A Powerful Movie On The Horrors Of War

Rating: 10/10 (27 October 2012)

One of the most powerful anti-war statements ever put on film,All Quiet on the Western Front is a gut-wrenching story concerns a group of friends who join the Army during World War I and are assigned to the Western Front, where their fiery patriotism is quickly turned to horror and misery by the harsh realities of combat.It features Louis Wolheim,Lew Ayres,John Wray, Raymond Griffith and George 'Slim' Summerville. It is the definitive World War I motion picture, the best of a surprisingly small class of movies.
Director Lewis Milestone pioneered the use of the sweeping crane shot to capture a ghastly battlefield panorama of death and mud, and the cast is terrific as Lew Ayres would never again equal his performance in this film version of the well-known anti-war novel. It is of timeless relevance and effects.The rawness of the audio eradicates any lingering notion that war is romantic or exciting, and at times suggests the very battered eardrums of those engaged in combat.This classic remains one of the most powerful screen comments on the horrors of war.