewis Milestone.
16 As Always, the Book is Better
I read the book first, several times. It's my favorite. This movie is stagey, and hard for people used to modern sound and color to watch. It's a great story, but so much more is in the book. It's more about Paul's personal change during the course of fighting, not so much about action so I find you get so much more out of reading the book. Much more emotional, and you get to envision the characters as you like (I hate having a picture in my head and then the movie is completely different!) The 1979 version with Richard Thomas is better, if just for the improved cinematography.
17 War...What is it good for?
I am going through a phase where I want to see every movie that the so-called Academy granted "Best Picture". This film won in 1929 and I think was the third such feauture to receive this honor. The quality of the DVD is good when you think of how old the film is. The poor quality that arrives at times adds to the history of the film and film making in general. I wouldn't watch it without it.
This is a war film that makes no claims to be anything else. It brings to life the realistc brutality, comradeship and emotional strains involved with living on the battlefield. The film makers did a tremendous job on recreating war in France while filming just outside Hollywood. The explosives are real. Turn up the volume. The non-stop bombing might just begin to brush your nerves as if you were there.
18 Extraordinary War Movie
ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT is based on the classic novel and concerns a group of young Germans who enlist for WWI together at the urging of their professor. The movie heartbreakingly follows this group through the horrors of war. Thousands of war movies have been made since, but AQOTWF remains one of the best attempts to capture war on film.
Although the soldiers are all German, others should have no trouble sympathizing with and rooting for them. Lew Ayres stars in one of his earliest roles as Paul, an idealistic young man who quickly becomes jaded by war. He is wounded and briefly returns home, where he realizes that he no longer belongs, so affected has he been by combat. One of the best scenes occurs when he returns to his classroom and sees the same professor urging a new and younger batch of youth to enlist.
AQOTWF was released in 1930, and at times it shows some age(e.g., some stiff acting). However, it's really a timeless movie. This copy is fairly good - the sound is a bit scratchy, but the captions are very good and help fill in any sound glitches. The extras include a brief written narrative of some beyond the scenes facts and a trailer. A true classic to be watched over and over again.
19 Fatal butterflies
As we open to the first scene of the film, based on the novel writen by Erich Maria Remarque, who was a German Veteran of WW1, and directed by lewis Milestone, we see a group of schoolboys, children really, listening to their teacher teling the boys why they must join the Army. Outside we hear the crowds cheering for the departing soldiers leaving for the battlefield. You almost feel the same pride for country weling up inside of each of these boys and almost feel yourself ready to run of to war with them. they march off from schoolwith dreams of themselves as victorious heros. They are sent off to training and become more tightknit in their hatred for their instructor, the towns postman. When they arrive at the front, they see no victory, only hunger, fear and death greet them. They fight and watch as soldiers die next to them,their friends lives ended beforetheir own eyes they kill and in one scene, the films star Lew Ayres, Paul kills another soldier and spends the night in a ditch trying to save him, then seeing him die as he tries to give im water. In one of the last scenes you see Paul, having just that day returned from R&R, walking along the road back to camp with Kat, Louis Wolheim a gruff looking and wondrful actor, they dive downto miss a bomb. Kat is hit and the not so young Paul says he will carry him back to camp. Another bomb, we are safe Paul says to Kat as he continues to carry the older soldier back to be bandaged. When they reach the hospital, Paul puts Kt on a stretcher and says he just needs bandaged, Kat is dead. The closing scene was, for me, quite dramatic. Paul, seeing a Butterfly, reaches his hand out to let the Butterfly lit on him, he is shot. Fade to black.
You are able to easily see that talkies are still quite new, many of the actors are still accustomed to the 'overacting' from silent filmwork. So many of the movements seem forced and overworked. But it is an amazing anti-war film. Interestingly, Milestone had originally wanted Erich Maria Remarque, the writer, to play the leadrole. After seeing the film go to the Cast & Filmmakers Bios, I was amazed at the many sccomplishments of the films stars. Rightly this film was awarded the Best Film Oscar in 1930. It spoke volumes then that today, especially in recent years, is still heard fresh.
20 From Real to Reel
What makes this movie so remarkable is that the story is told through a man as human being and not a soldier. It shows that they wanted to treat the opponents as human to human and not as enemy to enemy.
21 The classic Oscar-winning anti-war film from 1930
"This story is neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it."
One of the things that is surprising about "All Quiet on the Western Front" is not only that a German anti-war novel about the First World War was made into an Oscar-winning American motion picture, but that it happened so quickly. "Im Westen nichts Neues" by Erich Maria Remarque (who had experienced the war first-hand as a young German soldier) was published in 1928, when it was serialized in the "Vossische Zeitung," appeared in book form the next year in German and numerous other languages, became an immediate best-seller, and was filmed in 1930. The story of Paul Baumer, an everyman who confronts the horrors of war and comes to the realization that such conflicts are futile. The novel is also an indictment of any civilization that could allow itself to descend into a war and put its people through one.
