All Quiet on the Western Front Free
- Genres: Drama, War
- Rating IMDb: 80
- Year: 1930
- Duration: 2:32
Summaries
A young soldier faces profound disillusionment in the soul-destroying horror of World War I.
This is an English language film (made in America) adapted from a novel by German author Erich Maria Remarque. The film follows a group of German schoolboys, talked into enlisting at the beginning of World War 1 by their jingoistic teacher. The story is told entirely through the experiences of the young German recruits and highlights the tragedy of war through the eyes of individuals. As the boys witness death and mutilation all around them, any preconceptions about "the enemy" and the "rights and wrongs" of the conflict disappear, leaving them angry and bewildered. This is highlighted in the scene where Paul mortally wounds a French soldier and then weeps bitterly as he fights to save his life while trapped in a shell crater with the body. The film is not about heroism but about drudgery and futility and the gulf between the concept of war and the actuality.
With the onset of World War I, a group of students are egged on by their teacher and enlist in the German army. As seems to be the case with all wars, the young men march off in the belief that the war will be a short one and they will all soon be home, basking in the glory of victory and treated as heroes. Reality begins to set in at the training depot where their one-time amiable local postman is now their demanding training instructor. Soon shipped to the front, they face the daily challenge of surviving trench warfare and killing on a scale that they could never have imagined. All become disillusioned with their once great cause and many suffer from shell shock, severe wounds or simply are killed. One of them, Paul, manages to survive for several years at the front. After some leave at home after being wounded, he is dismayed to find that little has changed and his old professor is still encouraging his students to bask in the glories of war. Paul returns to the front for the last time.
World War 1 and a young German, Paul Baumer, enthusiastically joins the Army. With romantic notions of war and idealistic dreams in his head he undergoes training and then is sent off to the Western Front. In due course the romantic notions are replaced by the harsh reality of war and he becomes disillusioned with it all.
