All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

This is a movie which is frequently mentioned in the Best Movies of all time lists and I must admit, I don't get it.  Another War movie (our second in a row thank to the Sabotage of the Broadway Melody, which by the way, is on its way from Ebay), it is also very long and drawn out.  This movie is not silent, however it is not exactly filmed in Dolby surround sound, and the snoring of our dachshund drowned out much of the dialog and I must admit I did wonder if it would have been better as a silent movie.

So, its a war movie, pretty slow to start, but quite different from Wings.  It really shows the brutalities of war and realistically depicts how scared the soldiers must have been. Unlike more recent glorification's of World War One, I guess this film had the potential audience of those who were there and this movie doesn't shy away from or gloss over facts. It isn't, however, particularly gory.

The story starts in a school in Germany with a teacher giving an passionate speech to the boys, encouraging them to sign up for the war. Being young and brave, many of the boys join up and we see them evolving into soldiers. We see their first day at the front and the fear they feel, and we see the boredom of the trenches. In cinematography straight from Notting Hill, we see the passing of time through a pair of boots, watching them be passed from soldier to soldier as they one by one die or become injured. We see the antagonist, Paul, become disillusioned with War, particularly when on convalescent leave back at home he realises that the things he has seen and done have made living in the real world difficult.
In particular, the scene showing men going crazy when under attack for 5 days of shelling in the trenches and one running out only to be shot by the enemy and a few others show the personal side of war and how it affected these young me. Remembering these were only school aged boys at the start of the movie, the film follows them through the whole war - those who survive until late 1917.

It was a different experience for me to watch a war film from the point of view of German Soldiers and the poignant scene about who started the war - it wasn't Germany?, it wasn't England? how can one country offend another? can a mountain in France offend a Valley in Germany, it was almost a kind of statement that this will never happen again. I particularly loved the analogy that War is a kind of fever - no one wants it then all at once here is is.

Although not a comedy by any stretch of the imagination, I cannot write this review without noting the funniest line of the movie.  During one of the "bonding as a unit" scenes one Soldier said "Kiss my Butt!" Hilarious, who knew that was said in 1930?

Without giving the ending away, it is obviously a sad movie, I usually cant watch war movies as I'm too emotional, but this movie wasn't too emotional for me. It was a good movie, but I didn't love it.

Have you seen it?  What did you think?