All Quiet on the Western Front: 1929/1930

The third movie ever to win an Academy Award was another war movie, but All Quiet on the Western Front is significantly different from Wings. If you want the truth about war, then All Quiet on the Western Front is definitely the film to watch. The film follows a group of German school boys whose teacher inspires them to join the Army and fight in France in World War I. Glorifying war, the teacher goes on and on about serving one's country and becoming a man, speaking directly to these teen boys' dreams. But when the boys go to war, they realize the harsh reality of combat.

What struck me about the film was how the director panned the battle field. The camera would be in the trenches on the German side, and from that eye level, the audience watches the incoming French troops being shot down. It's not overdone, like some war movies today with excessive explosions and intense ammunition rounds; instead, All Quiet on the Western Front shows that some soldiers are hit and some continue forward. When the soldiers are hit, they don't necessarily die immediately, and that is probably the most heart-wrenching aspect of the battle scenes. The fellow soldiers and the viewer must watch someone slowly die. The same happens in the hospital scenes, of which there are several. In these scenes, soldiers lie in bed, complaining of pain in amputated limbs and wounds that will not heal. War becomes very real.

Overall, the film seemed incredibly unique to me in that at several times there didn't seem to be a main character. The main character seems to emerge as one of the few men left standing after repeated battles; I didn't figure out who he was until over halfway through the 144 minute film. There is also a distinct lack of music in the movie; in battle scenes, you hear gunfire and explosions but no music to build the intensity. This just adds to the realism; war doesn't have a soundtrack that includes violins or brass. It took me three nights to watch this film, but it seemed longer because of the grim reality. I knew it wasn't going to end well for the characters (and it didn't let me down on that prediction), yet I still watched the film to see how it would end, to see the outcome of the main character, whether it was life or death (I won't spoil that for you).

Moving on, tonight I'll be watching Cimarron, a western...not my usual movie genre.