"It Has Become Quiet on the Western Front"

This was a Film Review I wrote in the Winter of 2015 for a Great Novels in Film course I took.  I had to pretend that I was watching the film in the year 2030 for its 100th Anniversary and write a review.

This year marks the 100th Anniversary of the release of All Quiet on the Western Front directed by Lewis Milestone.  Winner of two Oscars at the third Academy Awards ceremony for Best Picture and Best Director, it is the first film to accomplish such a feat.  To celebrate the centennial occasion, Universal Pictures has decided to have several special screenings of beautiful film prints in select theaters.  While there are several screenings around the country, I was fortunate enough to be invited by Universal to attend one these special screenings directly on their studio lot in Burbank, California.  Not often as a cinephile in today’s world are you able to see a beautifully restored 35mm print of a film that is a century old. Especially one with such significance as this.

The film is an adaptation of the novel All Quiet on the Western Front written by Erich Maria Remarque and published in 1929.  The film, like the book, follows the story of Paul Baumer and his fellow German soldiers in WWI.  Paul is the protagonist so the film’s events revolve around his perspective.  He and his fellow comrades begin the film as wide eyed school boys being coaxed into recruitment by their overzealous professor.  He and his classmates then go on to experience the horrors of war, not only the grueling physicality of trench warfare, but also psychological trauma of seeing your friends die.  The film depicts war in an inglorious way to show how the true victims of war are its soldiers.  If they are fortunate enough to live through the war, their experiences change everything about their character. 

While viewing old films, I find it necessary to put them within the proper context when judging their technical merit. The older a film, the more important that frame of mind is.  I find All Quiet on the Western Front to be a technical achievement considering the time in which it was made, specifically the battle sequences.  The camera work during the battle sequences is extraordinary because of how well the cinematographer, director, and editor are able to utilize camera placement and movement. At the beginning of the first battle sequence the camera is used to build suspense. The sequence begins with a dolly shot along the line of German soldiers in a trench, then a cut to a distance shot across the empty battle field, then back to the soldiers, then to more soldiers, then to quick cuts back and forth of bombs dropping, then to soldiers, and then this glorious crane shot of the enemy soldiers advancing. Then the battle begins and we as viewers are treated to a visual feast.  The editing is so fast that as a viewer you can not even blink or else you will miss a shot.  Bombs are dropping, bullets are flying, soldiers are dying at a frenetic pace comparable to modern action films. But what is being depicted at this fast pace is the chaos of war, how quickly and how easily life can end.  If we slow down and take a breath, I believe the Director is trying to ask the question, what is the purpose of this death and violence? All we can really answer as viewers is probably the same as Paul and his comrades: it’s either kill or be killed. 

Another technical achievement that I find impressive about the film is the sound.  The film originally came out in the early years of talkie cinema. The Silent Era was not quite dead yet  in the early 1930s, but the wave of the future was the talkie.  It was painstakingly difficult just to properly incorporate dialogue into a film let alone the elaborate sound effects that were used in All Quiet on the Western Front.  During the action sequence previously mentioned, the sound plays a crucial role in tandem with the camera work to create the warfare atmosphere.  The sound effects of the bombs, bullet fire, and men screaming, are layered in a manner that must have been technically difficult to achieve.  What it accomplishes is reinforcing the visual chaos of war with the auditory chaos of war.  As viewers we are placed into the fray of battle because we both see and hear what the protagonist does.  So we are able to better understand the toll that the war is taking on his person.

The acting is also significant in the film because at the time a big studio would use a big star to sell their film to an audience, especially a film this big and expensive.  But, in this case the main protagonist, Paul Baumer, is portrayed by Lew Ayres, an unknown and essentially unproven actor at the time. Despite his relative newness to film acting, he gives an exceptional performance.  There is a particular brief moment in a hospital where he is being wheeled away and he begins to scream frantically about not dying. It’s slightly theatrical, but I feel that works for the scene because when someone expresses great fear, they are not in control of their emotions. Another scene where he is next to a dying soldier and frantically pleads for him to die is similar in that it shows the psychological effect that his experiences are having on him.  He no longer has the ability to process clearly what the war is doing to him; the only reaction is uncontrolled, incessant babbling. It’s is almost as if his brain can no longer function on a normal level.  His ability to process thoughts in a coherent manner is lost because of all the trauma he is going through.  A main message to be taken from this scene is that the chaos of war has destroyed a once young, fertile mind.

As with many book to screen adaptations throughout the history of film certain artistic license was taken when translating All Quiet on the Western Front to screen.  A most notable omission from the book is the internal monologue of Paul. This monologue was filled with beautiful poetic and philosophical language to depict his tattered thoughts.  Although it works extremely well in the book, it would have been difficult to use in the film. A heavy use of internal monologue narration would have perhaps alienated the audience at the time. But, there are several instances within the film where Paul’s internal monologue is externalized effectively. One such instance is when Paul is addressing a group of young school boys who are expecting to hear great tales of the glory of battle and how honorable it is to fight for their country.  Instead, Paul externalizes his pain and anguish about the war in a powerful speech.  He sees the same same wide eyed Naiveté that was in the faces of his fellow schoolmates and can not stand that the same lies are being told to them.  These lies have doomed his generation to death and despair and he feels they need to hear the harsh truth.  His anti-war sentiment receives harsh backlash from the young minds who have been fed nothing but propaganda about the war.  The scene is important because it shows the contrast between the reality and fantasy of war.  It also emphasizes a theme of stolen youth that appears throughout the film.  Paul and his fellow schoolmates youthful lives were stolen by not only the war but the war fervor that took over the citizens of Germany prompting them to send their men into war.

The anti-war sentiment that is contained in the heart of the novel is also contained in this scene.  The lasting legacy of the film is its ability to portray the timeless themes like chaotic warfare, corruption and sacrifice of youth, physical and mental toll of warfare, and ultimately an antiwar sentiment.  This film along and the novel should be viewed in tandem because they are both important in their specific media format.  The film should be appreciated for its technical feats as well as its bold storytelling.  Films of its nature have been duplicated several times over the years, but I think we owe it to ourselves as film fans, cinephiles, film buffs, film enthusiasts, or whatever adjective you use to describe your love for movies, to preserve the legacy of this film.  It is our responsibility to keep the legacy of classic film intact.