All Quiet On The Western Front (1930)

This is a classic anti-war film of the First World War. It is summed up by the legend at the beginning of the film:

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. [This story] will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped its shells were destroyed by the war....

All Quiet on the Western Front was a revolutionary film, due to its director, Lewis Milestone�s unorthodox handling of the film. The film was butchered when it was sent to theaters across the world, with edits omitting key scenes and shots; some places because they wanted to fit it into the double feature slot and felt it was too long. Milestone�s innovative techniques (which would later be recycled by Spielberg for Schindler's List & Saving Private Ryan) were actually altered. The most appalling of which, being the added music by the theaters�one theater even went so far as to remove the scene with the dying Frenchman entirely! Milestone intentionally left out the music, thus adding realism, and deliberately avoided sugarcoating the film with propaganda. However in some theaters typical music was carelessly added in order to fulfill audiences� expectations�thus defeating the purpose of all Milestone�s work.

All Quiet is a masterpiece of the war film genre, and a film to reflect back upon and compare to modern day�s standards. Though the acting suffers a bit from the �30�s casting, the story is a great and emotionally involving tale directed with eloquent visual poetry.

Related Links:

• Complete All Quiet On The Western Front site
• All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
• Parents� Guide
• Im Westen Nichts Neues
• Movie poster

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Quotes from All Quiet on the Western Front:

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Paul B�umer: You still think it�s beautiful to die for your country. The first bombardment taught us better. When it comes to dying for your country it�s better not to die at all!

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Trivia about All Quiet on the Western Front:

• A sequence with Zasu Pitts was included in the silent version, but was cut and re-filmed with Beryl Mercer when sound was added.
• In the closing scene, Milestone�s hand is used for that of Ayres, when he reaches for the butterfly.
• During the film's German release, when the Nazis were not yet in power, screenings were interrupted by the shouting of martial slogans and the releasing of rats into the theaters.
• The film�s battle scenes were shot on a ranch with hundreds of extras in California.
• The Western Front ran some 300 miles across the face of Western Europe, from Belgium to Switzerland. The front consisted of opposing trenches, sometimes only yards apart. The trench warfare of World War I lasted for three years and took several million lives. The Battle of the Somme, an attack by the Allies trying to break through the German lines, took more than four months. The allies gained only six miles. British and French casualties were 95,675 Britons killed and 60,729 Frenchmen killed. The defense cost the Germans 164,055 soldiers killed.
• Overall German casualties during the War (wounded and killed) were 7,142,558, some 65% of all German soldiers who were mobilized. French casualties were 6,160,800, an astounding 73% of all men mobilized. British Empire casualties were 3,190,235, "only" 36% of men mobilized. U.S. casualties were 350,300, a "minimal" 8% of mobilized personnel. Counting all combatants over the entire War, 65 million men were mobilized, 8.5 million killed, 21.2 million wounded, and 7.7 million taken prisoner or missing in action.
• The trenches were muddy and often flooded with water. The bodies of dead and wounded men and animals fouled them. Corpses lay in the no man's land between the trenches. Enemy snipers, rats, lice, and stench from the decaying bodies contributed to the misery of the trenches. Toward the end of the war the German soldiers had little food.
• An attack was preceded by bombardments, some lasting for days. In order to mount an attack, soldiers carrying rifles and packs had to go "over the top." Once in the no man's land they faced barbed wire entanglements, machine guns, bombardment (often by their own misdirected guns), grenades, poison gas and fire from the opposing trenches.
• The First World War was the first conflict in which airplanes were used to attack enemy positions. See The Dawn Patrol.
• The First World War was primarily between two European alliances. The "Central Powers" consisted of Germany and Austria-Hungary. The "Allies" were Britain, France and Russia. Various smaller states and areas outside of Europe were also involved. Turkey was an ally of the "Central Powers" and lost most of her empire as a result. British, French and South African troops conquered German possessions in Africa. After the Russian Revolution in 1917 the Bolsheviks sued for a separate peace.
• The Western Front was in stalemate until the U.S. entered the war. Fresh troops and abundant hardware and supplies, tipped the scales decisively in favor of the Allies. An armistice was signed on November 11, 1918 and the Treaty of Versailles was imposed on Germany in June 1919. For a description of the causes of World War I, see World War I Trenches on the Web and Guide to Paths of Glory.
• Some amputees experience "Phantom limb" syndrome in which pain seems to be coming from where the removed limb used to be.