The idea is a powerful one and as such forgives the shortcomings of this 1930 film, most particularly the performance of Lew Ayers as Paul. But it is his haunted likeness that looked out from the movie poster and continues to be the dominant image of the film preserved on the DVD case. The film is faithful to the novel (Maxwell Anderson was one of the scriptwriters) and, more importantly, was given a big budget of $1.25 million by Universal Pictures, who hired 2,000 extras for the battle scenes. However, unlike the book, which started with Paul in the trenches and had flashbacks, the film proceeds chronologically.
We begin with young Paul, a schoolboy who is caught up with his friends in the war fever and who joins the army expecting a grand adventure. Instead they find brutal discipline, enforced by the sadistic drill sergeant Himmelstoss (John Wray), who used to be the village postmaster. When they get to the front there is the shock of being shelled, seeing friends die, and learning hard lessons about not risking your life for a corpse. The showpiece of the film is a battle between the Germans and the French, involving some rather sophisticated camera techniques, which ends with dozens dead and the two armies right back where they started. Everything else that happens in the film after that point just reinforces that brutal reality. There is also a powerful montage involving a pair of boots that passes from one dead soldier to the next doomed comrade, a terrifying scene where Paul is trapped with a dying French solider in a shell hole, and an unforgettable epilogue
"All Quiet on the Western Front" won Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director for Lewis Milestone, working for the first time on a sound feature. Of the early sound films this remains one of the most watchable, and even the grainy black & white photography lends appropriate pathos. After all, there is not much difference between this what we see here and the film taken on the actual battlefields of WWI. But more importantly there was an effort here to make a great film and even though acting in sound films was in its infancy they succeeded.
22 Excellent Film
This is a much better adaptation than the later (70's?) version. I show it to my Sophomore English class.
It's interesting to cross over our discussion of the novel to the film adaptation, and discuss why the story is re-ordered in the film.
It's also interesting to compare to more current war films and discuss differences in film-making.
It is my understanding that many of the extras in this film were actual WWI soldiers helping to re-create battle scenes. I feel that many of the best battle scenes ever captured on film were done in this movie. (With very few 'special' effects!)
23 Yeah, it's anti-war, but...
One of the things that can get lost in reviewing cinema is political viewpoint. There are some people that can get pushed away from a great film because some form of political activism gets shoved into it. Needless to say, •À?All Quiet on the Western Front•À? is an anti-war film. But the war involved is the First World War. By any standards WWI was the most senseless and brutal of the great wars. However, people will too often turn to this movie as an argument against any war. In fact, that may be true, I never did read the book, but don•À?t be turned away because of any of that.
This movie is awesome. For a film from the early era of sound, it is epic. We learn to care about the characters, we see the evolution of young men in war, and we see the brutality and senseless death that was WWI. It•À?s very entertaining and thought provoking.
Also, when you watch any movie based on a book, you really should suspend your knowledge of the book, and try to judge the median for what it is. Maybe you have read the book, and love every passage, big deal. Don•À?t nitpick. A lot of people can get caught up in some of that.
This movie will be always an important one. It is the stronger of the two versions made. Not an essential movie for the video library, but worth having around.
24 Gripping Chilling Account of the Futility and Horror of War
All Quiet on the Western Front is a gripping chilling account of the futility and horror of war. Telling it through the eyes of a German soldier (the enemy) was a master stroke of genius, as using an American solider might have been considered defeatist. While war is sometimes necessary, every chest-thumping politician who wants to start one should be made to see this move first.
25 More Powerful with Every Viewing
I have seen All Quiet on the Western Front a couple of times this past year (bless DVDs) and am amazed at how powerful it still through repeated viewings. It is a bleak movie, to be sure, although there are a number of moments of humour, but it still is compulsively watchable. The movie does not seem to have aged as badly as many other movies from the thirties and this is one movie that benefited greatly by being filmed before the Production Code crackdown a couple of years later. It would be decades before a Hollywood movie was as truly honest about war as this one. The performances are generally quite good, particularly considering the youth and inexperience of much of the cast notably the lead, Lew Ayres. The DVD does not come with many extras and there is no commentary, which is unfortunate, but the film itself is still a masterpiece and one of the finest war movies made.
26 An impressive masterwork of pacifist art
A powerful indictment of the tragedy of WWI, as seen through the experience of a German squadron, drawn from an elite German school. The bright-eyed enthusiasm and esprit de corps of the youthful recruits is relentlessly ground down under the weight of bombardments, starvation, grime, bloodshed and indifference. As the film's hero, Paul, declares in his famous speech at the film's end, dying for one's country isn't glorious -- "it's dirty and it's painful." Beautifully shot in black and white, this film slowly, mercilessly, artfully rachets up the tension, with battle scenes and psychological dramas that are literally and figuratively gut-wrenching. This celebrated film, made a decade after the end of the First World War, summed up the disillusioning pall the war cast upon its generation with much the same cathartic power as the movie "Platoon" would, more than half a century later. It's pretty strong stuff, surprisingly so for the time; an early talkie, it suffers soundwise in scenes with dialogue, but is crushingly powerful in its use of battlefield sound effects. Lew Ayres, who plays Paul, is both magnetic and intense, as his Leonardo Decaprio baby face hardens into an anger-filled John Wayne-ish mask. Although this film established many of the conventions of the war genre, it did so unsentimentally, thus escaping the cliched feel of its many imitators.
