All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

Part of the Real World War 1
Director: | Lewis Milestone |
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Certificate: | BBFC 15 |
Length: | |
Format: | DVD |
Language: | English/French/German/Latin |
Country: | USA |
This film is adapted from the novel by Erich Maria Remarque. The film follows a group of German schoolboys, talked into enlisting at the beginning of World War 1 by their jingoistic teacher. The story is told entirely through the experiences of the young German recruits and highlights the tragedy of war through the eyes of individuals. As the boys witness death and mutilation all around them, any preconceptions about "the enemy" and the "rights and wrongs" of the conflict disappear, leaving them angry and bewildered. This is highlighted in the scene where Paul mortally wounds a French soldier and then weeps bitterly as he fights to save his life while trapped in a shell crater with the body. The film is not about heroism but about drudgery and futility and the gulf between the concept of war and the actuality.
Other films in the Real World War 1:

29
Film: Oh! What A Lovely War (1969)
29 Jun 2014, 7:30 p.m.
Oh! What a Lovely War redefines the tragedy of World War 1 in bawdy music-hall terms. Of the many fleeting satiric images parading past the camera, one of the most indelible is the sight of several generals playing leapfrog as the world all around them goes to hell.

13
Film: La Grande Illusion (1937)
13 Jul 2014, 7:30 p.m.
Renoir's classic is not a movie about a prison escape, nor is it jingoistic in its politics; it's a meditation on the collapse of the old order of European civilization.

27
Film: Csillagosok, Katonák (The Red And The White) (1968)
27 Jul 2014, 7:30 p.m.
Csillagosok, katonák deals with the Russian Civil War. Jancsó produces a profoundly anti-heroic film that depicts the senseless brutality of the Russian Civil War specifically and all armed combat in general.

17
Film: Paths Of Glory (1957)
17 Aug 2014, 7:30 p.m.
Shown in place of Uomini Contro :The futility and irony of the war in the trenches in WWI is shown as a unit commander in the French army must deal with the mutiny of his men and a glory-seeking general after part of his force falls back under fire in an impossible attack.

28
Film: Uomini Contro (Many Wars Ago)
28 Sep 2014, 7:30 p.m.
DUE TO UNFORSEEN CIRCUMSTANCES, TONIGHT WE'RE SCREENING the held over Uomini Contro (Many Wars Ago).

15
Film: Gw Pabst Double Bill: Westfront:1918 With Kameradschaft (1930 And 1931)
15 Oct 2014, 7:30 p.m.
Westfront:1918 Vier von der infanterie:(1930) Viewed by many critics as superior to the US made All Quiet on the Western Front of the same year and marking the skilled transition to the new technology of sound by Austrian master film maker GW Pabst. Focussing on the desperate lives of German troops in the trenches it also casts light on the degradations faced by their families the last months of the war. Kameradschaft: 1931 drama directed by Austrian director G. W. Pabst. A plea against war and for friendship between peoples, told through the story of French miners rescued by German colleagues after a firedamp explosion.
