All Quiet on the Western Front

Rating: 8/10 (23 March 2011)

This was a war movie I had heard the title of several times, and the first sound one to win the big prize at the Academy Awards, so I was certainly keen, from Oscar winning director Lewis Milestone (Ocean's Eleven). Basically a group of German schoolboys have been talked into joining the army, enlisting just at the start of World War I, and we follow all these young men as they enter, train and fight through it all. For a while it is mainly a multi stranded story with no main character to focus on, but this changes after all the men witnessing mutilation and death, and concerns about the rights and wrong of the conflict and the enemy themselves. The main protagonist appears as Paul Bäumer (Lew Ayres) who survived it all, and the biggest guilt he feels is when he mortally wounds a French soldier, and he uses the body to hide himself. In the end he longs to go home unsure that he is really on the right side or whatever, and the final scene with him in the trench is poignant for him spotting a butterfly which he would like to collect, and the last image is his hand dropping to the ground. Also starring Louis Wolheim as Kat Katczinsky, John Wray as Himmelstoss, Raymond Griffith as Gérard Duval, Slim Summerville as Tjaden, Russell Gleason as Müller, William Bakewell as Albert Kropp, Scott Kolk as Leer and Ben Alexander as Franz Kemmerich. Besides the memorable butterfly moment, there are many others that make quite an impact, the battle sequences are of course among them, it is unusual to see Germans speaking with American accents, but it is also clever because you can almost empathise and feel sorry for them, despite the fact you know they are the enemy and will lose, a most worthwhile classic first world war drama. It won the Oscar for Best Picture, and it was nominated for Best Cinematography and Best Writing. It was number 54 on 100 Years, 100 Movies, and it was number 33 on The 100 Greatest War Films. Very good!