Classic Movie Monday: All Quiet on the Western Front

Note: Yes I know this is late. My Bad. I am allowed to slip every now and again. But get ready, you're in for a long one...

Welcome to Classic Movie Monday. Every Monday, I watch a film at least 25 years old that I have never seen before. I will then write my comments on the film, telling you what I thought of it. This is an attempt to beef up my classic film knowledge as well as highlight some forgotten gems of Hollywood's heyday. So without further ado...

All Quiet on the Western Front
Released: April 21, 1930
Directed by: Lewis Milestone
Starring: Louis Wolheim, Lew Ayres, & William Bakewell

Plot in a Nutshell:
A group of young Germans enlist in the Army to fight for the Fatherland during WWI Europe. What they thought was going to be a heroic and fun adventure, turns into a hard battle for both their country and for their very sanity.

What I thought:
What a strong, powerful, film this turned out to be. I walked into this not knowing quite what to expect. It is the earliest war film I have ever seen. It has the very interesting distinction of being made at a fragile time before WWII, so I find its themes to be incredibly fascinating.

The story is very simple. It is like a hundred other "boys go to war and become men on the battlefield." It is so effective, because it begins with a group of 20 or so young men, but throughout the film, not all of them make it. The impact on the survivors is just as real as it is on the dead and dying. War scars the hell out of you. This film is an attempt to show people the damage war can reek on the young men who fight them. I think it succeeds admirably as an anti war film. I can't imagine anybody watching this and thinking, "Man, that looks like fun!" Obviously people didn't get that out of this movie at the time, because shortly after it's release WWII began to churn up. An interesting note is that it was banned in Germany during the rise of the Nazis. And the book it was based on was one of the many that were burned during those awful years.

The absolute first thing I discovered about this film was that it is very unlike the traditional war films I am familiar with from the 50s and on. This film was made with the intent to show the gritty awfulness of combat. Every battle scene plays like a real battle could. Endless shells detonating across the battle field, men getting shot left and right, chaos erupting in the trenches when the enemy charges. It is done so well, and so effectively, that I wonder what the hell happened over the course of the next 30 years after this film's release.

Thankfully missing from All Quiet on the Western Front, are the selfless single entities of heroism The John Waynes; the character that is so above the real story that it ceases to become reality and becomes Hollywood fakery. The sugar-coated digestibility that many war films seemed to be about in the 50s and 60s, is completely gone here. I think a large part of that is that after WWII, people were more sensitive to violence. People wanted to see "Heroes." They wanted to see combat, but not be appalled, but be excited. This film is brave in that it doesn't hold your hand. Doesn't cover up the atrocities of war. It puts them out there. And it is made all the more impressive considering the film was made in 1930. Absolutely incredible filmmaking.

I want to single out the cinematography (I know I love to). Black and White films are a big bag of mix for me. Sometimes they are done so poorly. I think of the many dozen I have seen, very few have been what I would call impressive in cinematography. The lighting and the sets never seem to gel together, and instead you get a washy blended mess.

I love high contrast black and white imagery. I love it even more when a film captures Black and white the way I feel it should be done. All Quiet on the Western Front's black and white photography is astounding. But more than just the look, it is equally impressive in the camera placements and moves. Throughout the course of the film I saw many amazing shots and sequences that simply took my breath away.

Some shots were incredibly simple, a shot looking up to see the oncoming enemy silhouetted and jumping into the trench, bayonet at the ready. Others were more complex, a camera move through the battle field, following soldiers as they try to dodge incoming shells. The amazing thing about that shot was the shear amount of stuff going on in frame. It's the kind of stuff that inspired Spielberg to make his battle sequences in Saving Private Ryan so relentless, All Quiet on the Western Front did it 70 years prior.

At one point in the film, one of the characters gets pinned down in a shelled out hole. The enemy advances and dozens of troops jump over him not realizing he is there. One French man sees him, jumps down and attacks. The frightened German does what he can and manages to stab him with a bayonet. Unfortunately for the German the wound isn't enough to kill the Frenchman. What occurs over the next few minutes of screen time, was one of the most painful experiences I can imagine someone having during battle. The enemy is there, dying, incapacitated, only a few feet away. You feel absolute empathy for him. After all it is kill or be killed, as the German tries to explain to the dying man. He struggles to keep his grip, but can't. He begins to weep for the Frenchman, and he slowly dies. Afterward, the German is looking in his pockets for a note, and discovers a portrait of the man's family.

This moment I have just described has been done in countless movies since this, but never have I felt so intensely for this poor man's morality. Scenes like this elevate a film to a much higher plane than simply entertainment. The little moments of extraordinary simplicity but unimaginable depth of complexity are why I love film more than any other medium in existence.

This is an absolute tour de force of filmmaking mastery. Everything about it exudes grandeur. I was astonished at the techniques on display. And not only is it an achievement of filmmaking, but the themes it presents of futility in war, and death of innocence are incredibly powerful. This is an absolute must see film. Don't let the age fool you, this is one intense, grand, masterpiece of cinema that has to be seen.

Bottom Line:
An immensely impressive war film that stops at nothing to get the point across; War is hell.

A

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