Humanity at War

Rating: 8/10 (30 April 2006)

Having read the book, I caught this film on TV late one night. As other users have commented, it's amazing that this story of men at war was made at a time when the majority of Hollywood's output was designed to transport movie-goers away from grim reality.
It's also remarkable for portraying a recent enemy as a human being rather than a racial stereotype. Despite his German uniform, Paul Baumer could be from any country involved in World War I. His experiences in "All Quiet on the Western Front" were certainly shared by the soldiers on either side of No Man's Land.
There are other anti-war movies that deal with the attempted de-humanisation of those who are trained to kill and the sheer horror of modern mechanised warfare, but this film is one of the first and there are few that can ever equal it. Perhaps, as other users have said, this is because the people who made it were so deeply affected by the experience of the Great War.
The power of the film could also be due to the power of its source material. Erich Maria Remarque based his book "All Quiet on the Western Front" on his experiences of combat in the trenches. The team of screenwriters who transformed the book into a film script did not dishonour it in the process.