27 Read the book instead
I didn't think this was particularly well done... in comparison with the book it can't hold a candle. I was surprised at the good quality of the film, for being so old. I didn't think that most of the actors looked right for the parts, particularly Kat. And the movie dragged on and on and on....
I guess as I watched it I kept thinking of better ways this could have been filmed to coincide better with the powerful impact of the story.
See it if you like, but I really can't recommend it...
28 The definitive war (or anti-war) movie that started it all!
Every time you see a good war movie, you can rest assured that one aspect or another of it was derived from this film. It ranks as one of the classics of all time, and is a stunning display of the horrors of war. The story is told from an interesting aspect--that of World War I Germany. It tells of a young group of school boys who, through the efforts of their over-zealous teacher and other 'patriots', are persuaded to enlist in the army. Once the group gets to the field however, they quickly learn that it is nothing like they imagined.
The film is very effective in showing that war is not a solution to any problem. The main character, Paul (played by Lew Ayres) is especially affected, as he watches his fellow classmates fall to the brutality of conflict. After he spends a night in a hole with a dying Frenchman (whose mortal wound was inflicted by Paul), he begins to realize that soldiers are just pawns, tools in an intense political campaign.
One of the most moving aspects of the film is to see the desensitization of Paul, and his subsequent alienation from those at home. When Paul is sent home because of an injury, he finds no peace, and, in a state of unrest, yearns to return to the front. He becomes disgusted with his former teacher, as well as a group of men in a bar, who promote the war and give their opinions of it's outcome, all the while talking of the immense 'sacrifices' they are called upon to make to support it. Paul, who sees their hypocrisy, yearns to be back among his comrades of the war.
This movie is a very effective stand against war. The message it gives is as potent now as it was over 70 years ago.
29 My favorite movie of ALL TIME.
All Quiet On the Western Front is my all time favorite movie. Lew Ayres stars as Paul Baumer with Lewis Wolheim as Katczinsky or "Kat". This has some pretty good battle scenes for 1930, but the sounds of the shells hitting the ground isn't that realistic, but like I said it's 1930. This film won 2 Academy Awards including Best Picture(1929-1930). When director Lewis Milestone went up on stage to receive the award, some guy (don't remember his name) told Milestone that the next award the film would win would be the Nobel Peace Prize, because the film is anti-war. This movie is also #54 on AFI'S 100 Greatest Movies of All Time. I have now seen this 17 times and still counting and I'm not one bit tired of it. Every single scene, even though I've seen it a million times, still holds my attention whenever I see it. I would recommend this on DVD over VHS, because the bonus features contain the original theatrical trailer, and has short bios about the stars who played in it, and production notes. I love this movie so much I could run down the streets telling everyone I see to go see this film. Well now that you know about it go buy it NOW.
30 Woah.
I know six thousand percent of all the reviews on AMAZON get 5 stars, but this one does deserve it. About a kajillion people have mentioned the plot so I wont talk about it. Now, I know the cinematography is jumpy, and the effects have aged, but this movie has the most realistic, intense battle scenes I have EVER seen. Saving Private Ryan was really intense and realistic, but it doesn't measure up......I don't know why. Maybe it's the grainy black and white picture, or something. It was just POWERFULL. Also, the rest of the movie is JUST as mooving. The scene with Paul and the Englishman in the shell hole is engrained in my mind forever. I dont know what to say. Just see the freakin movie. It's amazing.
31 Dead is Dead.....
I was just a young boy when I saw this. I was into playing 'war' with the boys in my neighborhood. I thought it was cool. After seeing this movie, and subsequantly reading Erick Maria Remarque's book, I realized there is no glorious death in war. There is only death. The acting may be stiff, but the message is increasinly chilling. I only wish our leaders could understand....
32 Every bit as good as you've heard.
This Oscar winning movie has aged beautifully. I originally bought it only to fill out my collection of Best Picture winning movies. I was not paying it the respect it deserves.
Ayres is magnificent as the young infantry soldier off to fight gloriously for his country in WWI. Watch as he finds out war is not as romantic as he thought.
While the theme is no longer very original (Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, etc.), this is the original. And, in my opinion, the best. The ending is probably one of the greatest in film history.
33 All Quiet on the Western Front
I remembered seeing this movie with my parents when I was a child. I always remembered Lew Ayres & the final moments of the movie - powerful, but it brought tears to my eyes. Compared to todays war movies, it is dated, but it is a must if you want to know what movies were like back in the 1930's. Lew Ayres portrays the young soldier with conviction, and you are taken back to the 1st WW and what many of our fathers/grandfathers went through. There are scratches, even on the DVD version, yet you know it's part of the 1930's so you don't mind. A great movie for anyones collection.
