Pretty Good

Brilliant and touching

brilliant actors, brilliant editing

A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

Although remade, the original packs a punch the remake doesn't, mainly because it being made in black and white and when it was made giving it an authenticity that is hard to replicate. The characters are well sculpted and acted, and he message resonate down the ages, with the failure to heed it in WWII adding to its strength

The first 10 minutes of a film, in my opinion, is the most important part of any production. It establishes your characters, the tone, the setting, everything. The first 10 minutes of All Quiet on the Western Front is easily one of the best openings to any film I have ever seen in the past few years.The doors open and the camera pushes in to reveal hordes of soldiers moving in formation, marching for their country. It dollies to the left, following them as if to show us what to expect for the next 2 hours. The pull back and reveal a professor sermoning to the young and impressionable minds of the new generation about how honorable it is to serve. The benefits, the courage, the prizes, the glory. Long, intimate close-ups of each student show every perspective. Crying, smiling, even the in-betweeners that don't know what to feel.They take this romanticized idea of enlisting in the armed forces and sing their hearts out with glee and dance through their classroom screaming with joy in their wide-eyed childish wonderment. A wide shot as the boys leave their classroom and their chanting begins to fade out. An empty classroom only echoes the cheers of joy that it once held, while the audience watches in fear for it knows these young gentlemen are only walking to certain death.

In the early 20th century, war changed from a game of professionals to an all-out contest of whole nations. Generations of young men were fed into the meatgrinder that was WWI; the first really technological war on a mass scale. No general staff understood what modern weapons would mean. These weapons created a war of stalemate and trench warfare, both sides evenly matched, and no breakthrough possible, with the ordinary soldier suffering the most. That is the story that 'All Quiet on the Western' Front tells.It tells it from a German perspective because it was adapted from Eric Maria Remarque's novel based on his experiences as a combat soldier in the German Army. The book is itself a testament to the grueling fate of soldiers of both sides. Interestingly, another book came out of Germany about the war, Enst Junger's "Storm of Steel" which paints the same bleak picture of the war, but concludes with patriotic pride that the millions of dead were worth it as a test of strength.The film 'All Quiet on the Western Front' is one of those works of art that come only once every few years. The reasons are several. 1. It follows the book fairly closely, and the book was good. 2. The realism was first rate for a film of that or any other period. 3. The acting, while not always modern, is well done in the major parts. The actor who plays 'Kat' dominates the film and the film's hero, 'Paul', played by Lew Ayres, although his performance is also good. 4. The direction was superb, and the movement of the camera during the battle sequences is amazingly good for that era. 5. The sound effects of the warfare scenes are quite good, as good as I've ever heard in that kind of film.It's also interesting that America was able to produce a film from the standpoint of what was an enemy nation only 12 years before. But is seems less an accomplishment when you consider that the soldiers in the film question the war and all wars. If they'd been in the American Army, there would have been censorship problems about those sentiments coming from American soldiers. Nevertheless, the film is an admiral anti-war statement-- the futility of war at all times and for all nations. Hitler and Goebbels certainly knew the film's power-- it was banned from showing in Germany after the Nazis took power there in 1933.It's not banned anymore. If you feel a film that old will be too dated, you will come to understand that really good filmmaking happens in all eras. If you haven't seen this film yet, you have a remarkable experience ahead of you.Have people learned the lessons of this film? I hope so, for the weapons of war are much more terrible than before. That fact is what has stopped war. But this film, and the knowledge it imparts played a small part too.

I kicked off my February, which is always Oscar's month, with All Quiet on the Western Front. Director Lewis Milestone's wartime drama took home the Academy's top prize for 1930. Capturing the essence of the individuals directly involved in the conflict, All Quiet on the Western Front, is a magnificent look at the effects of war both on soldiers physicality and mentality. A poignant look at a time when many fighting were just young boys trying to be heroes, All Quiet on the Western Front seems worthy of the gold statuette.Opening inside a classroom, a professor is convincing a classroom of impressionable teenagers to enlist, revealing the first unfortunate aspect of WWI. In the cloak of patriotism, a group of young men vow to support their country in war. Many of them end up permanently injured, some losing limbs, all of them end up emotionally scarred. The incredible part of this is that it was 1930. Seeing such a raw portrayal was incredible. The shots of each young man's face were well-done and beautifully executed each time. A well-done film, All Quiet on the Western Front is definitely one to see.