All Quiet on the Western Front

All Quiet on the Western Front, American war film, released in 1930 and set during World War I, that is regarded as one of the most effective antiwar movies ever made. It won great praise in the United States but was banned in several other countries, including Germany, because of its pacifist message. The movie, which was based on a novel by Erich Maria Remarque, earned the Academy Award for best picture (then called most outstanding production).

(Read Martin Scorsese’s Britannica essay on film preservation.)

The movie begins in a small German town in 1914. As a military parade takes place outside a school, a group of students, including the film’s protagonist, Paul Baumer (played by Lew Ayres), volunteer for the army at the encouragement of Professor Kantorek (Arnold Lucy), who extols the glory of military service. Following training camp, where they endure the sadistic drill sergeant Himmelstoss (John Wray), the new recruits are sent to the front. They arrive at a bombed-out French town amid a hail of enemy shells and meet some weary veterans, among them Tjaden (Slim Summerville) and Sergeant Katczinsky, known as Kat (Louis Wolheim). That night the new recruits are sent out to install barbed wire under the command of Kat. As they work, the soldiers come under attack. One of the recruits is blinded by an explosion, and when he runs forward in a panic, he is killed. Kemmerick (Ben Alexander) endangers himself in order to retrieve the body, earning a rebuke from Kat.

Britannica Quiz

Oscar-Worthy Movie Trivia

For several days the company is pinned down in a bunker as shells explode around them. When part of the bunker collapses, Kemmerick flees and is hit in the leg. After the shelling finally stops, the soldiers move forward into the trenches. An attack by French soldiers results in massive casualties, and the Germans are forced to retreat. However, they mount a counteroffensive and regain their original position, having lost nearly half their company. Afterward, Paul goes to visit Kemmerick in the field hospital. Kemmerick’s leg has been amputated, and he dies while Paul is there. Paul takes Kemmerick’s boots, which are given to a succession of soldiers as fighting continues to decimate the company. In a memorable scene, a wounded Paul takes shelter in a crater, only to be joined by a French soldier (Raymond Griffith) who is also seeking refuge. In panic, Paul stabs him with a bayonet. The ongoing battle keeps Paul trapped in the crater with the slowly dying Frenchman, and Paul suffers an agony of remorse. After being wounded in a later battle, Paul is sent to a hospital behind the lines.

When Paul recovers, he is allowed to return home on leave. While he is there, his father’s friends dismiss his accounts of the war, and he finds Professor Kantorek still urging students to join the military and find glory. Kantorek asks Paul to share stories of heroism with the students. The schoolboys call him a coward when he tells them that there is nothing glamorous in dying for one’s country. Paul returns to the front to find that almost no one from his company has survived except Tjaden and Kat. An aerial attack wounds Kat, and Paul tries to carry him to safety, but another bomb kills Kat. In the final scene, Paul, in a trench, sees a butterfly and reaches for it. As he leans out of the trench, he is fatally struck by a bullet.

The film was based on the novel Im Westen nichts Neues (1929; All Quiet on the Western Front) by Erich Maria Remarque, who served in the German army during World War I. It was the first sound film (talkie) directed by Lewis Milestone. However, a version with intertitles was also made, to be shown in theatres that did not yet have equipment for movies with sound and for distribution in non-English-speaking countries. Ayres, influenced by the movie, declared himself a conscientious objector during World War II. All Quiet on the Western Front was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 1990.

Production notes and credits

• Studio: Universal Pictures
• Director: Lewis Milestone
• Writers: C. Gardner Sullivan (supervising story chief), Maxwell Anderson and Del Andrews (adaptation), and George Abbott (screenplay)
• Cinematography: Arthur Edeson and Karl Freund (uncredited)

Cast

• Lew Ayres (Paul Baumer)
• Louis Wolheim (Kat)
• John Wray (Himmelstoss)
• Slim Summerville (Tjaden)
• Ben Alexander (Kemmerick)

Academy Award nominations (* denotes win)

• Picture*
• Cinematography
• Direction*
• Writing