All Quiet on the Western Front Film Review

All quiet on the western (1930) front is an Americanised war film based on the book of the same name, by Erich Maria Remarque. The film follows the lives right through to the deaths of many of the school boys from the first scene.  The film starts at a German high school, where the teacher is encouraging his class to enlist for the army by giving a speech about the glory for fighting in the army. The boys are all enthusiastic to start off with; being a part of the army would mean different things to each of them.

I like the scene where the son shows his mum his uniform. She gets upset and orders him to take it off; when his dad sees him he is overcome with pride. To me this reflects that the men didn’t really look at war seriously, they saw it as something they could boast about and enjoy, the women could see the dangerous side of it.

The war appeals to each of the boys for a different reason but they all decide to join. They think the war will be easy as they didn’t think it would last very long. In the scene where they all first arrive at the training camp, you can see clearly that they are not taking it seriously, they are running around trying to carry all their equipment in their arms when all the soldiers are marching in lines with their kit on their backs. They are also proud of their new titles and like to use them whenever they can. When the men are walking, one of them jokingly says to the other ‘keep in line there soldier’ he replies ‘anything you say general’. This is the light hearted part of the war that they are enjoying and what they expected, but from then on things got tougher.
They are really eager to join the frontline, but when their training starts they start to see that it’s not what they thought it would be. Before they know it they are on the frontline.

This film is quite realistic and a disturbing account of what the war would actually be like. I like the scene in the village, they are focused in on what is supposed to be happening but you get to see the devastation and the effect that the war is having on the lives of everyday people. The aspect of realism is highlighted by the fact that there is no music. In parts such as the battle scene this is very effective as you can just hear the gunfire and the explosions of bombs and grenades in the background.

The scene where everyone is in the bunker in the trenches is symbolic. The room is infested with rats; so many that the soldiers start to beat them with a spade. These soldiers, by this scene are starting to show signs of the stress the war is causing. Uncontrollable shaking, nightmares and screaming about the relentless bombs are just some of the symptoms. One of the soldiers loses control and runs out the bunker and is injured. 

I like the story of the boots that progresses with the story, at the beginning Kemmerich is telling them about his new boots and they are all jealous. He is injured and they go to visit him in the hospital and they discover that he has had his right leg amputated. Kemmerich doesn’t know and complains about a pain in his right foot, they tell him what has happened and he gets upset. They disrespectfully go on to say that he won’t need his boots anymore, now he only has one foot. They try to get the attention of the doctor to help ease Kemmerich’s pain; the doctor just says there is nothing he can do about it.  Mueller takes the boots from Kemmerich and then he dies. The boots are passed on, he dies and the boots are passed on again. I believe it is very representative view of the way that soldiers are seen, insignificant within the masses of soldiers that are dying for their country, you can just move from one to the next.

I like the way that there are a lot of camera shots from behind windows. This maybe represents the scared feeling that the civilians would be feeling. They would be hiding inside looking out of their windows to see what was happening outside, not really knowing what’s going on.  This use of camera angle also makes the film more realistic, you feel as if you were actually there; more because this is the angle you would actually see what is happening in person.

I like the ending where one of the surviving soldiers from the original group of school children goes back to his school and gives a talk on his experiences of the war. His teacher is expecting it to be an enthusiastic account of heroic events and excitement, but what he hears is the opposite. All of what the soldier is saying is tinged with regret and sadness.

Overall, I thought this film was useful  for researching props and scenery as it was set in more working class locations, such as the village, the people didn’t come from such luxurious environments, it was more make do and mend and pass on.