A great pacifist work!

Rating: 8/10 (8 October 2000)

In 1930, three great pacifist films were released, in the United States, Lewis Milestone's "All Quiet on the Western Front;" in Germany, G.W. Pabst's "Westfront 1918;" and the English film by Anthony Asquith, "Tell England." Of the three, Milestone's film was the one that has received most acclaim...
Based on the novel by German author Erich Maria Remarque, "All Quiet on the Western Front" tells the story of a teenager brought up to believe in the values of patriotism, militarism and the glorious death... The teenager returns on leave to his school where the schoolmaster who has taught him the values that he now despises greets him with ecstasy...
As a fighter he is treated with great respect, and the eager young children wait to be aroused by thrilling tales... He has none. There is no heroism. There is no glory. 'We live in the trenches and we fight. We try not to be killed - that's all!'
The film is totally committed to its proposition war is evil; not only the First World War which is portrayed in the film, but all war.
The motion picture, considered among the screen's most powerful indictments of the futility of war, contains many excellent sequences and set-pieces which still keep their power: the pair of boots being continually taken over as successive owners are killed; Lew Ayres talking impotently on about the brotherhood of man and the futility of killing as he watches his French enemy die beside him in a shell crater; Ayres carrying the wounded Wolheim on his back and talking cheerfully to him, ignoring he has been killed by a shell splinter; and of course, the closing scene of the hand reaching out from the trenches to seize a butterfly only to fall back slowly as an enemy's bullet falls home...
Despite dated moments, this highly emotive war film retains its overall power and remains a great pacifist work... The film won won Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director and was nominated for Best Cinematography & Best Writing...