Film Review: All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

over 2 years ago (Edited)

(source: tmdb.org

One of the most depressing things today is seeing so many seemingly enlightened members of the world’s elite, including those who had built reputations on their progressive, pacifist and environmentalist views, now advocating policies that lead to next world war. The explanation might be found in the last world war being way past most of people’s living memory. When people actually experienced such wars and memories were fresh, there was little enthusiasm for them, even among nations that were winners or actually prospered because of it, like United States after First World War. Those sentiments found the way to be expressed in Hollywood, and the result was All Quiet on the Western Front, 1930 epic directed by Lewis Milestone, nowadays known as the one of the greatest anti-war films ever made.

The film is based on the eponymous 1929 novel by Erich Maria Remarque, German writer who had taken inspiration by his own experiences as Imperial German Army soldier during First World War. The plot begins in a German town early in the war. Professor Kantorek (played by Arnold Lucy) is giving a rousing speech to his gymnasium students in order to make them enlist into Imperial German Army. The entire class, out of sense of patriotism and desire for adventure, agrees to do it, and that includes protagonist Paul Bäumer (played by Lew Ayres). Teenagers face first glimpse of less glamorous reality during training, when they have to endure humiliations by Himmelstos (played by John Wray), town’s postman who on the account of being reserve sergeant became their oppressor. Things get exponentially worse when they actually arrive on the front where, instead of previously imagined glorious battles, they have to face brutal realities of trench warfare – poor logistics that makes them constantly hungry, artillery fire that brings random and often unpleasant death. Although experienced Corporal Stanislaus “Kat” Katczinsky (played by Louis Wolheim) does everything in his power to keep them alive, Bäumer through the years see all of his friends die, get crippled or mad and begins to wonder what was this endless and pointless slaughter was all about and whether he would, if he survives, live normal life in peacetime.

All Quiet on the Western Front was one of the early sound films of Universal Pictures and represented huge risk for the studio, not only because of new and relatively untested technology, but also because of the large budget necessary to properly reconstruct the scope and brutal nature of the Western Front. Thankfully, director Lewis Milestone knew what he was doing, in more ways than one. As a veteran of American Expeditionary Force in France, he found many former Imperial German Army veterans in Los Angeles and actually hired his wartime adversaries to work as technical advisors. All Quiet on the Western Front features proper German uniforms and other props, while two thousands extras were drilled in the ways of Imperial German Army. This authenticity was matched by Milestone’s desire to make the film as authentic as possible in terms of action. Despite technical limitations that forced him to shoot many scenes without sound (which was added later), he delivered one of the best edited, best acted and still impressive battle scenes in history of cinema, which features large number of French soldiers storming German trenches, forcing Germans back and then having to defend themselves from German counterattack. Scene in which hundreds, if not thousands of men die for what is suggested to be small piece of land between the lines, bring the reality of the Great War in a way which is as impressive today as it was more than nine decades ago. Despite being almost a century old, All Quiet on the Western Front looks very modern, mostly by having un-Hollywood traits of episodic structure and lack of music.

Milestone was also fortunate to produce this film in the period where the MPAA haven’t enforced its infamous and restrictive Production Code. That meant less concerns about censorship which allowed to All Quiet on the Western Front to feature details that were shocking and disturbing to the audience and which Hollywood wouldn’t dare to show in subsequent years. That includes not only stabbings, slow and painful death, people being crippled or driven to insanity, but somewhat implied but quite recognisable (and understandable) situations when young recruits soil themselves when first experiencing true combat. The most memorable detail of the film is the scene, which wasn’t actually in the novel, which features two severed hands being stuck to a barbed wire after artillery shell explosion. There are, on the other hand, some occasions where laxer Pre-Code standards took somewhat lighter turn and this include brief male nudity and heavily implied scene where young German soldiers engage with lonely Frenchwomen in one night stands.

All Quiet on the Western Front with its strong pacifist message struck the chord with public in USA and other countries. It was immediately recognised as grand film and, apart from rave reviews, became awarded by Oscar for Best Film. Much of the credit must go not only to Milestone, but also to the excellent ensemble cast. Lew Ayres, who played nominal protagonist, became a great star but he also took the film’s message quite seriously; his decision to serve in Second World War as conscientious objector wouldn’t sit well with jingoistic American public and would briefly affect his career. Apart from Ayres, another great performance was given by Louis Wolheim, character actor whose promising career in sound era got tragically short by his illness and death immediately after his film.

Not everyone was happy with the film, most notably German Nazis who found its pacifism “treacherous” and made sure that it was banned even before their coming to power. It was also subject of bans in various countries whose authorities thought that its message would undermine enthusiasm for possible next war (and in Poland it was, ironically, banned over its favourable portrayal of Germany and Germans). All Quiet at the Western Front was also heavily cut after Production Code coming into a effect in 1934, and Milestone managed to restore the original version only shortly before his death in 1980. Two other adaptations of Remarque’s novel were made – 1979 television film directed by Delbert Mann and 2022 German film directed by Edward Berger, awarded by Oscar for Best International Feature Film.

RATING: 8/10 (+++)