A Great Movie

Rating: Null/10 (23 October 2004)

The movie lived upto the book and is, by far, one of the greatest anti-war movies on the market. Milestone stayed true to the realism that Remarque portrayed in the novel: the movie, besides being in English and with American actors, is not Hollywood- or American-ized.
The ending IS the death of Paul. One must notice the 'quietness' as Paul is shot: it is just as Remarque would have intended it to be.
Nothing positive came from WWI; women would have received the vote despite the war; the League was a dismal failure and to a certain extent, the UN is following in its foot-steps; the Treaty of Versailles made WWII inevitable, especially with the war guilt clause for Germany; and millions of people lost their lives in vain. Milestone, more than anything, portrays the war in all of its senseless brutality: this is made clear by Paul's speech to his old Professor's class close to the end of the movie.