All Quiet on the Western Front
Unlike most "message" films which date themselves almost immediately, Lewis Milestone's low-key, unpolished and deeply-felt screen adaptation of the Erich Maria Remarque anti-war novel has lost little of its original impact. Years after its release it was still being banned in countries mobilizing for war. The plot follows a troup of young German recruits in World War I through their passage from idealism to disillusionment. As the central character Paul Baumer (Lew Ayres) declares, "We live in the trenchs and we fight. We try not to be killed – that's all." All Quiet is an anthology of now famous scenes: Ayres trapped in a shell crater with a man he has killed; the first meeting of the recruits and the veterans; infantrymen being mowed down to machine-gun visual rhythms; a moonlight swim with French farm girls; Ayres' pacifist speech to his astonished schoolmates; and the final shot of the soldier's hand reaching for a fatal butterfly.
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Movie Data |
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Cast |
Lew Ayres, Louis Wolfheim, John Wray, Slim Summerville, William Bakewell |
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Genre |
Drama |
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Language |
English |
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Running Time |
130 min / B&W |
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Rated |
NR |
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Year and Screen |
1931 (Full Frame/1.33:1) |
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Quality
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DVD
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- 6,768,000Kb
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Quantity: |
DL (2), SL (2), wmv, dm (L) |