Review for Film Class

Rating: 8/10 (1 November 2019)

All Quiet on the Western Front in a 1930 film based on the novel of the same name. Although it was controversial at the time for its pacifist, anti-War themes, even being banned in not only Nazi Germany but countries like Australia, it has overall had a great legacy from a filmmaking standpoint. Let me start with my favorite element of the film: The cinematography. The cinematography is supremely good. The final shot of the butterfly before Paul is shot by an enemy sniper is iconic. The battle scenes are very well filmed and even hold up to this present day, despite the movie being almost 90 years old by now. I found the cinematography to be very engaging in this movie, and it was what sold it to me as a truly great film. I really felt transported to a WW1 era battlefield while watching this film. Another amazing element of this film, in my opinion, is the acting. Lew Aryes is really amazing in this film- so amazing I didn't really get the feeling he was actually acting in this movie. He carried all of his dialogue naturally and the emotional scenes were the strongest. He was one of the main reasons why this movie felt like being transported to a WW1 battlefield. The supporting cast was really great too. Not only in this film artistically important but also historically important as well. The first evidence of history in this movie is World War 1 but also themes of the aftermath, which constituted of the Treaty of Versailles and the failed state that was the Weimar Republic, which led to a resurgence in German nationalism, (and later eventually led to the formation of Adolf Hitler's National Socialist government, more commonly known as the Nazi Party, although this movie was made before Hitler was Fuhrer). Evidence from the film includes characters such as the teacher, Professor Kantorek, who is a proud German nationalist and truly believes in the Fatherland and it's army, and successfully convinces some of his students to join the German army to fight in World War I.The character of the teacher represents initial hope (similar to Germany after WWI) but eventually, when the film depicts the process of war being awful, that hope is transformed into a misery that will seemingly never end. This movie is therefore somewhat representative of the Weimar Republic at the time, seeing as how the economic situation for Germany in the 1920's and early 1930's was so dire. This represents German nationalism at the time which was rising due to how dire not only the economic situation but socially too (the lack of German pride, thanks to the harsh standards of the Treaty of Versailes), eventually resulting in Adolf Hilter's NDSAP (Nazi Party) coming into power, which was not until 3 years after this movie was realeased. The second historical element in this movie is the real life reaction this film spawned. What this means is the decision of the Nazi Party to ban this movie, with them feeling the movie (and novel based upon it) was anti-German and specifically against German nationalism due to its negative depiction of war, something Hitler and the NDSAP viewed as very noble. In the early 1930's, Joseph Goebbels was noted to have personally hated the film so much he would also lead his Brownshirts into theaters and release mice and set off stink bombs to disrupt viewings of the movie. He claimed the movie's (and probably Hollywood's as a whole) Jewish influence promoted anti German values, because the movie was pacifist and anti-War in nature. In 1930, even before the Nazis came to power, the film was banned in Germany and other European countries and was not released again until the 1950's in Germany, and as late as the 1980's in countries like Italy. Overall, this film is a very good movie in terms of quality, and although it is controversial, it does help understand the perspective of European matters between the 2 World Wars.