34 THE HORROR OF WAR
This 1930 film, based upon the novel by Erich Maria Remarque - which was directed by Lewis Milestone - made 22 year-old Lew Ayres a star and was responsible for George Cukor's screen career (it also gave director Milestone international recognition). A passionate portrayal of the horror of war, which for the first time depicted the "hun" as simply a simply a scared boy, this movie can be actually divided into four distinct parts. The first details the enlistment of the young recruits; the second, their arrival on the front; the third - the various incidents of war; and, finally, the hero Paul Baumer's return home and his hastened retreat back to the front and his death. The film is faithful to the Remarque novel and this was the first sound film to use a giant mobile crane which was most effective - particularly for filming the realistically staged battle sequences. It was actually 31 year-old Cukor who rehearsed the actors and established a neutrality ot their accents which is of inestimable value in putting across the production's emotional message. Louis Wolheim is splendid as the brusque yet sympathetic Katczinsky while Raymond Griffith is memorable as the French soldier killed by Baumer. ZaSu Pitts (!) was originally cast as Baumer's mother but preview audiences snickered at the very sight of her (her performance in GREED proved she was an excellent serious actress); unfortunately, the role was given to the whiney, saccharine Beryl Mercer. Initially released at 140 minutes.
35 A movie for the ages
The film begins with a group of German schoolboys, including the film•À?s main star Paul, listening to a statement by their teacher about why they should join the army. Outside, a group of soldiers are parading down the street to cheering crowds and parading music. Filled with images of the glory and honor of serving in the war, the boys decide to enlist. After their military training, they arrive at the front where they learn all there is for them is hunger, fear and death. They fight rats as well as the enemy and they watch the slaughter of soldiers from both sides and even kill some of them. In one moving moment, Paul kills a French soldier and stays in a blast crater with the dying soldier, asking for forgiveness.
Among one of the other powerful scenes is when Paul goes on leave and returns to his town. There, he visits his former teacher, who is giving another lecture to another group of students about why they should join the army. When asked to talk about the war, Paul says •À?We live in the trenches and we fight. We try not to be killed. Sometimes we are-That•À?s all•À?. He is booed at by the boys who see him as a coward. Meanwhile, when he talks with a group of old-timers, he is told to push on to Paris. After fighting for too long, he fells that the only place he is conformable at is at the front. When he returns back to his unit, he finds that only a few remain and most of those are recruits who were once like him: Boys who found the front to be different from what they thought it would be.
It is obvious that this movie was made in 1930. •À?Talkies•À? had been around for only a few years, so silent-era acting was still widely present. The special effects in the film are also not as realistic as today. The scenes are filmed in black and white with scratches visible in some scenes. But All Quiet on the Western Front has not dated when it comes to its power. It is (Along with Platoon and Saving Private Ryan) the best anti-war movie ever made.
36 Ranks with Platoon, 12 Oclock High, and Saving Private Ryan
as one of the greatest war movies (also the greatest movies of all time). It still holds up very well today. Thats how you know it is truly a classic. The dvd is good. You can understand some scratches on the print and what not, the film was made in 1929!
37 The meaningless slaughter of war ...
Adapted from the 1929 novel by Erich Maria Remarque, a WW1 German soldier who changed his name to sound French, this film was made way back in 1930. It was the beginning of the Depression, the use of sound in movies was new, and the feeling in the country was the WW1 had been the war to end all wars. Now, 71 years later, the black and white film is scratchy, the gestures of the actors are over-exaggerated as if it were a silent film, and the special effects of the battle scenes seem crude by today's standards. In spite of all of this, however, this classic film brings its message home loud and clear.
This is the story of the young German men who were recruited to serve in the war though tales of glory and patriotism. What they find is death, fear, hunger and the meaningless slaughter of young men of the same generation who happen to be wearing different uniforms. In spite of the technical constraints, the film manages to get it all. We see the hospitals where overworked doctors amputate limbs, we see the men being attacked by rats as well as the enemy, we see the dirt in the trenches and are moved by the hand-to-hand combat which leaves a young German soldier, played by Lew Ayes, confined in a foxhole with a dying French soldier.
I understand that the film was banned in Germany until after WW2 and I can certainly understand that it would have been counter to everything that happened next. Through a historical context, this film was great, and its antiwar message a forerunner others to come. There's a famous quote from the lips of one of the disheartened and weary soldiers when he says it all. "Take all the kings and their cabinets and their generals, put them in the center dressed in their underpants and let 'em fight it out with clubs. The best country wins". Too bad the world didn't listen.
38 A heart-breakingly honest portrayal of war
Upon returning to his hometown school from which he had enlisted into duty in WWI, Paul Baumer (Lew Ayres) tells prospective recruits: "When it comes to dying for one's country, it's better not to die at all." This is the essence of "All Quiet..." In the film, war is stripped of all its glory, all its valor, all its heroism, and shown in its true state: a hell in which men are taught to kill each other and become animals, fighting not for a cause, but for survival. The film's most powerful scene is its very last, when Paul reaches out of his trench for that beautiful butterfly, a vain attempt to recapture some sense of humanity amongst the horrors that surround him. Notice that many scenes in the movie begin with director Lewis Milestone showing us marching lines of soldiers and flag-waving crowds framed by windows or doorways. This is cinematography at its finest: we see the war not as a part of humanity, but as something foreign, something unknown, like the monster that lurked in your closet when you were a child. Only this monster is real. It is war.
