an indictment of the inhumanity of war

Rating: 10/10 (6 February 2009)

I've just watched All Quiet on the Western Front for the second time. The first time was a long time ago. Perhaps too long. It's quite simply a wonderful film on the morality (or lack of) of war, and perhaps the most convincing anti-war film I've seen, focusing purely on the feelings our lead character Paul Baumer.
It starts off with blind optimism during the recruitment process and after a harsh induction programme in a segment that Kubrick gleans so much from in his 'Full Metal Jacket' film. The dormitories are almost an exact copy and the Drill Seargent is a mean guy just like R.Lee Ermey's was.
During the first night on the field and their introduction to Katczinski, who seems like a man to fear, new recruit Behn, a man who didn't want to enlist is killed in horrific fashion and the new recruits are given a glimpse of what is to come. "He's a corpse, no matter who he was" is Katczinski's reply to one of the new recruits who wails "he was my friend". Truly awful stuff. We're quickly whisked to the first daylight trench battle which has some incredibly dynamic camera-work and the B&W and speeded up film almost makes it feel real. Here is a film that can use little in the way of gore, but create a far more terrifying atmosphere than even the opening of "Saving Private Ryan".
"War is like a fever. No one wants it but it is there all at once" As the war progresses, the boys receive letters from home. This should be a joyous occasion, and is for some, but Baumer is not so convinced. We start to get the feeling that this place isn't the place for letters. It isn't the place for hope.
One of the key scenes follows where Baumer single handedly kills a man with a knife and is forced to spend the night with him in a hole as he dies. Begging the man for forgiveness highlights his inner fight. Everything is telling him war is wrong, but we know he is being dragged into it and irreversibly changed.
It's not completely devoid of humour though. Part way into the second act and after Katczinski and the other old hand's have softened (or is it that the new recruits have simply hardened giving us an illusion) we are treated to a scene with some lovely French peasant girls, and the betrayal of Himmelstoss, getting him blind drunk so the three young boys can have a girl each is particularly funny.
Possibly the saddest part of the film is towards the end where Baumer is injured and able to spend some time on leave at home. He soon realises after visiting his family and the professor who enlisted him that he doesn't belong there. He'd rather be on the front line with Katczinski and pals where he knows where he stands.
And with that, I'll leave it there. The final 10 minutes is heartbreaking and it is no wonder that the armed forces at the time prevented recruits from seeing this film. It's an indictment of the true inhumanity of war, and a film that is so important in our history as human beings.