Brutal Violence In a Plea for Peace

.

.

Few images evoke the horrors of war more so than the vision of bloodied hands clawing desperately at barbed wire in a futile attempt to escape impending death. It's the sort of scene that needs no words to carry its message, operating as it does on a subliterate level with a universal resonance. It's just one of the hauntingly stark scenes that make All Quiet on the Western Front as powerful, and as relevant, now as it was when it was released in 1930.

.

Based on the 1929 bestselling novel by Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front is an unflinching, often brutal look at war's dehumanizing effects on the psyche. It follows a group of German students who enlist in the German Army during World War I. Inspired initially by the romance of glory in the name of the Fatherland, their patriotic fervor slowly crumbles beneath the realities of war. One by one, they fall, until only the protagonist, Paul Baumer (Lew Ayres) remains.

.

The fully restored DVD release, part of the Universal Cinema Classics series, is an essential addition to a serious film library. There aren't any extras here, beyond a brief, (and mostly trivia-laden) introduction by TCM historian Robert Osborne, and a trailer from a reissue release. Chapter selection options are also missing from this release.

.

And perhaps it's just as well. This really isn't a film where scenes can be watched out of context and still be relevant to the larger scope of the story. It would be like trying to read a novel from somewhere in the middle. Virtually every scene in this film links directly to what comes before or after in the story, and can seem insignificant on their own. The ongoing theme of the boots being passed on to one owner after the other is a prime example. They're fine boots throughout, only because their wearers don't live long enough to scuff them overmuch.

.

From a historical perspective alone, All Quiet on the Western Front is a stunning achievement. It was controversial from the outset, with the left hating it because of supposed aspersions it cast upon the civilian populace, and the right, particularly the rising Nazis in Germany, decrying it as propaganda. It was outright banned in many countries, and the studio made several watered down cuts to placate various populaces. Meanwhile, the Variety critic at the time wrote: "It is recommended that the League of Nations should distribute it in every language to be shown every year until the word War shall have been taken out of the dictionaries."

.

Director Lewis Milestone took the Best Director award at the Oscars that year, and the film, not surprisingly garnered the Best Picture Oscar at the 1930 ceremony, giving Universal Studios its first Oscar nod. Even today, it remains a crowning achievement in cinema, technically, visually and its unquavering devotion to its message.

.

Given the current global situation, All Quiet on the Western Front may well be the singlemost important film ever made. It plunges deeply into the very heart of the facelessness of war, and pulls from it the face of humanity.