3. All Quiet on the Western Front

Movie Poster for All Quiet
on the Western Front

This is the first movie on the list that I have seen before. In high school, we read the book and watched the movie. I found that watching it as an adult, now that I have taught over a thousand students and have children of my own, has brought new and deeper to me.

The movie is a realistic look at war. In that way it is related to so many modern war movies like Full Metal Jacket, Platoon, and Saving Private Ryan. In fact, I had forgotten how realistic and disturbing the battle scenes were in the movie. In fact, 68 years later people would be talking about how realistic and bloody Saving Private Ryan was in its opening scene. However, All Quiet on the Western Front did it first. The first time that the newly trained unit moves up to the front and experiences life in the trenches with the enemy rushing towards them through 'No Man's Land', Paul, the protagonist, watches as a man who has grasped the barbed wire near him is hit by a bomb. When the smoke clears, only two hands cut off at the wrist are still grasping the wire. Jarring, disturbing, and created in 1930.

The fact that the story from the German point of view makes it even more moving for me. Typically, we 'root' for the protagonists not only because they are the focus of the story, but also in war movies because we are from the same culture, the same background. However, the point of the movie is exactly that: it doesn't matter whose side the fighters are on, the men at the front are all the same. While some might have a bit of a clue about why they are fighting, they didn't start the war. However, many of them will die. It begs the question, why?

While I'm not a pacifist, I do believe in war for a purpose. When I look at past wars, World War I is one that stands out as so stupid. Countries were pulled in based on their previous agreements without having been directly attacked or even threatened with attack. I guess, for me, it is much easier to understand a war like World War II where the men and women were fighting a true evil. However, just having this train of thought makes me feel somewhat like the old men in All Quiet who sit around and comment on the war without having actually been on the front lines.

Compared with the previous two winners, All Quiet on the Western Front was so much better. The actors were believable, the emotions were real, the movie had a good mix for small laughs with large tragedies, the filming was a step up from just two years previous, and the sound problems seem to mostly have been worked out.

SPOILER ALERT

Boys in a Fervor After They've Decided to Enlist in
All Quiet on the Western Front

All Quiet on the Western Front starts in a classroom, quite a statement about education and youth. An old professor who probably never saw the hint of a gun stirs up his youthful students to join en masse - for the Fatherland. It is SO IMPORTANT to remember the effect we teachers have on our students. The students led by Paul Baumer, the groups unofficial leader, leave the classroom with visions of heroism. But these ideas start to be stripped away on the first day of training.

Local postman Corporal Himmelstoss is in charge of their platoon. And he is merciless and cruel. Case in point: when his higher ups tell him to give the men leave until midnight the day before they move to the front, he causes them to miss it. He is not dissimilar from the Drill Sergeant in Full Metal Jacket.

When the group gets to the front, the reality of war sets in quickly. There is no food. They stay in burnt out buildings, finding places to sleep where they can. Luckily they have Stanislaus Katczinski who takes on the role of the mentor and father figure for the soldiers. Over the course of the movie, he and Paul grow incredibly close.

When the men move to the trenches, the constant bombardment leads many to go crazy. Once the bombardment stops, the soldiers rush out and wait for the attackers to run across No Man's Land. This is when things really get brutal. The opposing forces overrun the trench and bayonets and fists fly. Death surrounds the men.

Over the course of the movie, the soldiers have brief respites between intense battles. At one point, only 80 out of 150 come back. As the men get to rest and eat double rations, the famous scene of the movie occurs where they discuss how the war started and how they really don't have anything against the men they are fighting and killing. Paul and two of his buddies also get to spend one night with some French women.

Paul With French Soldier in a Foxhole
All Quiet on the Western Front

At one point, Paul has sheltered in a foxhole when a French soldier jumps in. Paul knifes him, but he doesn't die immediately. Over the course of the long bombardment, Paul alternates between anger at the man and regret for having hurt and eventually killed him.

When Paul gets wounded, he gets sent home on leave. He finds that things have changed from his perspective. The people don't have any understanding of what he has gone through and  he feels little connection to his old life. When his old teacher asks him to help him inspire his new class of students to join up and fight in the war, Paul can't say much more than that war means death. In the end, Paul realizes that he feels more at home on the battlefield with Kat than back at home.

He returns to the front and immediately reconnects with Kat who is out looking for food. However,on the way back to the rest of the men, Kat is killed. Paul has lost his only true friend. The movie closes soon after when he reaches for a butterfly and gets shot by a sniper. All noises cease - all is quiet. Finally, we see images of the young soldiers marching superimposed over an immense soldier's graveyard.

Closing Images of All Quiet on the Western Front

I will be posting my attempt at the Beat Sheet for this later today. Stay Tuned.