1930 - War! What Is It Good For? Winning an Oscar!

Well so far almost 65% of the Academy Award Winning Films are about war....okay it is only the third year, but still.

Based on a 1929 novel by German author Erich Maria Remarque, "All Quiet On the Western Front", takes us behind enemy lines and portrays the horrors of World War I from the perspective of German soldiers.

We follow a group of school comrades who, after an impassioned speech from their professor soon become comrades in war. Their enthusiasm and passion to defend the Fatherland, however, quickly dissolves into fear and disillusionment when they reach the Western Front. With little food to sustain them, their friends dying around them and under constant attack, one by one the soldiers succumb to the horrors of war.

One of the original enthusiastic recruits, Paul, played by Lew Ayres, manages to return home on furlough after being injured, only to find that he no longer belongs among the many old men who still praise the "glory of war" and sit and argue over their beer steins on how the war should be battled. Discouraged he returns to the only life he seems to understand. The film ends poetically as Paul is shot while reaching for a butterfly, a brief reminder of home and his sisters butterfly collection.

The film was praised in the US. Variety Magazine wrote of the film "The League of Nations could make no better investment than to buy up the master-print, reproduce it in every language, to be shown in all the nations until the word "war" is taken out of the dictionaries."

Stephen Spielberg even credits Lewis Milestone's work as partial inspiration for Saving Private Ryan.

One group, however, that was not pleased with the film, was the Nazi Party. Perceived to be anti-war and anti-German, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party banned the film from being seen in the 1930's and early 1940's, going to great lengths to insure that audiences would not see this film including releasing rats into the theatres as the movie ran.

An interesting point, among the many actors and extras, were actual German veterans of WWI who were, at the time, residing in the US.

And now to our commentary.....

Cin: Little known fact is that they're rumoured to be doing a remake for August 2011
Nic: Weird, considering I have never heard of this movie and yet just last week it was on tv like super late.
Nic: So, the parts you were awake for.....whaddya think?
Cin: *sigh* I feel like I just lived through World War One, battling my eyelids, suppressing my snore and containing my dribble
Nic: So, didn't grab ya?
Cin: It was an interesting premise. it was just very slow moving for me
Nic: Yeah so far all of these movies seem to be that way
Cin: Well they didn't have all the fancy technical gadgets that we have today although I did like the battle scenes. I thought they were quite horrifying and stark, not glamorized like we do nowadays.
Nic: So how do you mean "gadgets we have these days"? How would that make a difference to the speed of the plot?
Cin: Special effects, fancy editing, sound tracks, that's a lot of what draws us in now and moves things faster.
Nic: I don't know, I find that today we are over stimulated in all visual areas that we need scenes to move quickly and plots to advance to keep our attention. You did point out the sound track factor. A friend had mentioned that that was one of the things that stood out to her about this film, that there was no music. I often imagined how much more sentimental and less, as you said, stark and horrifying the scenes would have been with the presence of a manipulative string section as it were.
Cin: mmm.mmm
Nic: One thing I thought was interesting was this year's oscar winner - Hurt Locker - takes place during the war with the main...
Cin: First World War?
Nic: Iraq war...I think...umm with the main character returning home for a brief stint and realizing that he no longer belongs in that normal life and returns to the war where he finds belonging much like our main character in this film.
Nic:.........
Cin: Are you waiting for me to say something?
Nic: Well you don't have to
Cin: It is food for thought. How do you come back after living in hell and being asked to do things that no human being should be asked to do?
Nic. Interesting that so many films are based on the theme of war
Cin: Well look on a America, it's been formed on war and battle
Nic: Which is also interesting considering this film, which is based on novel by a German writer, is actually taking the perspective of the German soldiers
Cin: but yet was banned by Nazi Germany
Nic: Well of course it's an anti war message although....
Cin: Is it an anti war message or a realistic portrayal? I didn't see it as anti war but I could see how anything that wasn't pro war could be seen as anti war propaganda. I could see how this would push the buttons
Nic: It did feature several conversations about the purpose of why they were there. Messages we hear from war protestors throughout history - why are we fighting? who are we fighting for? we're fighting the wars of kings but on the battlefield we are killing other human beings that could otherwise be our friends
Cin: Yeah, there were some great quotes "at the end of the day, war is just war"
Nic: I liked the guy who said "when there's a big war comin' on, they should rope of a big field and on the big day and take all king's and all their cabinets and all their generals, put 'em in the centre dressed in their underpants and let em' fight it out. The best country wins"
Cin: It will be interesting to see an updated version of it
Nic : A whole lot more blood and more flying limbs and disemboweled soldiers
Cin: You know what's funny? You don't need that. This isn't what this film is missing
Nic: It almost diminishes the impact I think the way everything is so...spelled out, would you say? Visualized out?
Cin: The best part was that they focused on the reaction of the soldiers to the violence as opposed to the violence itself. I just wish the acting technique was a little better.
Nic: I really liked the Katczinsky guy (played by Louis Wolheim) I thought he was really good..... You awake?
Cin: ......yeah
Nic: So Oscar worthy?
Cin: Oh yeah, definitely a big film for it's time I just wish I could have stayed awake for the whole thing
Nic: Based on what?
Cin: Themes, directorily, had some really good stuff, even the immensity of the production, the explosions. Like that one shot when they showed the enemy being shot down as they ran towards the bunkers. That had to be really difficult to do. It was quite impactful, how they just keep coming
Nic: Apparently that scene pioneered the use of a swooping crane shot
Cin: Yeah you could tell that that was something
Nic: I definitely appreciate that the plot was far more involved, I felt, than the previous films which earns my "You're so right Oscar, I totally like this one too".....so you're off?
Cin: yeah
Nic: yeah, I'm off to the ultimate field, until the next film, which is?
Cin: Cimarron
Nic: Ooo what's that aboot?
Cin: Something to do with ethnicities...
Nic .......okay


*If you wanted to check this film out, it's available for purchase or rent on Itunes! Take a look and let us know what you think!