War - where boys become men: All Quiet on the Western Front

5/27/13, All Quiet on the Western Front, Best Production, Best Director, 1930

On Memorial Day this year it seemed appropriate to watch a war movie that in its essence is an anti-war movie. All Quiet on the Western Front was based on the book of the same name by Erich Maria Remarque. The movie was made twelve years after the 'war to end all wars' and is told from the German point of view, although aside from occasional bits of German songs, the soldiers could be from either side, which I think lends to its universal tone. The movie begins in a high school classroom with the teacher exalting the virtues and glory of joining the army to fight for the Fatherland. As often happens, the promised glory and  triumph prove to be elusive and mostly fantasy. But that's for later. A few of the classmates join up together and start on their adventure, going through drills with a ghastly drill sergeant, eventually being sent to France. The shine starts to come off the penny when they get to their company and there is no food. The story follows the boys as they fight in the trenches, watch their friends get wounded and killed. One of the soldiers, Paul Baumer, goes home on leave after being wounded, and feels like a stranger. His father and his father's friends (who possibly saw military service but no war action) are busy trying to plan out the next moves for the army, take Paris, take Flanders, etc., like they were playing a game of Risk, while Paul sits there, incredulous, that they are so excited about more war. In the film, Paul does not share his wounds or what he has seen with his family. He revisits his old school and his former teacher who welcomes him back like a hero; this same teacher influenced Paul and his friends to join the war and he continues to espouse his pro-war feelings to his students. He asks Paul to tell them how wonderful it is, but Paul cannot. For his honesty, he is looked on as a coward; he decides to end his leave early and return to his brothers in arms.  Paul returns to his company to find new, green recruits who have nothing to eat but sawdust. Based on the timeline I could put together from some of the things said, it's around 1917/1918, the war is almost at its end in the film (it's mentioned that Paul has served four years and enlisted in the early days).

The movie was made 83 years ago, but I think it holds up pretty well, sure sometimes the acting is a little wooden, and if it was made today, it probably would have been a lot more bloody and explicit, but it conveys a pretty timeless message through the eyes and experience of Paul Baumer. It won for Best Production (pre-Best Picture) and Best Director, and it was before many of the current categories existed (supporting actor, editing, effects, etc.), but I was surprised that Lew Ayres who played Baumer and Louis Wolheim who played Paul's mentor and friend, Katczinsky, weren't nominated; I thought Wolheim really deserved to be considered.

World War I, with its trench warfare tactics, gassing (although not shown in this movie) and the new technology known as the airplane, and the millions of soldiers (not to mention civilians) who were killed, influenced everything from literature, medicine and societal norms.