How Appropriate in This Time

Rating: 10/10 (22 March 2006)

Wars are fought for many reasons. Most of them have to do with money and property. Lives are thrown away, frequently, so someone can have a little more for themselves. We should know from our current situation, how true this is. It's always the soldiers that get stuck in the middle of all this. They heroically go off to war and when they get there, they get to see first hand what it's truly about. The simplistic and romantic that are spewed by those who are not asked to fight become an unrecognizable din. Most of these people in their comfortable offices, their big houses, have no conception of war. Remarque set out to show what World War I was all about. The parades of young men going off to this ugly war with its trenches, bombs, and mustard gas, took enormous casualties. The pontificating professor, telling his students how glorious it is to fight is appalled by the returning young man who has been there and doesn't fall into line with his rhetoric. War is chaos and despair. If you ever saw the first few minutes of "Saving Private Ryan," you wonder how we can do this to each other. I am not an old man, but my father was. He was in World War I. He wasn't in the combat shown here. He was a trumpeter in an Army band. He did carry bodies off people who had died of flu in Brest in France. He mentioned what some of his less fortunate friends went through in that conflict. This is a marvelous film. Soldiers should be honored for everything they do. Somewhere we need to get a handle on our need to wage war. Yes, we must defend ourselves. But ask yourself what you're willing to sacrifice so this doesn't happen. Like a few gallons of gas?
This movie depicts the bleak panorama of combat. The scenes for the time are marvelous and hurtful and hateful. Also, remember, this is from a German perspective which makes it ever more interesting.