All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

• Review: **** (out of ****)
• Starring: Louis Wolheim, Lew Ayres, John Wray, Arnold Lucy, Ben Alexander, Scott Kolk, Owen Davis Jr., Walter Browne Rogers, William Bakewell, Russell Gleason, Richard Alexander, Harold Goodwin, 'Slim' Summerville, Pat Collins, Beryl Mercer, Edmund Breese
• Director: Lewis Milestone
• Screenplay: George Abbott, Del Andrews, Maxwell Anderson (Novel: by Erich Maria Remarque)
• Length: 131 min.
• MPAA Rating: Unrated

What could have become another weak-kneed war filmchampioning patriotism becomes a stirring and somber rebuke of war. All Quiet on the Western Front is anhonest and sympathetic demonstration of the horrors of war.

As a mass of troops march by their schoolhouse windows, aclassroom full of impressionable youths sits transfixed by their lecturer’sexuberant enlistment speech. Like many films that came before and would follow, All Quiet follows the boys to bootcamp. Instead of the excited anticipation of what their future holds, theseyouths soon find out that training for the military isn’t as pleasant as theyhad thought. They are faced with a drill instructor far removed from hiscivilian profession of a mailman. Many of them know this formerly friendly chapbut soon realize that he’s not the same man when in uniform.

Paul (Lewis Ayres), Franz (Ben Alexander), Albert (WilliamBakewell) and a number of their other classmates soon arrive at their firstassigned post. There, they meet a grim group of soldiers glumly huddled in asmall stable. It is here where the realities of their situation begin to sinkin. Over time, as they are exposed to new atrocities, they soon understand whytheir comrades in arms were so melancholy.

The first surprising thing about All Quiet on the Western Front isn’t that it’s an anti-war film.Anti-war sentiment was to be expected after a long armed conflict. The unusualthing about the film was that it wasn’t the story of Americans, the French orthe English as would have been typical. It was actually a sympathetic look atGerman youths thrust into combat. In another decade when World War II wouldstart up, this kind of film would never have been made.

The film is fearlessly honest. It easily could havedelivered the expected happy ending but it didn’t. There are a scant few joyousscenes, including one in a military hospital when lead character Paul emergesfrom a “death” room from which it is said no one has ever returned. ThroughAyres subtle performance, we become significantly invested in his survival. Ashis friends die around him, Paul continues to serve faithfully despite oddsthat might have sent others screaming from the fields.

It’s only when Paul returns home to face a world unchangedby his actions. To see his father and his friends carp over war strategies on acrumpled map on the barroom table. To witness his old teacher preaching thesame rhetoric to his students as had gotten him into the conflict. To realizethat the only ones who could truly understand his feelings and perceptions ofwar were the men who sat beside him in ramshackle buildings and muddy trenches.And so he returns to the front a changed man once again.

Director Lewis Milestone is to be commended for his effortwith All Quiet. What makes it to thescreen is seldom unnecessary and always intriguing. The sound and the visualshelp place the audience on the battlefield alongside these brave soldiers anddespite initial shock that we’re following German soldiers, it’s impossible notto feel remorse at the loss of these young lives.

It was the first Best Picture winner the Academy honored(only its fourth such selection) that truly deserved the award. All Quiet on the Western Front, despitehaving been made more than 70 years ago, is as exemplary a piece of filmmakingas has ever been committed to celluloid. It’s a passionate, daring andunflinching look at the barbarousness of war. One could only hope that everyperson in the world could see this film and realize what a horrid andunnecessary thing war is and work to achieve an enduring peace that would putan end to the need for such violence.

-Wesley Lovell (October 3, 2006)