ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT

Oh No! I hear you cry. Surely not. That wonderful literary classic turned into some Hollywood war-flick? A follow up to The Hurt Locker maybe? Whatever next… Well I’m pretty sure there are a few such re-makes although I cannot name them off the top of my head. And (I hang my head in shame) I haven’t actually read the book either. Something I must correct incidentally. However, what I did come across was an absolute classic of a re-make. Filmed in (wait for it) 1928; this little gem (as I often seem to call films I like but I don’t mean to repeat myself he, he) actually won an Oscar® in the 1929-1930 Oscars®.
Now, before I get stuck into it, a warning to all you viewers: this one is kinda for cinephiles only. The fact that it was actually filmed in 1928 should give you a good idea as to why. Black and white (it is re-mastered but we are the generation of 3D and CGI, you don’t think it’ll feel much different but believe me, it will if you’re under a certain age). NO special effects. Rather stuffy acting with slightly over-done facial expressions (a remnant of the age were Movies were not Talkies yet. Facial expressions were all they had to express themselves with). Very slow editing and bad connections from one scene to the next; and that makes the storyline a touch hard to follow if you haven’t read the book. Almost two hours long. I mean, make your own mind up but I personally might not have gone through with it, if I hadn’t seen it of more of an intellectual challenge and learning curve. In short, a fascinating period piece – but not for “general consumption.
Well, I guess we all know the story. It is the story of a class of boys, who at 18, are “carried away” by their teachers patriotic speech and enlist “en masse”. This is the First World War. And the unsuspecting boys – along with us the viewers – are subjected to the true horrors of the trench wars…
This is possibly one of the best anti-war films ever made. As you can see it doesn’t have much of a “storyline” per se, it is one of a now almost dead breed; films made exclusively to put a message across. And in this case, the message is the horrors of war. And if you can get passed the fact of how alien it feels on a purely technical basis and get stuck in the story, you will be truly moved. You will, as you voyage with the class see everything, from a young soldiers’ first kill and the trauma thereof, to field hospitals; from the rats in the trenches, to the absolutely impossible task of finding food every day. And when you use a little imagination to think that these were the actual conditions under which wars were fought, you would have to have a heart of stone not to be moved or even seriously upset. (Let me put it this way: my mother, who had read the book and criticized the film for “jumping around” and not sticking to or explaining the chronology of events in great detail was so distressed by it she couldn’t actually watch it to the end). And of course, it gives one the chance to reflect on the state of the world today and the shameful distance we all are from living peacefully together as a planet… But I guess that’s a topic for a different blog…