39 Greatest anti-war film ever made
This movie, based on the Remarque novel, is the quintissential anti-war film. Released shortly after sound was crawling its way through the art of motion pictures, it threw the whole world on its ear. Later on in the 1930's, Adolf Hitler decreed that the film not be shown in Nazi Germany, due to its "defeatist" and "unpatriotic" view of World War I, which Hitler fought in with some level of distinction. One could say that the dictator's dislike of the film ensures that it is a great film--and it is. Lew Ayres plays a young German man who is highly influenced by a teacher who sings the praises of the German military, which desperately needs young men to fight for "the Fatherland." He finds out after extensive and grueling drilling by a haughty officer that glory in battle demands a high price. However, once in actual combat, he finds out the reality of war is so much different:it is actually undignified, uninspiring, frightening, and eventually demoralizing. For its time, the movie does a fantastic job of bringing across the horror of World War I, showing with heavy intensity the meat grinder battles in the slit trenches, the guilt that comes with killing your enemy in hand-to-hand combat, realizing he is a human being also; yet also displaying the boredom and fright of the beaten-down boys (who become men way too fast) in between battles. The end is very poignant and I will not play spoiler for those who haven't seen it, but it involves the butterfly you see on the cover of the tape/DVD. I take off points for the sorry condition of some of the scenes; occasionally, the dialogue is hard to hear and the scenes jump a bit. Still, these should not distract the viewer from taking in the message the film offers. I do not agree wholly with the message, but it presents a unique vision of war's cost in the lives of men in their prime. For the ways in which the film does this, it should remain a classic for all time.
40 Important and provocative war film
One of the most important war films ever made is this excellent adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque's fine novel, directed by Lewis Milestone. A group of eager German students enlist for service in World War I, heedless of warnings from their professors and families. These guys are just itching to be heroes, and the army propaganda has promised them that they will be. The cinematic ballet of war scenes is unlike anything cinema had seen before, and the realism of war in this film is completely at odds with the candy-coloured beauty of propaganda films made a decade later. To make sure World War II hopeful soldiers wouldn't be deterred by the gruesome images seen here, this film was banned in America not only for its pacifism but also because it presented German soldiers as sympathetic protagonists.
41 Still the Classic Anti-War Film
This is the third film to win the best picture Academy Award, and, despite its age, it holds up remarkably well. Its message is as relevant and vivid today as it was 70 years ago. The final butterfly scene is still one of the most poignant ever. The first time I saw it, it left me with my mouth open even after the film had ended.
42 In-depth look war and peoples attitudes.
On the surface this looks like a pacifist or anti war movie. One may think this has something to do with an enemy's view of war. Also there is a tendency pick the film apart because it is not the book.
In reality this story is more of a, don't get over zealous movie. At least don't let some one mesmerize you. It even happened in a contemporary film "Private Benjamin (1980)" ASIN: 630443796X. She was promised the army with the private condos. Again we see the zealous ones in "Starship Troopers (1997)" ASIN: 0767802659 where they show the romantic side of war.
As far as the rating it is ridicules to compare a movie that has to pass censors and only has 130 minutes with the book. Naturally the book is going to be more thorough and descriptive. What we can compare it to is the original movie "Westfront 1918 (1930)" directed by George Wilhelm Pabst (1885-1967) and "All Quiet on the Western Front (1979)" ASIN: B00003G4J2. Check them all out including the audiocassette of the book ISBN: 0745162304.
The points are made much clearer in "Westfront 1918" even though is shorter it is the 5 star movie. Especially when we return to the schoolroom to see the teacher inspiring the next generation of students to become soldiers. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) however is easier to understand then •À?West Front•À?. You can spend more time in the message and less on the translation from German. In either film the actual down time (between actions) drove me crazy as I remembered the time that we were not fighting or planning something in Viet Nam was when I got antsy. The 1979 movie is a boring TV type movie with "Johnboy" Richard Thomas, playing the part of Paul Baumer. The only good part is when he got shot.
"Im Western Nichts Neues" By Remarque: "He fell in October 1918, on a day that was so quiet and still on the whole front, that the army report confined itself to the single sentence: All quiet on the western Front."
43 Important war drama
One of the most important war films ever made is this excellent adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque's fine novel, directed by Lewis Milestone. A group of eager German students enlist for service in World War I, heedless of warnings from their professors and families. These guys are just itching to be heroes, and the army propaganda has promised them that they will be. The cinematic ballet of war scenes is unlike anything cinema had seen before, and the realism of war in this film is completely at odds with the candy-coloured beauty of propaganda films made a decade later. To make sure World War II hopeful soldiers wouldn't be deterred by the gruesome images seen here, this film was banned in America not only for its pacifism but also because it presented German soldiers as sympathetic protagonists.
44 Good for the Family Bookshelves
Either this movie, or its more recent version (with Richard Thomas) are excellent additions to the family bookshelves.
This movie was banned by Hitler (a good indication that it should be watched!) because it was anti-war, and his need was to encourage, not discourage, young men to fight.
