You still think it's beautiful to die for your country!?

Rating: 9/10 (2 June 2019)

Hailed as one of the best pictures of all time as well as the very best anti-war picture in history "All Quiet on the Western Front" sets a standard that all war films that would follow. From the pages of Erich Maria Remarque's widely read book of the young German soldiers in World War I, the director Lewis Milestone has made a trenchant and imaginative audible movie. Many will say that this is one of the greatest war films of all time. It may possibly be the greatest anti-war foundation in one film ever created. It is a sincere and earnest experience for the audience. the horrors of battle are presented in an amazingly effective way.
The story follows a band of schoolmates who have been preached to that they should sacrifice their lives to save the fatherland of German during the World War I. Paul Bäumer is a respected student in a bunch of German school boys in 1914 who listen to the voice of their school master and enlist in the war that's just been declared. These boys have become soldiers, who going through boot-camp, being thrusted into the riggers of war as green-footed soldiers, and through a matter of a few short years watch as each other are dissolved by the wounds of war, including psychological breakdowns, psychical ailments, and even the loss to death, learning that what they are fighting for is not the same things the people back home think they are fighting for. The survival become the only thing important in their life. An older soldier, Stanislaus Katczinsky, helps young people to cope with the horrors of trench warfare. However, every battle has its price...
The sequences are not too long. War horror is presented through the eyes of a young man. The Truth comes to the fore, when the young soldiers are elated at the idea of joining up, when they are disillusioned, hungry, shaken with fear and burdened by the death of their comrades. The cinematography of this film is absolutely magnificent. A bloody sequences are very rare. However, the director finds other ways to imply death and still have the same emotional effect. The parts of human bodies in wartime are part of the true horror. The story is told from the enemy perspective, but the experience in the trenches was universal. The epic film structure is awe-inspiring and putting the audience in the middle of the action in a World War I. Mister Milestone has tried to put you in the middle of a battle but the middle of an entire war, enticing you to become as emotionally involved with the happenings as the characters themselves. The story is flooded with emotions. Mister Milestone has directed silent films before this one, and he has seemed to know that less focus on dialogue and more focus on acting would bring about an overwhelmingly emotional and well, sincere, film. The feeling of the movie can be felt equally by anyone who watches the picture. In fact you forget that while watching the film that the characters are German soldiers. We see the war from a German perspective, despite the fact that the actors speak in American English.
Lew Ayres as Paul Bäumer has offered a great performance. Paul is a brave, sad and disappointed young man, who is struggling with a terrifying fact that people on the first front are much better than warlike people in a free zone. His meeting with mother, who he can not tell the truth, is one of the most touching moments in the film. He's the voice of reason and civilization and the voice of a lost generation of Germans.
Louis Wolheim as Stanislaus Katczinsky, is an experienced soldier who is trying to adapt to conditions of war. Louis teaches the young soldiers how to survive in the trenches. He is a kind of father figure.
Slim Summerville as Tjaden, brings the necessary amount of humor in the film. Arnold Lucy is a warlike and passionate Professor Kantorek. John Wray is a vicious and cowardly postman Himmelstoss, who has seized the lieutenant's rank.
The movie preaches that war is hell and their is no glory in fighting a war for something you don't believe in. The people are dying while fighting for other people's plans and ideas, because human lives lost in the war, can not be returned.
It was the first talkie war film to win Oscars. "All Quiet on the Western Front" was won two Oscars in two category (Best Picture and Best Director).