All Quiet on the Western Front [Winner ~ 1930]

"There are millions out there dying for their countries, and what good is it?"

Of all the books I read in high school English classes, only three were books I truly loved: The Great Gatsby, To Kill A Mockingbird, and All Quiet on the Western Front.  I remember silently crying while reading the final chapters of each of these books, and trying hard to fight back tears when watching their respective films in class.  But that was over a decade ago (oh my God...), and I've changed a lot since then.  Can these novels and films live up to my memories, or will they disappoint?

Gatsby and Mockingbird* will have to wait for their reevaluations, and if they are lucky they will be held in the same regard as All Quiet on the Western Front.  To prepare for this viewing I reread Enrich Maria Remarque's 1929 novel.  It was surprisingly just as I remembered: a beautifully written story about the futility of war.  If anything, I think I appreciated the book (and the movie, which is a surprisingly accurate adaptation) more now than I did as a high school sophomore.  War was something that I knew was wrong, but I had no real connection to.  I was too young to remember the Gulf War, and September 11 was still over a year away.  My world was peaceful.  Because of this, my view of All Quiet was skewed completely to the historical aspect.  I recognized that WWI was as futile as any conflict can get, and I mourned the loss of the men who gave their lives, but it had no real connection to my life.

My, how the world has changed.  For the past eight years American troops have been stationed in Iraq, a war that has left many as confused and disillusioned as Paul Baumer and his German comrades.  So many of the questions posed in this movie strike home with me today: Who wanted this war?  What are we fighting for?  When will it end?  Maybe the world should follow Katczinsky's suggestion: decide conflicts with a fist fight between the leaders of the countries involved, rather than fought by armies of innocent soldiers.

It's not surprising that this is one of the most banned films of the 20th Century.  Nations gearing up for war would not want this shown.  The gritty realism of life in the trenches and death on the battlefield are haunting, and enough to dissuade even the most eager youth from enlisting.  On its release, Variety magazine wrote: "The League of Nations could make no better investment than to buy up the master-print, reproduce it in every language, to be show in all the nations until the word 'war' is taken out of the dictionaries."  This is the best praise and most accurate review of a movie I've ever read.  And while I do believe there are legitimate reasons for nations to go to war, perhaps viewing this movie would at least make world leaders think twice about it.

This film is definitely on my list of favorites, and recommended viewing for everyone (after you've read the book, of course!).  The only flaw in this movie is the lack of German accents.  Yes, it's an American film starring American actors, but it is about German soldiers in WWI.  The lack of German is a little distracting at times, especially when the characters speak about the Kaiser, reference German cities, or even address each other using surnames.  Still, the fact that this movie could have been made in 1930s America-- when anti-German sentiment was still quite high-- is remarkable.  (A remake slated for a 2012 release date is in the works, so maybe it will strive for more dialectical accuracy.)

All Quiet on the Western Front is, thus far, the best movie I've watched for this blog.  It's also the most deserving of its win.  I still have many films yet to watch, but I doubt most of them will live up to this drama.  So often movies with such a strong message and point of view become quickly dated, but All Quiet only becomes more relevant with time.  As long as war is a part of the world, this film is needed to remind us of the people who are really doing the fighting, and the real sacrifices they are asked to make.

*To Kill A Mockingbird was nominated for Best Picture in 1962, so eventually I will get to that movie.  Neither the 1949 or 1974 films of The Great Gatsby were nominated for Best Picture.  Still, I'll probably rewatch the '74 version purely for my love of Robert Redford.