All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
Average Rating: 8.8/10
Reviews Counted: 36
Fresh: 35 | Rotten: 1
Director Lewis Milestone's brilliant anti-war polemic, headlined by an unforgettable performance from Lew Ayres, lays bare the tragic foolishness at the heart of war.
Average Rating: 8.1/10
Critic Reviews: 7
Fresh: 7 | Rotten: 0
Director Lewis Milestone's brilliant anti-war polemic, headlined by an unforgettable performance from Lew Ayres, lays bare the tragic foolishness at the heart of war.
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Average Rating: 3.9/5
User Ratings: 16,917
Movie Info
One of the most powerful anti-war statements ever put on film, this gut-wrenching story concerns a group of friends who join the Army during World War I and are assigned to the Western Front, where their fiery patriotism is quickly turned to horror and misery by the harsh realities of combat. Director Lewis Milestone pioneered the use of the sweeping crane shot to capture a ghastly battlefield panorama of death and mud, and the cast, led by Lew Ayres, is terrific. It's hard to pick a favorite
Aug 24, 1930 Wide
Jan 5, 1999
MCA Universal Home Video
Watch It Now
Cast
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Lew Ayres
Paul Baumer -
Louis Wolheim
Katczinsky -
John Wray
Himmelstoss -
Raymond Griffith
Gerard Duval -
George "Slim" Summer...
Tjaden -
William Bakewell
Albert -
Russell Gleason
Muller -
Scott Kolk
Leer -
Walter Browne Rogers
Behm -
Ben Alexander
Kemmerick -
Owen Davis Jr.
Peter -
Harold Goodwin
Detering -
G. Pat Collins
Lieutenant Bertinck,... -
Richard Alexander
Westhus -
Arnold Lucy
Professor Kantorek -
Edmund Breese
Herr Mayer -
Bill Irving
Ginger -
Marion Clayton
Miss Baumer -
Beryl Mercer
Mrs. Baumer -
Edwin Maxwell
Mr. Baumer -
Yola d'Avril
Suzanne -
Bertha Mann
Sister Libertine -
Joan Marsh
Poster Girl -
Vince Barnett
Cook -
-
Charles "Heinie" Con...
Hammacher -
Tom London
Orderly -
Zasu Pitts
(silent version) -
-
Fred Zinnemann
Man -
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All Critics (36) | Top Critics (7) | Fresh (35) | Rotten (1) | DVD (8)
The despair-and the artistry-is breathtaking.
From such grisly materials the popular cinema is rarely drawn. The film is monumental in the courage that risked its manufacture.
Top CriticA harrowing, gruesome, morbid tale of war.
Deserves its reputation as a classic.
The film's strength now derives less from its admittedly powerful but highly simplistic utterances about war as waste, than from a generally excellent set of performances (Ayres especially) and an almost total reluctance to follow normal plot structure.
Messrs. Milestone, Abbott and Anderson in this film have contributed a memorable piece of work to the screen.
The production values are incredibly high and not just for the time. And as the movie has aged and the film has gone grainier and the flickers increased, it almost adds to the effect.
[A] fascinating, innovative early talkie.
The rawness of the audio eradicates any lingering notion that war is romantic or exciting, and at times suggests the very battered eardrums of those engaged in combat.
Took an opportunity to question warfare and its civility long before the war protest film became popular in the 70s. It's dated, obviously, but still powerful.
A movie of timeless relevance and effects. Lew Ayres would never again equal his performance in this film version of the well-known anti-war novel.
Despite a little dating around the edges this is a truly superb example of its genre and a cinema classic.
A a film that remains one of the most powerful screen comments on the horrors of war.
The film made Ayres a star.
...a bitter indictment of the insulated powers that induce naive young men to kill one another.
An ambitious epic of tremendous sweep and scope.
This uncompromising drama makes a bleak statement of war fighting in trenches, stressing the inanity of WWI (or any war) for both sides; perhaps the most memorable moment is the one in which Lew Ayres reaches out for a butterfly to disastrous effect.
There are few war films that can match the brilliance of Lewis Milestone's anti-war classic. It's a feast for the ears with a passionate soul.
Heavy stuff, especially for 1930.
Classic early talkie is still anti-war effective.
A Classic and then some
Audience Reviews for All Quiet on the Western Front
Super Reviewer
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- Paul Baumer: And our bodies are earth. And our thoughts are clay. And we sleep and eat with death.
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July 27, 2011:
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Foreign Titles
- Im Westen nichts Neues (DE)
- All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) (CA)
Starting off much like 'Full Metal Jacket' the film covers a group/class of young German lads ready to join the ranks and fight for their country. From here on we follow them through harsh training and into battle where they very quickly realise the horrors of war, one by one they are killed off as the film becomes more and more tragic, and all this in a 1930's film!
The first thing that must hit you is the amazing look and work put into the film, its incredible!. The realism of the trenches, war torn nomansland, the uniforms for both sides and the brilliant special effects, mainly revolving around some pretty big explosions near actors, are all superbly created. By today's standards everything still looks good whilst the black and white only helps the film look more realistic. The film could easily be the 'Saving Private Ryan' of its day, its almost as good as real footage.
Of course the actors are of a different age so one can expect performances without the type of 'grit' that we are used to today. Some scenes are almost slightly pantomime with some slightly funny moments of comedy and slapstick which lighten the mood (mainly at the start before the characters enter the war) but we all know moments like this add to the charm of old films.
Make no mistake though this film is a history lesson and seeing as it was made about 12years after WW1 actually ended its amazing people watched, especially as it followed the Central Powers. Being so close to the war is obviously why its so accurate, the harrowing sequences of men being mown down by machine gun fire, one after another without a chance, the screams of the young troops as they go crazy from the constant shelling, the mud, barren landscapes, bodies, barbwire and of course the famous bleak depressing ending for the main lead, nailing home how cheap life was.
I think the main point in the film is how the main lead 'Paul Baumer' starts off, like his friends, as a patriot young German wanting to go off and fight for his country, pushed onwards and practically lied to by his school teacher 'Professor Kantorek' into 'doing whats right', to 'save the Fatherland'. 'Baumer' then returns to his home town towards the end of the film only to find his school teacher spouting the same nonsense to more young boys, trying to get them to recruit. He is invited in to speak of the glory of war but instead rages how its all lies and there is nothing but misery and death for all who join up. He is shunned by his old teacher and branded a coward by the young boys, so he returns to the front line. Not long after this the film ends with his pointless needless death.