All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Proof that Hollywood was making left wing anti war propaganda since it's birth.The movie has gotten stellar reviews but rankly, it's dated. The exposition is overly dramatic and heavy handed as is the direction.Plus the young soldiers all have freaking Brooklyn accents! They are supposed to be German! A movie like this would never make money today and it would get summarily panned.If you want to see a great war film, try Hacksaw Ridge or Saving Private Ryan.

Associate producer: George Cukor. Producer: Carl Laemmle, Jr. Copyright by Universal Pictures Corporation 17 May 1930. U.S. release date: 24 August 1930. New York opening at the Central: 29 April 1930. U.K. release date: October, 1930. 14 reels. 140 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Conscripted German youths find war is neither glorious nor adventurous.NOTES: Won the annual awards for Best Picture and Best Director, presented by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Also nominated for Best Writing (lost to Frances Marion for The Big House), and Best Cinematography (lost to Joseph T. Rucker and Willard Van Der Veer for With Byrd at the South Pole).Winner of the Photoplay Gold Medal — Best Film of the Year — voted by the movie-going public of America. Also Winner of the Film Daily poll of American film critics for 1930. Also Winner of the National Board of Review citation for Best Film of 1930. Also Winner of the Picturegoer Seal of Merit for an Outstanding and Exceptional Motion Picture. Second place (to "With Bryd at the South Pole") on Mordaunt Hall's Ten Best in The New York Times.COMMENT: Erich Maria Remarque's semi-autobiographical novel, "Im Westen Nichts Neues", was first published in Berlin in 1927. Other Remarque books that have been filmed include "Drei Kameraden" as Three Comrades, "Der Weg Zuruck" as The Road Back, "Flottsam" as So Ends Our Night, a short story "Beyond" as The Other Love, "Arch of Triumph" as The Arch of Triumph, "Zeit zu leben und Zeit zu sterben" as A Time to Love and a Time to Die.In its original form, All Quiet on the Western Front ran 140 minutes. This has now been restored. Continuity, however, is still somewhat jerky and abrupt. The film is constructed along the lines of a stage play with a fade-out at the end of each scene replacing the curtain fall. There is a tendency to make the individual scenes run too long, and despite the large amount of action footage — fully half-an-hour of the film would be solid action — the accent is firmly on dialogue. The pace is slow, sometimes excruciatingly so by modern standards, though this was contrived quite deliberately both for contrast with the sudden bursts of action and also to emphasize the dreariness and monotony of front-line sub-existence.Nonetheless, Milestone's technique often seems uncompromisingly dated and this could prove a drawback for many audiences.Available on DVD through Universal. Quality rating: 10 out of ten.

All Quiet on the Western Front is a World War I movie released in 1930. Following the main character, Paul, a young German student that gets swept up by nationalist fever, the story shows the misery of war. As soldiers starve, fight for their lives, and struggle to maintain their sanity, none of them can quite explain what they're fighting for. Paul's notions of life and war are immediately shattered and the film follows his progression as he questions the meaning of his life and the purpose of the war.An example: "How does a war even start?" "It's when one country offends another." "Well, I guess I can go home because I'm not offended."This is a perfect example of the mindset and attitudes displayed by the characters who are simply trying to survive and find enough food for another day.Dramatic and heart-wrenching, All Quiet on the Western Front is one of the best WWI films. As you watch the film, you quickly forget that all of the main characters are fighting for Germany, who are usually displayed in more villainous roles. In fact, you can switch the uniforms and it would have no impact on the story and I think that is the point. Paul quickly realizes that war is not glorious and he certainly does not feel like a hero. This realization directly conflicts with his initial feelings when enlisting for the war in the first place. The main conflict of the story is Paul reconciling the myths and naivety of his youth with a horrific, almost purposeless, reality. Treated as a hero at home and given constant advice about the war from elderly men who are far from the front lines, Paul loses his sense of home and purpose and is left lost in the new world he discovers.Despite some poor acting at times and humor that has not aged well, All Quiet on the Western Front is a good film. If you're interested in an early film about soldiers in the Great War, it's definitely worth a watch.

All Quiet on the Western Front is the first great non-silent anti-war movie and arguably the most powerful one to date. Based on the critically acclaimed homonymous novel by Erich Maria Remarque, it portraits the transformations a young German soldier suffers during the World War I: the innocence before the war and the promise of everlasting glory, the shock with reality and the realization of his own mortality and of the hypocrisy of war and finally the return to the world away from the trenches, a world that didn't stop to wait for him.Full of symbolisms, violence and impressive camera work, the whole film is a cinematographic masterpiece. The viewer is placed directly in the battlefield to the point he can almost grasp the blood-soaped earth of the trenches and smell the rotten corpses in no-man's land.There's two layers I can find in this movie: the first one tells us about the physical destruction endured in a war – hunger, dirt, explosions, amputations, diseases, death… The film does not try to hide the truth, war is ugly and dirty, it is constant suffering and painful. If the first layer is strong enough to create a strong impression on the viewer, the second one is even more powerful: the psychological breakdown the soldiers experience is masterfully portrayed. The excitement turns into doubt, the doubt into disgust, the disgust into anger and the anger into complete numbness. A young promising student is gradually transformed into a soulless killing machine.Also the acting deserves to be mentioned. The entire cast delivers stand up performances, especially Louis Wolheim and Lew Ayres who depict masterfully two generations united by war.The only flaw I could find on this is the strong American accent on the few German words spoken, fact that can distract a bit especially on the beginning of the movie.Overall, this is an overwhelming experience and a mandatory watch to every war film lover!