Terrific War Scenes Make it a Must See

Rating: Null/10 (24 September 2011)

All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
*** 1/2 (out of 4)
Ambitious anti-war film about a young German soldier (Lew Ayres) who enters WW1 thinking that he's got a great adventure ahead of him. He and his buddies quickly learn that there's nothing fun about war as they experience all the horrors that come with it. This film and director Lewis Milestone both picked up Oscars and I'm sure most important to the studio is that this is still considered one of the greatest anti-war pictures ever made. There's no question that there's a lot of energy, passion and terror built up in the film but I think at times it crosses over into some preachy moments that really don't work too well but more on that in a second. There's no question that the greatest strength to this film are the tremendous battle sequences, which were considered great at the time but when viewed today they're all the more impressive. It's clear that the director and studio weren't too worried about the production code because they go all out in the grit and this includes some rather graphic battle sequences where we see body parts separated from the bodies and of course there are some violent gun battles. The battle scenes are certainly among the greatest ever shot and there's a beautiful sequence inside the trenches where the men get up against the wall to do battle while the camera glides over their heads and prepares for battle. This is followed by another terrific sequence where the other side goes to jump down in the trenches and the fights that occur are so realistic you feel as if you're watching a documentary. That documentary term fits the film well because these sequences look so real that you really do feel as if you're watching the real thing. The performances for the most part are pretty impressive, although I'd say that Ayres comes off just Luke warm. He handles some of the later stuff quite well but there were a few sequences where he just didn't work for me and this includes one very preachy sequence where he talks to an enemy soldier he has killed. For my money it was Louis Wolheim who stole the film as a veteran soldier trying to teach the new kids the ropes. As I mentioned earlier, the one issue I had with the film is how preachy it was at times. I think less could have been more as the message is quite clear and to me there really wasn't a need to push the issue. It's funny that this film was such a hit in America since it was showing the German side of the war and I also find it quite ironic that Hollywood would make a film like this. Then, less than a decade later, another world war would strike and they went back to the message that dying for your country is good, which is the exact opposite of the message here.