Soild ending for an alright film

Rating: 7/10 (5 February 2011)

All Quiet on the Western Front is a 1930 war drama about the horror of war. A scene close to the beginning of the movie it shows young men who are encouraged to for fight and die for the father land. Most are excited to go off and serve for their country although some are hesitant they all end up enlisting. They go off and find that war is hell but stay to fight, serve and die for their country.
The story was while written for the most part but a few things did bother me. One of those thing was the French soldier (if you've seen the movie you'll know what I mean, if not stop reading now). The problem I had with it is if the soldier Paul played by Lew Ayres was fighting for three or more years and was hardened by battle should not have a problem with killing one more soldier. Another problem I had was the American accents, I had to keep remembering they were German or it just seem like an alternate history of the Americans trying to capture France. The only way you could real tell they were German was from their uniforms. Something else I did not like was the battles it was either motor fire killing troops in a field without any gun fire or a machine gun cutting down soldiers down with little to no fighting back. This isn't true for all scenes of fighting but will be seen a few times throughout the movie.
The real strong point of this movie, and the only reason I gave it anything over five was the acting. I thought the acting was good nothing truly amazing but still memorable to say the least. Another point I like was the older soldiers especially Kat. He was the one guy I think every war movie needs, and what really strengthened the scenes of fighting. The reason I believe he is a character every war movie needs is because he is the unflinching tough been through everything in battle soldier with a kind heart and a watchful eye over the younger troops. The other major selling point of the movie to me was Paul and his mom. This really brought together and put some purpose behind Paul and gave us a better understanding of him as a person and soldier. The last thing that Paul did on his leave made this movie in my opinion. He goes back to his old school were his former teacher is preaching the same thing he told Paul and his class mates the years before. Paul over hears this and gives an amazing speech to the young boys about the horror of war, this is disregarded by the boys as they are ready to fight and die for the country and Paul is seen as a coward and unpatriotic to his country.
Overall for a 1930 movie I think it was really well made for the year but war movies have progressed so much in the eighty one ears since it's release. With that being said I think it's great and should be watched if you are a fan of war movies. Although it isn't all fighting and action this is a classic film and has really stood the stand of time being eighty one years old and ultimately still being entertaining is worth a watch and fans of classic war movies will fall in love with this film but it isn't for everyone.