From the viewpoint of young German soldiers who at first are eager to fight, until they face the realties of war, it is a classic WWI anti-war movie.
Since this one was filmed long ago, although there is war-related violence, it may be OK for some kids, but parents should view it first.
**** because it is black and white, and may be difficult for many people to enjoy. If you like the older movies, this would be a good one!
45 Great source of WWII Info
I'm only 14 as I write this. I love history class. History, inmy opinion is one of those classes in which you should not ask 'whenare we ever going to use this?'. History is very important, but because of the fact that I am sounding like an uneducated scholar because of the whole- history is good topic, I'll go into the movie now. AQOTWF (which will be referred to as "the movie") is a great usage of propaganda during the war. Whild this movie follows the war journeys of German kids, you usually forget that they're German (bad at this time of course), and you don't want them to die. Everything in this movie is wonderfully set up. The settings looked real, as did the costumes. Acting was very convincing, especially for the boys' teacher. He acted as a teacher would act if one saw his old students come from a war. So much emotion was put into this film. I was finally relieved to see a movie that didn't rely on gore and violence. As I mentioned aboved- this was basically used to spread the message: end all war. If you do not watch this movie, I should beat you with a piece of wheat. I know most of this has not made much sense (like that last sentence), but there is just so much that I can't tell [...]. So, as I leave you, please watch this movie. You WILL NOT be disappointed. Thank you.
46 Not as Good
The movie is poor is many ways. First, it lacks organization skills. Events do not follow in logical order. Second, sound quality and picture are bad. It is better to read the book, where a reader can get more information about Paul Baumer.
47 A WONDERFUL PIECE OF WORK
I saw this movie when AMC was showing it and I absolutley love it. It really has a good message. You watch gungho young kids wanting glory from the war and soon get to be hardened veterans and aged men, scared by war. A truely remarkable movie that was revolutionary for it's time, it is defineatley not a flag waver.
48 Massive 1930 Film Version of Antiwar Classic
This fine, early sound film has been preserved on videotape in exquisite black and white without any embellishment- it needs none. The book was probably shoved down your throat self-consciously in high school English, but here it's brought to vivid life. In this beautifully filmed version one can see the cinematographic seeds of what will become modern moviemaking. The movie is pretty powerful and intersting, but a bit long at 130 minutes. Well worth the time to watch, though.
49 Appaling
though criticized for bad acting, I feel that its message goes beyond acting. its tale and message is something that i wish everyone could see.
50 Good Review
I would just like to say that this is one of the most powerful movies that ever came about. The Message is great and every time you watch it you think about how lucky you are that you weren't in it.
51 Wasted
I am really sorry some people out there hated this film but it says more about them than the movie. I suggest they go back, get the latest Bond movie out and stop annoying people with their 'whining'. If you don't have the attention span of a gnat and can make allowances for when the film was made then buy it now.
52 So Bad, It funny
What else make this movie even funnier, the hype of course. This movie was soooo awful, you will laugh your a** off!
The acting is so fake. The funniest part whenever anyone whines in it. I really don't know why all the critics think this is the best war movie of all-time, they must been stone while watching this worthless trash. I can't imagine anyone enjoying this film the same way as Gone With The Wind and The Godfather.
53 One of the worst films ever made
Am I watching the same movie like everyone else? The movie I saw was unwatchable and stupid. It right up there with Plan 9 From Outer Space on my worst movies of all-time list.
54 A WWI Classic
This is the classic WWI anti-war film from the German perspective. It is a very powerful film, yet somewhat preachy in its' anti-war message- which style fell right into line with the standards of the day, melodrama and all. Even though it is a period piece, it is still captivating, and draws the viewer into it's story and message, even 70 years on- which is a triumph by any definition. If you see only one movie about WWI, you should probably see this one.
55 Anti-War in 1930 - Strangely attractive...
I would give it a (hotly contested) 4.5 (rounded to 5). Before I explain the hotly contested part, let me explain that I am a sucker for a good black and white movie. And since this film was released in 1930, it's about as black and white as you can get. In fact, it still had a few elements of silent pictures which I enjoyed (short scenes fading to black). For 1930, the story was good but it was the acting that I thought was superior. The whole movie had an anti-war theme through the eyes of the Germans in WW1 which I thought was done rather well with an end cemetery scene to make all WW1 veterans cry. All this done in 1930, whew.
Now, for the hotly contested part. I am not sure what drew me to this picture and made me love it. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I bet some of you will walk away saying: "What? This thing sucked toilet water!" So, I can recommend it but watch it at your own risk.
56 WHOA
BEST WORLD WAR 2 FILM I HAVE EVER SEEN
57 One of the True Greatest Movies, but for a 15 year old?
When i First saw the 1978 version of this movie i ran right out and read the book. The book was so much better that the movie. After finishing the book i bought the 1930 version. I basically went head over heels at how acurate this movie was to the book. For everything that i couldn't understand in the book this movie brought it to life. If anybody wants a really good true to the last detail of the horrors and experiences that young men found during WWI this movie is it. This is a definate classic and will be cherished for years to come.
