All Quiet on the Western Front, 1930

All Quiet on the Western Front isnt a bad film, the action sequences are brilliantly filmed and nearing disturbing. For instance, the scene of the waves of French soldiers pouring into the trenches on top of the German soldiers is unbelievably unnerving, but somehow the film lacks the punch of, say, Kubricks “Paths of Glory.” All Quiet on the Western Front is, sadly, little more than a museum piece; a snapshot of the film industry during a time of change.

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This movie is based on the book you read in High School. Yeah... I didn't either. But the film is definitely worth watching. It's hard to believe it was made in 1930 - for several reasons. For one thing, the war itself couldn't have been over for a decade yet when they started making it. That alone is impressive. Furthermore, sound hadn't even been in film for very long, and most war films were more fantasy than reality back then... but not 'All Quiet on the Western Front'. No, this film is a brutally honest portrayal of war. And, despite it's age, seems to ring true today as well. It's a reminder that despite all our technological advances, for the front line infantry, war really hasn't changed much for nearly a century. Some call it an anti-war movie, perhaps it is, but not in the blatant way of, say, Renoir's "Le Grande Illusion". Mostly it's just best described as honest.

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The plot is simple. All Quiet on the Western Front follows a handful of young Germans as they enlist and head to war. It explores how war can change a man as it shows these recruits transforming from young idealists to disillusioned men. They go from eager and anxious to downtrodden, tired, and broken. The film is gritty in a way that really makes the viewer sympathize for the characters. The enemy (the French in this case) is a faceless bombardment of shells with a few exceptions during the charges. When the main characters see the French face to face, it's a horrendous scene of bayonet-stabbing and hand to hand combat. The film is filled with memorable scenes. At one point, the main character is forced to spend the night in a shell crater with a man he just stabbed. Later, German soldiers woo French women to the riverside with bread and sausage. Eventually, the main character makes it home on leave, where he tells the children at school why they shouldn't enlist in a rousing speech. And , of course, there's the famously tragic final scene. All Quiet on the Western Front is old, released in 1930, but it has aged well. Maybe it's because the black and white footage seems almost like a documentary, but I'd guess it's because the movie is so well made. It doesn't date itself like so many other war films. It doesn't try to force its message on the viewer as overtly as other films. It simply chronicles the lives of a few young German soldiers during WWI. The DVD is horrible. It's easily one of the worst DVDs I've ever viewed. Not only is the print in terrible condition, which is to be expected of a 75 year old movie, but the transfer is rife with compression artifacts and pixelation. The contrast was very poor and the detail levels left much to be desired. The audio mix was flat, often distorted, and full of pops and hisses. The dialogue was frequently hard to understand, even in more straight forward scenes with no shelling or explosions.

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