ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (1930) **** The first - and some say best - war film (and film about war - there is a difference) is still the gold standard for showing the perilous hell men face in war with this character-heavy look at the after-effects of a group of gung-ho students who are goaded into enlisting to fight for the fatherland - Germany - without question and tragically paying for it with literally their lives. Based on German writer Erich Maria Ramarque's novel - with six credited screenwriters including future filmmaker George Abbott - and an uncredited Lewis Milestone - the film's director - and winner of Best Director and Best Picture among its four including the aforementioned screenplay adaptation and the beautifully shot cinematography by Arthur Edeson. With a star-making performance of freshly scrubbed, boy- next-door charm and idealism-dashed chutzpah by Lew Ayres as the green recruit whose loss of innocence still stings while his mentor and world-weary mentor Louis Wolheim - terrific - in fact both should've been nominated for their acting - acts as the voice of reason (and doom). For the film vaults: the chilling battle amongst a decrepit graveyard and the penultimate image of beauty being literally destroyed as a shocking symbol of innocence truly crushed. One of the most important anti-war films ever; a must see for every serious film-goer.
Review of All Quiet on the Western Front
