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.

The Broadway Melody [Winner ~ 1929]

"They were plenty smart when they made you beautiful."

1929 is shaping up to be a pretty terrible year.  So far the nominees list includes a movie you can't watch, a movie with no plot, and The Broadway Melody.*


I felt like I was missing something the entire time I watched this movie.  I could see it being a box office success (it was the highest grossing film of 1929), but a Best Picture winner?  Surely I was missing something huge.


Or not.  According to filmsite.org, 1929 was not a banner year for the Oscars.  The winners were all closely associated with the Academy's Board, making the awards questionable at the very least.  Then there was the not-so-small matter of "talkies" being made eligible for the first time.  To quote filmsite: "The films nominated for this year's awards were some of the weakest films in the history of American cinema, reflecting the chaos of the transition from silents to sound films."  So my best guess is that the Academy wanted to honor it's own and promote what it viewed as the future of film, even if the overall quality wasn't up to snuff.


Melody's story is a cliche backstage look at performers.  Two sisters, "Hank" and Queenie, move to New York to follow their dreams of being Broadway stars.  A love triangle develops between the siblings and friend Eddie Kerns.  Kerns gets the sisters into a Francis Zanfield show, where Queenie catches the eye of Jock Warriner, a well-to-do society type.  This film includes many staples of the "behind the scenes" genre, including: a spoiled actor, under appreciated stagehands and musicians, a gay costume designer, and jealous chorus girls starting a cat fight.  I can't help but thinking that even in 1929 these stereotypes were less than fresh.


That being said, I don't think The Broadway Melody is a waste of time.  As someone who loves musicals it was fun to see one of the first.  The big production numbers are lively, and some of the songs are cute.  Also, anyone looking to spice up their wedding ceremony should check out "The Wedding of the Painted Doll" sequence, because let's face it, everyone has already seen that Chris Brown wedding entrance. (But it's still fun to watch.)





*Plus there was all that Depression business right around the corner, but this isn't Planet Money and I haven't watched The Grapes of Wrath yet, so let's just save that discussion until later.

Wings [Winner ~ 1928]

"Attaboy!  Them buzzards are some good, after all!"

Prior to viewing 1927's Wings, I had never watched an actual silent film era movie.  My only exposure to them were short clips seen on TV, usually accompanied by some sort of narrated commentary about the film or actor.  Other than that, Mel Brook's Silent Movie and the first half of Pixar's Wall-E are the only things I've viewed in their entirety that come even remotely close to the concept.  Having relied on sound to tell the story my entire life, I worried about losing interest or becoming easily bored.

Well... I did get bored at times, but it had nothing to do with a lack of sound or spoken dialogue.

First, a brief plot synopsis (No Spoilers*):  Jack Powell (Charles "Buddy" Rogers) and David Armstrong (Richard Arlen) are two aspiring American pilots about to leave for war.  Both are in love with the same girl, Sylvia Lewis (Jobyna Ralston), who actually prefers David.  Meanwhile, Jack's neighbor, Mary Preston (Clara Bow), is infatuated with him, but he doesn't know it.  The two head to training where they eventually become friends, and are shipped off to France to aid the Allies.  During a mission, David is gunned down and presumed dead.  The climax of the film is an epic dogfight, where Jack vows to avenge his friend's supposed death.

I love a good war movie, and even more, I love a good WWI movie.  I've always been drawn to the "Great War."  Probably because it was just so aggravatingly futile, making it a perfect backdrop to the sort of bittersweet storytelling that I love.  This is touched upon in Wings, though much too briefly for my taste.  Sure there's a messy love triangle and the potential for unrequited love, but that is not what this movie is about.  This movie isn't even about the futility of war, despite its sometimes gory depiction of death (more on that later) and melancholy intertitles.  This is an action movie-- plain and simple.

The boredom I experienced happened mostly during the overly long dogfights.  While these scenes are impressive, they get old real quick.  In fact, the first real air fight scene is the best in the entire film, making the concluding dogfight seem weak by comparison.  (I was interested to read that several of the actors cast had WWI flying experience, and flew the planes themselves in order to shoot the closeups.  Now that's some real "doing-your-own-stunts" cred.)

As for the romance, this subplot is mostly relegated to the very beginning and end of the movie.  The character Sylvia is introduced in the beginning, setting up the love triangle aspect, but then not seen again until the end (and hardly mentioned in between).  Mary Preston fairs much better thanks to Clara Bow's fame, but it's pretty obvious that the movie was rewritten to include the studio's biggest star. Mary becomes an ambulance driver in France, and pops up from time-to-time throughout the story.  While Bow's appearances are a fun break from the seriousness of the war scenes, they often seem like afterthoughts to the main plot.

Going into this movie I was expecting it to show some age, primarily in the form of cheesy special effects and a certain amount of chasteness.  Boy, was I wrong!  The special effects are actually good, with death defying aerial acrobatics that are very thrilling.  And as for those gory deaths I mentioned earlier: during one dogfight a pilot is shot from behind and blood gushes out of his mouth.  Seriously, it gushes.  Later, you're treated to an eyeful in the form of Clara Bow's breasts.  Yes folks, there's even brief nudity!  Needless to say, I was shocked.  Didn't Hollywood have rules prohibiting this sort of thing back then?  Well, not yet, but I bet this was one of the movies that helped shape the infamous Hays Code that would dominate the film industry for several decades.

So, where do I stand on Wings, the first Best Picture winner and only silent film to earn the title?  I like it, but I don't love it.  Maybe I'm just too reliant on sound to tell a story.  I noticed early on that the actors were saying way more lines than were written in the intertitles, making me wish I could read lips to know exactly what was being said.  The love triangle started out promising, but wasn't given time to develop.  Poor Sylvia becomes a throw away character, and Mary's just... there.  Still, the entire movie is surprisingly entertaining, and a great glimpse into the past.

Oh, did I mentioned I watched this on YouTube?  It's certainly a much different world today than it was 84 years ago.



* Even though these movies are decades old, I will do my best not to spoil the endings.  Any plot details I do give will be as minimal and superficial as possible.