All Quiet On the Western Front (Lew Ayres, Louis Wolheim) 1/2
Depicting the minutia of wars is nothing new in movies. Over the years, films about wars have fluorished from simply falling into the generic category of "historical" to evolving into an expansive genre in and of themselves. The best ones, naturally, explore the plights of the soldiers on the frontlines, who are obliged to fight for causes they're not even sure they understand, much less are aware of how (or if) their contribution will affect the bottom line. While there have been commendable movies that depict heroism and valour over the years, All Quiet On the Western Front was the first anti-war film of the sound era, which has become the more prevalent subcategory of war movies.
The film was released in 1930, and it was received with mixed reaction at the time. In Hollywood, it was lauded as an enormous critical achievement, winning Best Picture and Best Director honours. Made by Universal Pictures, audiences responded to its representation of the traumas of the first World War, but its anti-military stance incensed other countries overseas. The film was directed by Lewis Milestone and, in my estimation, were it not for his clever use of technique and presentation, it would likely not have made the lasting impression that it's had over the years.
All Quiet On the Western Front opens with a group of idealistic German schoolboys who are swayed by their zealous professor into believing their participation in the war will result in glory for "the Fatherland". Their enthusiasm swells, until the boys rise from their seats and march out of the classroom in a crescendo of noise. Their optimistic perceptions change, however, when they are beaten down to size by their unflinching drill sergeant Himmelstoss (John Wray), and living conditions become unbearable on the battlefield. With no food, swarming rats, constant gunfire surrounding them night and day and never any place to sleep, morale quickly dissipates.
It is here that Sergeant Katczinsky (Louis Wolheim) enters. A soldier who has seen his share of fresh-faced youths come and go, "Kat" becomes a leader and mentor for the boys in desparate need of a crash course in survival. Kat teaches them how to stay out of the line of fire, including identifying which sounds are safe and which of them spell certain danger. After several characters are confusingly introduced, it becomes clear that Paul Baumer (Lew Ayres) is meant to be one of the principals. He ends up trapped in a foxhole with a dying Frenchman (the enemy) and in the process finds himself apologizing profusely, in the film's most electrifying scene.
With a movie like All Quiet on the Western Front, I found some of the visuals unforgettable and haunting. There are some passages that will stay with me, as when the camera pings off the German soldiers one by one, when the aforementioned Frenchman dies, when Paul and Kat find themselves running for cover from an aerial attack, and when Paul reaches for an innocent butterfly during the film's most famous image. Innovative techniques appear throughout and are used with arresting efficacy. It is an epic undertaking on a number of levels.
Unfortunately, the pace is uneven and often the movie meanders, as when some of the soldiers decide to take some unauthorized leave with a bevy of French girls or when the troops engage in redundant conversation that reflects directly on the misery of their current circumstances. And while some of the dialogue is superfluous, in other parts it is very hard to decipher, given how new the advent of sound in pictures was up to that point. There would be an added value in watching it on DVD with the subtitles option on (I didn't have the luxury of closed captioning on the VHS copy I rented from the library).
Even taking into account the era when it was released, few of the performances are up-to-snuff, although Ayres and Wolheim are the most natural of the bunch. The uneven cast would not matter so much if the script, penned by the trio of Maxwell Anderson, George Abbott, Del Andrews, had allowed for the characters to be more uniquely distinct. All the same, there is nevertheless much to praise about All Quiet On the Western Front, a work which has clearly influenced many war movies to come. Despite having been made before the Second World War, there are times when it is almost prophetic in its depiction of a Nazi-esque culture. And given the current climate of the world in 2003, many of its messages, symbols, and themes are certainly still à propos -- and able to have a profound impact -- almost 75 years later.
