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January 19, 2005
All Quiet on the Western Front
The older the film, the more you have to prepare your mind to enjoy it. For example, if I'm about to watch an old German silent film, I have to turn on intellectual mode and make a lot of excuses for the unavoidable shortcomings due to its infant place in the evolution of film. What is wonderful about All Quiet on the Western Front is that little of that need be done. It is an absolutely brilliant, beautiful, revolutionary film from start to finish.
It blows me away that the film was made in 1930. How was this possible? How was such amazing war cinematography even conceived of when the first talkie, The Jazz Singer, had only come out three years prior? The sound track is absolutely amazing, and to listen to it in a full volume surround sound theater would be incredible.
Another rarity is the fact that it openly questions war. Few films of the preceding 1920's did such a thing, and certainly not (to my knowledge) to the scope of All Quiet. The story begins in Germany while a parade for soldiers is underway. Inside a classroom, a teacher instills a sense of rabid patriotism inside his students, who all decide to go out and fight. This is perfectly shot by having huge picture windows behind the teacher as the uproarious parade goes by. The classmates all join, and we focus on them more as a group than on any single person.
At first the war is a bit of a joke. One vignette tells the story of how the cadettes get sick of their seargent, who seems to derive pleasure from seeing them wallow in the mud and run endless training courses. One night, while he is walking home drunk, he is suddenly attacked by the cadettes, who wrap him in a sheet then clobber him (reminiscent of the attack on Gomer Pyle in Full Metal Jacket).
Then they go out on the first night in battle, and as they run through the dark trenches, an explosion occurs, blinding a comrade. The man screams that he's blind, clutching his bleeding eyes and dropping to his knees. Meanwhile, the virgin soldiers simply stare wide-eyed. No one told them about this part.
While the film takes place during World War I, it could certainly be any war (I couldn't help but think of the soldiers currently stationed in Iraq, and how they would view this film). And it also could be any army. I didn't pay much attention at the beginning, and thought it was the British army due to an early credit. When I realized it was the German army, it didn't matter. The only time sides are mentioned is when a few soldiers talk absent-mindedly about why such a war would occur in the first place. Otherwise, they could be British, Americans, Spanish, French - whoever. The participants don't matter, the location doesn't matter. War is war, and war is always the same.
There are numerous moments in this film that come full circle, when a lesser filmmaker would've simply forgotten to grow a seed into fruition. The butterfly sequence is of course pivotal, but so is the transition from general to a man who can't remember his own name. Wonderful stuff.
The cinematography is amazing, especially the stuff during war. When a machine gunner takes out wave after wave of oncoming soldiers, the camera moves through the lines of falling men, then cuts rapidly back and forth to the gunner causing it to happen. Brilliant.
This is, without question, one of the best war films I have ever seen, and that exists. Saving Private Ryan seems like a sappy outing compared to All Quiet. Full Metal Jacket spends too much time on initiation into the war, and not enough on the important part. Ultimately, All Quiet also has scope going for it. Eventually, it is clear that the war will simply continue, with no end in sight. Long after all the students are dead and a new group has replaced them, the fighting will continue.
****/****
(ENTHUSIASTIC four stars out of four stars)
Posted by nick at January 19, 2005 02:29 AM