SHH!

All Quiet on the Western Front

Day 51

Film 41

Directed by: Lewis Milestone

Written by: Erich Maria Remarque (Novel)

Walking into this film I thought it would be like a bad John Wayne war flick, filled with American pride. I was very wrong on this, because it is far from a pro war movie, it was the first big budget anti war movie and what it does to World War One is make transform it from a gaudy glamourous war into the shit hole it was.

This film attacks war from every concievable level, going so far as to make the Germans portrayed and make them speak like good old American boys. This makes the horror that the characters experience hit the Americans head on. It also creates a universal look at the war from every angle. It is spectacular film making.

All Quiet on the Western Front is such a complex piece of cinema I can only scratch the surface of it. Watch it, think about it, then get back to me.