2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Among the Top 5 War Movies Ever!, December 18, 2006
This review is from: All Quiet On The Western Front - Contains Restored Footage (DVD)
This is one heck of a war movie with very touching scenes that transcend time. Shot in 1930 in B/W, the emotions and dramatisations of human nature depicted through excellent acting nevertheless remains timeless. We get scene after scene of memorable moments and we get gruesome war scenes akin to those seen on "Saving Private Ryan". During the scene of Paul Baumer's first defense of an allied attack, we see a soldier blown to bits with just his hands hanging onto the barbed wire remaining. The extras were all actual veterans of the Great War and it certainly showed in their very realistic portrayals of the battle scenes. As I don't want to spoil it for those of you who have not yet seen this movie, I'm not going to describe the rest of the best scenes in detail but other than the heart-wrenching brilliant ending "butterfly" scene, you have to catch the early professor "recruiting" scene, all the "Himmelstoss" scenes, the "Duval" scene, "french farm" scene, the "home leave" scene and the "Kat" scene. If this isn't the best anti-war movie ever, it surely comes close and ironically slightly less than a decade later saw the advent of WWII. I guess people never learn from history and apparently also not from a brilliant movie. As for the disc itself, the sound comes in Dolby Digital but only 2.0 Mono quality and despite attempts at restoration, the picture quality is average to begin with but steadily gets worse towards the end. The sound quality also gets progressively worse and a very noticeable hiss becomes apparent towards the end of the movie all due to a heavily deteriorated master tape. However, I note that a newer version with remastered sound has been advertised to be released very soon although I wonder if we can expect any improvement in video quality as well. Overall, this gets 4 stars only because of the less than perfect video and sound quality as well as the very limited Special Features (just the Theatrical Trailer and some production and casting notes)but otherwise, this is one of the best movies of all time and is a must see for any film buff. Recommended.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
In-depth look war and peoples attitudes., January 6, 2007
This review is from: All Quiet On The Western Front - Contains Restored Footage (DVD)
The country is at war and Paul Bäumer (Lew Ayres) is in school. His instructor is proud that he is volunteering to protect his country. He and his classmates are off on an adventure. This adventure will challenge the way they look at life and in the process change our life outlook.
On the surface this looks like a pacifist or anti war movie. One may think this has something to do with an enemy's view of war. Also there is a tendency pick the film apart because it is not the book.
In reality this story is more of a, don't get over zealous movie. At least don't let some one mesmerize you. It even happened in a contemporary film "Private Benjamin" (1980). She was promised the army with the private condos. Again we see the zealous ones in "Starship Troopers" (1997) where the movie shows the romantic side of war.
As far as the rating it is ridicules to compare a movie that has to pass censors and only has 130 minutes with the book. Naturally the book is going to be more thorough and descriptive. What we can compare it to is the original movie "Westfront 1918" (1930) directed by George Wilhelm Pabst (1885-1967) and "All Quiet on the Western Front" (1979). Check them all out including the audiocassette of the book.
The points are made much clearer in "Westfront 1918" even though is shorter it is the 5 star movie. Especially when we return to the schoolroom to see the teacher inspiring the next generation of students to become soldiers. "All Quiet on the Western Front" (1930) however is easier to understand then "West Front". You can spend more time in the message and less on the translation from German. In either film the actual down time (between actions) drove me crazy as I remembered the time that we were not fighting or planning something in Viet Nam was when I got antsy. The 1979 movie is a boring TV type movie with "Johnboy" Richard Thomas, playing the part of Paul Baumer. The only good part is when he got shot.
The film was shot in black and white but is still pretty graphic. It deserves to be seen on a big screen. At one point they also sing "Watch on the Rein."
"Im Western Nichts Neues" By Remarque: "He fell in October 1918, on a day that was so quiet and still on the whole front, that the army report confined itself to the single sentence: All quiet on the western Front."
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