All Quiet on the Western Front (Universal Cinema Classics)
Starring: Louis Wolheim, Lew Ayres, John Wray, Arnold Lucy, Ben AlexanderDirector: Lewis Milestone
Studio: Universal Studios
MPAA Rating: Unrated
Format: Black & White, Dolby, Full Screen, Original recording remastered, Restored, NTSC
Running Time: 132 minutes
DVD Release: February 6th 2007
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DVD Review
If a classic movie can be measured by the number of indelible images it burns into the collective imagination, then All Quiet on the Western Front's status is undisputed. Since its release in 1930 (and Oscar win for best picture), this film's saga of German boys avidly signing up for World War I battle--and then learning the truth of war--has been acclaimed for its intensity, artistry, and grown-up approach. Director Lewis Milestone's technical expertise is already stunning in the great opening sequence, as a professor exhorts his students to volunteer for the glory of the Fatherland while troops march past the windows. Erich Maria Remarque's novel is faithfully followed, but Milestone's superbly composed frames make it physical: the first battle scene, with the camera prowling the trenches as they fill with death and chaos, was surely the Saving Private Ryan of its day. The cast is strong, with little-known Lew Ayres finding stardom in the lead (Ayres became a pacifist and conscientious objector during World War II; although he served in battle as a medic, the stance harmed his career). This DVD has no extras beyond a vintage re-release trailer and Robert Osborne's useful introduction, but the main draw is the excellent picture and sound quality of the print--the movie looks better than it has in years. Those indelible images are now clear enough to cut glass: Ayres' lonely look back at the disappearing troop truck; the blinded soldier who runs into enemy fire at night; the fine pair of boots wasted on a boy with an amputated leg; and the final, devastating seconds, arguably the defining cinematic image of war in the 20th century. --Robert Horton
User Reviews
Still the benchmark for WW1 films - and rightly so - Rating: 5/5
There's a reason that Lewis Milestone's All Quiet On the Western Front is still the best remembered of all the many films about the horrors of the First World War despite rarely being revived on television: it really IS a great and often very moving film that plants itself firmly in the memory. While WW1 movies had been gradually moving into darker territory as the silent era came to an end, perhaps only J'Accuse had dealt with the bitter disillusionment so many felt at the time quite so graphically. In that, All Quiet was aided at the time by having its lost generation on the losing side - British, French and American films would deal with the horrors of trench life but would still regard them as a price worth paying for victory. It would not be until the 1960s that futility on both sides would become the cinematic norm.
Filmed on a truly epic scale with a striking visual fluidity that was still unusual for an early talkie thanks to Arthur Edeson's pioneering cinematography, after the initial establishing scenes there's no real story, simply a succession of incidents as its group of schoolboy recruits are gradually killed off. As impressive as these incidents are, the film wouldn't be nearly as effective if the characters didn't convince, and the film is anchored by a superb lead performance from Lew Ayres as the idealistic young schoolboy who gradually becomes a shell of his former self, with excellent support from Louis Wolheim as the old soldier who takes him and his friends under his wing. Wisely replacing the flashback structure of Erich Maria Remarque's book with a chronological narrative, rather than introducing the characters as the cynical survivors they become, the film gradually shows their idealism worn away. While the attack and counter-attack sequences are still incredibly vivid, breathtakingly edited and surprisingly violent - in one memorable shot an explosion leaves only a pair of severed hands clinging to barbed wire - the real horror almost seems to be the way the characters adapt to their dehumanising conditions at the front to such an extent that they no longer fit in at home when they do get leave. It becomes impossible to imagine a life after the war so completely have they been consumed by it.
Ironically the film's most famous scene is nowhere to be found in the novel. Remarque never describes the final death: his body is simply discovered, appearing to be at peace. Milestone opted for something more explicitly powerful, but not without much trial and error. After at least seven scripted versions had been rejected, another ending of Paul hallucinating of French and German troops marching into the same grave and crying out in anguish before being shot by a sniper had been filmed but satisfied no-one - the studio wanted a happy ending (Milestone jokingly suggested having the Germans win!) while Milestone hated the rushes: it was cinematographer Karl Freund who suggested that the ending should be `as simple as a butterfly.' Hastily shot by Freund with Milestone's own hand standing in for Ayres, the iconic scene would become one of cinema's most enduring moments. Yet perhaps even more moving is the film's closing shot of the boys marching up the line to death, their faces superimposed over their graves as they look back at the camera and the audience without life and without hope. It still packs an incredible emotional punch more than three-quarters of a century later.
