"All Quiet on the Western Front" by Erich Maria Remarque

Year of Publication:  1929

Number of Pages:  200 pages

In 1914 a class of idealistic German schoolboys are goaded by their teacher to join the Army and fight in the "Glorious War".  After ten weeks of brutal basic training, and faced with the horrific realities of trench warfare, their youthful innocence and idealism is soon stripped away.  

This is one of the classic war novels.  It's seen through the eyes of teenage soldier Paul Baumer who, by the time we meet him is already a hardened soldier.  It moves from accounts of life in the trenches swimming in filth and swarming with rats and lice, and existing on a practically starvation level diet, to graphic and chilling accounts of battles, to lyrical descriptions of Baumer's impressions and emotions and dreams beyond just survival.  The book is more than just a parade of horrors though, it also describes the friendship and camaraderie among the soldiers, who do what they can to make life just a little more bearable for themselves, making the most of their time away from the trenches.  It also comments on the psychological effects of the war.  At one point Baumer goes home on leave, and finds himself completely cut off from his old life and his family, because they have no idea what he has been through and he can't connect with them at all.  The incidents in the novel are described purely as Baumer experiences them and there is no context of  the war as a whole, in fact the soldiers rarely discuss the war itself.  They don't even seem to care much about whether their side wins or loses, they just want it to be over.

It's a powerful and moving war novel.  

The book was banned by the Nazis and copies were publicly burned, which is yet another good reason to read it. 

All Quiet on the Western Front

Year: 1930
Director: Lewis Milestone
Screenplay: George Abbott, Maxwell Anderson, Del Andrews and C. Gardner Sullivan, based on the novel by Erich Maria Remarque
Starring: Louis Wolheim, Lew Ayres, John Wray, Arnold Lucy, Ben Alexander
Running Time: 138 minutes
Genre: War, drama

Summary: Germany, 1914: World War One has just begun and people are swept up with patriotic fervour, believing that the war will be over within a few months. Among those caught up in the excitement are a class in a boy's High School who, egged on by their teacher (Lucy), decide to enlist in the Army en masse. After surviving basic training under the sadistic Sergeant Himmelstross (Wray), the boys are sent to the front line in France. Once there, their patriotic fervour and enthusiasm for warfare is quickly crushed by the brutal realities of trench warfare.

Opinions: This film is a powerful anti-war statement and has influenced war films ever since from Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory (1957) to Paul Verhoeven's Starship Troopers (1997) and Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan (1998).
The film is a real epic following a large number of characters over a long period of time. At a time when sound cinema was in it's infancy, many early "talkies" were noted for being very static, due to the problems of recording sound, but this film uses a highly mobile camera. The battle scenes which proved to be hugely influential are still powerful, intense and genuinely shocking, even if some of the techniques used in them, such as speeded up film don't really work.
The film also depicts the hardships, drudgery and sheer boredom and stress of the soldier's lives in between the battles. Enlivened only by grim humour and the occasional periods of rest and recreation, they live in miserable, rat filled conditions usually with nothing to eat.
The acting is good from all involved, even if it is jarring at times to hear the German characters speaking with American accents. Milestone direction is impressive, with the battle scenes in particular handiled with great skill and sensitivity, however he was also as sure with the quieter scenes
The movie was hugely acclaimed on its inital release and was nominated for four Academy Awards, winning two (Outstanding Production and Best Director). On it's release in Germany the film was heavily criticised by the Nazi Party who disrupted screenings by releasing rats and throwing stink bombs into cinemas. When they came to power they banned the film outright and it wasn't released in Germany again until 1956.
This remains one of the great anti-war films and a classic of the genre and it has lost none of it's power to move and shock.




Lew Ayres and Raymond Griffith in All Quiet on the Western Front