58 If you love war avoid this one by all means.
I first saw this film after it was re-released in 1939 as an anti-Nazi epic. I had tried to read the book but could not stand the gore and inhumanity young men were subjected to in that needless war which forever changed Western Civilization forever. The later peace treaty guaranteed another war would be fought when Hitler's gang exploited that flawed document. The Nazis disrupted the showing in Germany at every opportunity on the grounds that its message was defeatest. Ironicallly, the movie was later withdrawn in the U.S. during WW2 because of fear that it would create anti-war sentiments in this nation then being weaned on a diet of John Wayne heroics which never did convey the true nature of warfare. I later served in WW2 and still think this 1930 version still resonates with anyone knowing that war is much more than parades, flag waving and bellicose speeches from the folks on the home front.
59 i want to give it 4 1/2
when i bought this dvd i thoouht that it was 1979 color remake. they should put both movies on the dvd. i like the remake more not that it is in color and not black and wight but the story moves smother throught the remake. but i must say that the people should see both of them befor making a picking a favort. the sound was a little bad but seeing that is from 1930 and it is now 1999 i think that it was good. the movies point is true and to the point. and also is good at showing the true nature of people and also the ingnores. i think that it should be a book and move that is requred to read and see in schools. if the book dosen't talk to people the movie should
60 Who would guess that 15 year-olds would like it?
Third quarter of Sophomore world cultures is devoted to WWI. As a teacher, the high point of the entire school year is tying the book, events, and movie together. The movie is so tightly scripted that it becomes easy for my students to follow each chapter as we look at it through the eyes of the camara. Black and white and poor sound did not take away from the incredible story; my students were pinned to their seats. All were awestruck when the French advanced on the German trenches, and several cried when Paul died. I've seen this movie dozens of times, yet it still moves me.
61 A True Classic
All Quiet on the Western Front is a true classic. This movie shows the change in a group of German teens as they enlist in the army and go through WWI. Lew Ayers turns in a great performance as Paul. Even though sound in movies just came into use three years before the movie was made it doesn't show it. This movie is superior to it's 1979 remake and is still a great film tody.
62 Is it really quiet
All Quiet on the Western Front is a really great movie. I saw it in school in my Western Civ. class. I have seen both the color and the black and white versions. I liked the color version better, but both were really good. In the original film, I liked the part about the boots and how everyone who wore them was "cursed" on the battlefield. Every soldier who wore the boots died on the Western Front.
63 A good WW1 movie through the enemy's eyes!
All Quiet on the Western Front, is the story of a young German boy, Paul, who is eager to go towar, but he slowly comes to the realization that war is not as heroic as it has been portrayed. Paul ends up surviving the war until a few days before the armistace, when he shot by a sniper. Since the orginal film was made in 1930, the sound is poor in parts. Depite the poor sound, it is an interesting WW1 film from the "enemy's" point of view.
64 Unbelievable...
This is truly amazing.. in our generation of lazy people that we have to see a movie about this classic book. You can never recreate the emotion and all out carnage of this book, not if you had the best director and actors on earth. You CANT fell what it is like to spend weeks in a rotting trench, having to fight off the rats even more so then the enemy. You CANT recreate what it is like to see men die choking deaths while coughing up their lungs, and seeing raw flesh from real men splattered on the ground. The book is the real thing. That's how you get the experience.. you have to know their thoughts and fears, and you have to imagine them, not see them.
65 A great film
This was a very gripping movie about the events in a young German soldier's life. It starts out with the student being very eager to join the war movement with his friends. His attitude changed throughout the movie, though, when the true horrors of war started occuring. I enjoyed this movie very much because it was very realistic. I recommend this movie for all the big military movie buffs.
66 A Great Idea: look at the war from the enemy's eyes
This is the story of a German teenager, Paul, who is convinced by his teacher to join the army. It follows his trip through basic training up to the front lines of battle. I liked this movie a lot because it shows a graphic description of the war from the German point-of-view. One of the best scences of the film is when Paul is in a hole with a Frenchmen, and he takes care of him after he mortally wounds the soldier. Paul tries to understand why the war is being fought and why he has killed this man who has a family and friends just like him. This concept is hard for Paul to grasp. Paul survived the whole war until the end. The armistice hasn't come into effect yet and Paul is hit by a sniper while trying to reach for a butterfly. This last scene was very unexpected, and that is why it made this movie so good.
67 Better than you think!
ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT is a great World War I movie, however I enjoyed the 1979 color remake a lot better. The movie shows the point of view of a group of German school boys who are encouraged to enlist in the war. In the beginning, enlisting is viewed as the right and honorable thing to do, but that soon changes. I liked watching the boys transform from young school boys into hardened soldiers. Since the movie was made in 1930, the sound is not that great and hard to understand at points. This film is a good movie for studying World War I.
68 Dated, despite what they say
Though this movie was undoubtedly a shocker in its time, its depiction of young Germans in the trenches of the Great War is rather too dated to be effective for an audience watching it for enjoyment. I have no doubt that as a historical piece, it is unsurpassed, but so it is with "Mein Kampf," which almost no one would wish to read as leisure. The sound and picture, even on this version, are quite poor. (Earned a sopt on AFI's 100 best American movies list.)