It's a shame there isn't a documentary to accompany the film on DVD, as the film's history is fascinating (Andrew Kelly's book Filming All Quiet On the Western Front gives an excellent account). Numerous scenes were reshot with different cast members - ZaSu Pitts' scenes as Paul's mother were reshot with Beryl Mercer because Pitts had just had a comedy on release and the studio were afraid audiences would laugh when they saw her - while the film was exhibited in both sound and silent versions. Future directors Fred Zinnemann and Robert Parrish were extras in the film while an uncredited George Cukor was the film's dialogue coach. The film was banned in several countries in Europe before WW2 (New Zealand was the first country to ban it, on the bizarre grounds that it was `not entertainment' and therefore `unsuitable for public exhibition'!) and attacked by McCarthy as Communist propaganda after it when he included the Russian-born Milestone in his list of the 19 most `dangerous' subversives in the film industry.
The film's German premiere was disrupted by the Nazis, who even released mice in the theatre and organized several days of riots that successfully got the film banned in Germany to `preserve public order.' Over the subsequent years music was added to some scenes and the film was heavily cut with each reissue, even turned into an anti-Nazi pro-war propaganda film in 1939 by the judicious deletion of certain scenes and the addition of newsreel footage of Nazi rallies and book-burnings. Yet ironically the film's restoration was largely based on the longest surviving print, which had been found in Joseph Goebbels private collection - while he publicly attacked the film, he genuinely admired its artistry. The version here is still missing a few minutes of footage, some of which has been subsequently restored to 35mm prints, but it's still well worth picking up.
war defined, souls challenged... - Rating: 5/5
Young men go to war and face their mortality. They learn that life does not have poetic justice. The film is a study of madness with innovative and original ideas to portray those intense moments that spiral these young men to that madness. Milestone's depiction of the brutality and rawness of war is the blueprint for any great war movie ever made since this awesome film's release. It is a canvas as large as cinema can be, with spectacular editing and at the same time captures the most intimate thoughts of our doomed heroes. The film is a genuine art of images and the images speak volumes!
Great book and great Movie! - Rating: 5/5
I loved this movie, especially because it is from a different point of view, the so-called "enemy". Well acted!
A Must for Soldiers - Rating: 5/5
Excellent for any soldier. Covers the events of young boys recruited and thrown into a battleground. Must see for any military interest.
English teacher gives this DVD an A - Rating: 5/5
Generally I prefer the most recent version of movies for my students, as I feel they can relate more to the action onscreen if they get the sense that it is something current, relevant to modern times. Black and White movies are a tough sell for the teenagers in my class (as I found out today while airing "Twelve Angry Men"), because they feel as if they're watching some exhibit in a museum, rather than an interpretation of the literature they have just read. I know there is a more modern version of "All Quiet" starring Richard Thomas (and I actually remember watching it as a high school freshman), but given the choice between the original and the remake, I would opt for this (Lew Ayres) version.
It's not that the remake is bad (In fact, it is quiet good); it's just that the original is a classic, a masterpiece. The cinematography is excellent. Many scenes (No Man's Land; Bauer's teacher's recruitment lecture; the raw recruits marching off to the front; the ending) will remain etched into the memory of the viewer. Just beautifully shot. Great artistic feel to the movie.
The acting is a bit flat by today's standards but that does not draw from the power or impact of the film. In fact, a nice feature of the film is that all the actors are roughly the age of the characters they play (19-21) so their ordeal is that much more believable.
As mentioned in other reviews, this DVD does not contain any bonus features other than a small filmography. Notwithstanding, this is a great film and definitely worth the money. If kids can get past the B&W, I think they'd like it too.
