***** Important War movie

Rating: Null/10 (27 March 2001)

One of the most important war films ever made is this excellent adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque's fine novel, directed by Lewis Milestone. A group of eager German students enlist for service in World War I, heedless of warnings from their professors and families. These guys are just itching to be heroes, and the army propaganda has promised them that they will be. The cinematic ballet of war scenes is unlike anything cinema had seen before, and the realism of war in this film is completely at odds with the candy-coloured beauty of propaganda films made a decade later. To make sure World War II hopeful soldiers wouldn't be deterred by the gruesome images seen here, this film was banned in America not only for its pacifism but also because it presented German soldiers as sympathetic protagonists.