Only two words truly work here:

Rating: 10/10 (6 January 2007)

"Excellently harrowing." This is a great film, for all of the reasons previously expressed by others at this web-site. To me, the essence of the film is encapsulated in this exchange that takes place one hour and eleven minutes (approximately) into the film:
The German soldiers are resting, changing clothing, discussing what they would do if it was suddenly peacetime again, dreaming of the beautiful and gratifying nature of their past lives, realizing how fortunate they had been back then; then the following scene takes place. I only recall a part of the scene in this comment.
The German soldiers are resting, changing clothing, discussing what they would do if it was suddenly peacetime again, dreaming of the beautiful and gratifying nature of their past lives, realizing how fortunate they had been back then; then this exchange takes place:
Former student - "...You've all got something to back to, wives, children, jobs.......but what about us? What have we got to go back to, school?"
Learned Soldier - "Why not? You know everything already."
Former student - "A man can't take all that rubbish they teach you seriously. After three years of shells and bombs, you can't peel that off as easily as a sock."
Former student - "They never taught us anything really useful, like how to light a cigarette in the wind or make a fire out of wet wood or bayonet a man in the belly instead of the ribs where it gets jammed."
This film exposes us to what war really is and, I think importantly, what it does to the soldiers, not just by the visual horrors, but by conversations such as these.
The fact that Lew Ayres became a conscientious objector partly because of the character he played in this movie reinforced the knowledge that a film impacts everyone involved in it and not simply the audience, and film is not merely entertainment.
As for me, I try to live by this quotation: "You must be the change you seek in this world." Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher & political figure