When This Talkie "Talked",Everyone Listened.

Rating: 10/10 (7 August 2006)

Along with this version,I am also going to be reviewing the 1979 remake because I feel both should be talked about.
Well,while I'm sure anything I can add here,will not be anything that hasn't been said already,I'll do my best. In the early days of "talkies",the first motion pictures with sound,a lot of film-makers chose the musical (like 1929's "Braodway Melody".) They also did comedy,to which a lot of silent comics lost their gravy train. Silent actors too.
"All Quiet On The Western Front" is not just a great war movie,it's also a great "anit-war" movie and for the time a daring and bold choice. So great are the scenes of the young men in the classroom upon graduation day,being given a speech by their mentor. A speech about school being over and their "duty" beginning,in terms of joining the German military andfighting against the French "for their Kaiser",then ruler of Germany in 1916.
They all go out and join up and one way or another,the war destroys them. Physically or mentally they are either killed in battle or lose their mind and can no longer be the people they once were. The over all message I came away with,is not just the usual "war is insanity",I also find the message that one's duty begins with a duty to one's own self and not what others feel it to be.
Had this movie been attempted after the "censorship reign" in Hollywood,it most likely would not have been allowed. This movie won Best Picture of 1930 for all the reasons a film should win. A great subject,great story,great acting and a great,first rate drama in the new era of talking pictures.
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