Chris Clegg
Decades ago, 32 Academy Award winners were polled and rated the Top 10 films of all time. Gone With the Wind placed first, Citizen Kane second. I preferred the latter to the former.
But the film I wanted to see most was All Quiet on the Western Front. I watched Turner Classic Movies TV listing for years before – finally! – it was shown about two months ago. Not only the 1930 original starring Lew Ayers, but the 1979 remake starring Richard Thomas. Another version was released in 2022 I have not seen.
All Quiet on the Western Front is billed as the most effective anti-war film ever produced. As World War I begins, seven young Germans enlist with feelings of gallantry and heroism. The film follows each through training and the battlefield where they are sent to fight the French. One by one, each is killed. Each is further demoralized by what is occurring around them. The reality and horrors of war hit home hard. In the 1930 version, the last soldier is killed by a sniper when he reaches out to touch a butterfly from his trench. As he is dying, German army headquarters receives a telegram: “All quiet on the western front.”
The battlefield scenes are described as some of the best ever produced – even today!
In one scene, a German soldier kills a man and goes through his pockets. He finds a photograph of the man’s family and is overcome with grief and remorse. He exclaims they could have been friends under different circumstances.
Ironically, a Star Trek episode (Balance of Terror, 1966) occurs when Captain Kirk fights a Romulan leader. The Romulan leader, shortly before destroying his ship, tells Kirk they also might have been friends under different circumstances.
“You and I are of a kind,” the Romulan leader tells Kirk. “In a different reality, I could have called you friend.”
Star Trek was wise to use the scene from All Quiet on the Western Front it its episode. Its impact is tremendous.
All Quiet on the Western Front depicts the senseless waste of war. The film’s anti-war message was so effective it was banned in Germany after its second showing until 1952 and France did not see it until 1963. The first night it was shown in Berlin, it is rumoured rats were released by the Nazis in the theatre.
Its message was so strong and effective that in the 1950s the Hollywood Reporter thought it was in bad taste to show it in the USA because it affected men enlisting for the Korean War.
The film did not circulate during the Vietnam War.
For these reasons, I wanted to see the film. I was not disappointed. Both the 1930 and 1979 films are amazing.
However. . .as much as we would all want the anti-war message to sink home, we live in a world where that is not possible. The very essence of human nature is to conquer. History is littered with ruthless leaders (Hitler, Idi Amin, Pol Pot) who will stop at nothing in their quest for domination.
So, as much as All Quiet on the Western Front effectively delivers the anti-war message, the reality is war is necessary. Hitler had to be stopped. The price paid was frightening but worth it.
All Quiet on the Western Front does not address that reality but it was not meant to.
Balance of Terror ends with that stark reminder. The grieving widow is in the ship’s chapel mourning the loss of her husband.
“It never makes any sense,” Kirk tells her. “We both have to know there was a reason.”
If you get a chance, watch All Quiet on the Western Front. It is well worth it.