69 Superb!
The best anti-war drama ever. The first of a genere that lasts until today. The stoy alone is very heartbreaking and powerful. The direction is better than almost any you see today, and even though it could be called "primitive", there's inventive usage of many cinematography techniques that we still see today. The story is about German students who are encouraged by a professor to "fight for the fatherland" during WWI. However, once they're fighting in the trenches and see their friends dropping like flies, they change their tune. See it and I gaurentee you'll be entertained.
70 Brilliant
I saw this movie on the advice of a friend, and it was a wonderful inspiration. It's one of the most intense movie experiences I've ever had, despite the drastic evolution in film since it was made. It hurts me to know that someone opted to attempt (and I do say attempt) to remake this movie. "All Quiet on the Western Front" is the incarnate definition of a classic.
71 A great film!
This is the best account of war I have ever seen. The ahead-of-its-time direction puts you alongside the troops in the trenches. A must-see film!
72 A profound statement
I saw this movie four years ago and I was touched very deeply. I read the book when I was in college and I was moved even more! I have read read quite a few books in my day and very few have made me cry as hard as this one! The movie totally captures this profound feeling of loss and disillusionment felt by a lost generation of young men.
73 Powerful and moving -- one of the greatest anti-war dramas
The realism and almost documentary approach of this film must have been shocking in its day, and its power still holds up today. It has all of the realism and raw grittiness of "Schindler's List." Warfare's shocking brutality is shown here sixty-eight years before "Saving Private Ryan." There is more intelligence and depth to the screenplay than any recent war movie that I can recall. Scenes will live with you long after the film is over. "Private Ryan" has three or four such powerful scenes -- this movie has just as many -- perhaps more. The characters are much better developed, thanks to a great novel by Erich Maria Remarque and Maxwell Anderson's writing. The ending is achingly sad and tragic.
74 Vivid visuals make their point about the inhumanity of war!
Director Lewis Milestone weaves a powerful tapestry of loss, defeat, and the meaninglessness of war in this, one of the great anti-war tracts on film. Unfortunately, it may not have the same grip and impact on today's audiences because much of the handling is dated (acting is very early-talkie style; individual scenes are occasionally rather maudlin; naivety is rampant); and the narrative is somewhat choppy. However, a considerable amount of the power is in the visuals, and these are just as impressive and striking today. Milestone's deployment of camera motion, choreography of the battle scenes, and the sharp, gritty look, as well as the well-spent budget create an emotional force that carries the picture with smashing success through many of it's rough spots. Indeed, the grammar of his film-making seems to contain an expressionism perfectly augmenting the story's spirit; and moments achieve a stunning texture that haunt the mind (take the opening scene in the classroom; or the final shot as the boys look right into our souls). Some have even compared its style to Eisenstein and Lang! Patience and understanding will reward the viewer with a deeply-felt appreciation of what it is like experiencing the ever-continuing suicide of the human race, and a high regard for one of the cinema's classics.
75 A Profound film
This film portrays the absolute destruction and inhumanity of war in a most profound way. It forces you to rethink all of your ideas of the glory of war, and the ultimate point of war. It does not pull any punches when showing the massive destruction caused by WWI, which I can see as being the absolutely vilest war ever fought. This film should be required viewing for all high school students looking at the human impact of war. A most profound film.
76 This movie really shows what those guys were going thru.
This movie is the best. It follows the book very well. It is one of the best descriptions of the war ever filmed or written, even though it was made in 1930. I just wish they had shown some of the early tanks. I would give it six stars if that were possible.
77 BEST WAR ACCOUNT I HAVE EVER READ
THIS BOOK IS AN ACCOUNT OF WAR AT ITS CRUDEST FORM. IT DOES NOT GLORIFY WAR NOR ROMANTIZE IT EITHER. IN PURE TERMS, THE BOOK PUTS THE READER ON THE TRENCHES AMONG SOLDIERS WHO HAPPENED TO BE JUST AS CONFUSED AND SCARED AS YOU MIGHT HAVE BEEN. THIS WAR ACCOUNT MUST BE READ BY EVERY ONE SO THAT WHEN COMPATRIOTS ARE SENT TO FIGHT ANY WAR, WE'LL HAVE AN IDEA OF THE ATTROCITIES THEY WILL FACE, AND MOST LIKELY WILL NOT HAVE THE WORDS TO DESCRIBE IT TO YOU, THAT IS IF THEY EVER RETURN SAFELY.
I FINISHED READING THIS NOVEL WHILE TRAVELLING ON A TRAIN BOUND FOR BERLIN, GERMANY, TWO YEARS AGO. TIMES HAVE CHANGED OVER THERE SINCE THE WAR, BUT THE LANDSCAPE IS THERE TO REMIND YOU THAT SOMETHING UNCONPREHENSIBLE HAPPENED THERE NOT LONG AGO. END
78 it was an accurate discription of what it would have been.
it was a good book it could have been a little more friendly. it was very strong i enjoyed it a lot. END
79 The best war story ever told.
Any Soldier from any country, during any war, can relate to this story. A timeless classic. END
