All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
directed by
written by
Maxwell Anderson (adaptation & dialogue)
George Abbott (screenplay)
Del Andrews (adaptation)
It was only a few years ago that I learned All Quiet on the Western Front author Eric Maria Remarque only spent six weeks on the front before being wounded and invalided out of service. The result was one of the most well-known anti-war novels. On the other hand, Ernst Junger spent years four years at the front, was wounded seven times, and from his diaries wrote Storm of Steel. While not exactly pro-war, it's about as near as any book I've ever read has come. It's a fascinating contrast and I recommend both books completely.
I never saw this movie in my younger years, coming to it only as an adult and after I'd seen its lead, Lew Ayres, in Holiday. That's a Cary Grant-Katherine Hepburn predecessor to The Philadelphia Story and Ayres is very funny and absolutely heartbreaking. When I learned he was in All Quiet as the lead, Paul Bäumer, I tracked it down. I'm glad I did; dated as it is in some parts, it's a gripping and emotionally effecting epic. The production involved thousands of extras, many of whom were WW I veterans, hundreds of acres were used to recreate the Western Front trenches, and tons of explosives were used. The battle scenes are amazing, all these years later. The film's greatest power lies in those huge scenes, but also in several more intimate battlefield scenes; the wounded French soldier in the shell-hole and Bäumer's reunion with Katczinsky especially.
Ayres is fine if a little too indistinguishable from some of the other young actors in the cast. Much of the script is overwrought and a little too stagey, but there's real power there. His confrontations with teach and then the old men of his town while on leave are great. In his interactions with his fellow company members, there's a believable sense of camaraderie.
The best cast member is Louis Wolheim as Katczinsky. Thickset, with a broken nose, he exudes incredible power and charisma in every one of his too few moments on the screen. I don't think I've seen him in anything else before, but this viewing of All Quiet has convinced me I need to track down some of his other movies.
Years ago, I was trying to put together a collection of the best war movies. Many of them haven't held up well - I'm thinking of The Big Red One, a movie we couldn't finish the other night - but this one does.
verdict: a keeper
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| Lew Ayres and Lewis Wolheim |
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