What this movie really proves

Rating: 10/10 (14 July 2009)

Skimming through the top-rated comments on the WESTERN FRONT as of today, I noticed that several stepped outside the movie and proclaimed that IF the generation of young Germans represented by FRONT author Erich Maria Remarque had not been "lost," they would have prevented the Nazis from coming to power. Ahem. Remarque himself was not "lost," nor was the majority of his generation of German youth, however broadly or narrowly it is defined. A similar proportion of the counterpart generation in Great Britain was "lost," but the surviving majority helped weed out those trying to impose a Nazi-like fascism in the isles at the same time Hitler's band of misfits was taking power in Germany. The difference? FRONT played widely to large audiences in Britain, leading to such a pacific mood that the government took an attitude of appeasement toward Germany, no doubt prolonging the eventual WWII by years. On the other hand, one of the first moves of the incipient Nazi Party was to successfully suppress the showing of FRONT in Germany. Since their well of movie-going youth was not "poisoned" with FRONT's anti-war message, these young men were easily bamboozled into believing in a thousand-year Reich, or Germanic Empire. Just acting in this movie turned lead Lew Ayres (who played protagonist Paul Baumer) into a pacifist, and he remained one even AFTER Pearl Harbor. The upshot of these facts seem clear: wars will NEVER prevent future wars; only anti-war movies can do that job. Therefore, the United Nations MUST adopt a program wherein the youth of EVERY nation are compelled to watch an anti-war film at least once a year. If that means wiring the deserts of the Sudan, the mountains of Afghanistan, and backwoods of Virginia for electricity, so be it. (On the other hand, all the warlords and defense contractors probably want to stay in business, so we can keep movies optional, and just end the charade that any country is seriously interested in "world peace.")