Quiet on the Western Front
Quiet on the Western FrontI read All Quiet on the Western Front and viewed
the movie. Both the film and the novel show the
horror of trench warfare and the drawbacks of
unquestioning patriotism. Both the film and the
novel follow the same plot but emphasize different
aspects.
The beginning of both the movie and the novel
start off saying. “This story is neither an
accusation nor a confession, and least of all an
adventure for death is not an adventure to those
who stand face to face with it. [This story] will
try simply to tell of a generation of men who,
even though they may have escaped its shells were
destroyed by the war…This line is a precursor of
what is to come.
All Quiet on the Western Front movie directed by
Lewis Milestone and the novel by Erich Remarque
tells what happens to a group of German teenagers
during World War I. In this novel some very deep
feelings come from the soldiers point of view. The
story centers around Paul Baumer, the main
character. Paul is the protagonist of the novel
who changes from a soft young man to a hardened
soldier. He and his classmates had patriotically
marched off for recruitment, led on by their
teacher, Kantorek. However, they soon find that
war is not as glorious as everyone thinks it is.
The soldiers soon endure a life in the
rat-infested trenches with very few food rations.
Throughout the novel and the movie Paul focuses
mainly on trying to stay alive and is constantly
worrying whether his friends will survive. There
is a strong serious tone present in the novel. The
theme of how the war destroyed the generation is
brought up many times. In the movie this theme is
not brought up as much as in the book. There is
struggle with death for the soldiers. There is a
struggle to survive, and also to deal with the
death of their comrades and those around them. A
great deal of the setting of the novel and the
movie takes place on the battlefield or in the
trenches. Paul and his fellow soldiers live day to
day dodging bullets, bombardments, and gas
attacks. There are constant numbers of maimed
corpses and injured men.
“I search around. And so it is. Here hang bits of
uniform, and somewhere else is plastered a bloody
mess that was once a human limb. Over there lies a
body with nothing but a piece of the underpants on
one leg and the collar of the tunic around its
neck”(123)
Paul returned home for a few weeks on leave. His
books no longer meant anything to him. The war
changed, and destroyed the generation of men. Paul
could no longer deal with being in society. His
home was out on the front, with his family that
was being constantly torn apart. His mother was
dying from an illness and he did not have many
opportunities to go home and see her. This is just
a quick scene in the movie while in the book it is
very important. At the end of the novel, the few
men who did survive were either crippled, maimed,
or mentally ruined. This is very believable, both
in the movie and the novel. The ending was very
realistic by the fact that many soldiers were
either injured or mentally damaged. Remarque’s
attempt at showing how the generation of the war
was destroyed came through quite clearly.
In the movie All Quiet on the Western Front a few
scenes were prominent. This movie is a war film
with hand to hand combat, injury and death,
although there is little gore. There is a scene
that takes place when Paul, the main character,
takes refuge in a bomb crater. He is attacked by a
French soldier but defends himself and mortally
wounds the man. Paul is trapped in the bomb crater
for many hours because of the fighting around him.
Meanwhile, the enemy soldier is slowly dying. Paul
begins to help the wounded man, and is very upset
when he dies. In my opinion this was a very
prominant scene in the movie. Another main scene
happens at the end of the movie, Paul is shot by a
sniper while trying to reach across the trench to
touch a butterfly.
This movie received many awards: 1930 Academy
Awards: Best Picture, Best Director (Milestone);
1930 National Board of Review Awards: Ten Best
Films of the Year; 1930Academy Awards Nominations:
Best Cinematography, Best Writing. All Quiet on
the Western Front has been placed in the Library
of Congress’ National Film Registry. Some of the
main actors All Quiet on the Western Front are Lew
Ayres, Ben Alexander, Louis Wolhemin, John Ray,
Slim Summerville and Russell Gleason. The director
is Lewis Milestone.
After reading the book and seeing the movie I
thought it would be good to add some helpful
background to my comparison between the movie and
the book. These are some interesting facts found
from many different sources and should help you
understand the powerful truth and accuracy that
the novel and movie displayed.
The Western Front ran some 300 miles across the
face of Western Europe, from Belgium to
Switzerland. The front consisted of opposing
trenches, sometimes only yards apart. The trench
warfare of World War I lasted for three years and
took several million lives. The Battle of the
Somme, an attack by the Allies trying to break
through the German lines, took more than four
months. The allies gained only six miles. British
and French casualties were 95,675 Britons killed
and 60,729 Frenchmen killed. The defense cost the
Germans 164,055 soldiers killed.
Overall German casualties during the War were
7,142,558, some 65% of all German soldiers who
were mobilized. French casualties were 6,160,800,
an astounding 73% of all men mobilized. British
Empire casualties were 3,190,235, “only” 36% of
men mobilized. U.S. casualties were 350,300, a
small 8% of mobilized personnel. Counting all
combatants over the entire War, 65 million men
were mobilized, 8.5 million killed, 21.2 million
wounded, and 7.7 million taken prisoner or missing
in action.
The trenches were muddy and often flooded with
water. The bodies of dead and wounded men and
animals fouled them. Corpses lay in the no man’s
land between the trenches. Enemy snipers, rats,
lice, and stench from the decaying bodies
contributed to the misery of the trenches. Toward
the end of the war the German soldiers had little
food.
An attack was preceded by bombardments, some
lasting for days. In order to mount an attack,
soldiers carrying rifles and packs had to go “over
the top.” Once in the no man’s land they faced
barbed wire entanglements, machine guns,
bombardment (often by their own misdirected guns),
grenades, poison gas and fire from the opposing
trenches.
The First World War was primarily between two
European alliances. The “Central Powers” consisted
of Germany and Austria-Hungary. The “Allies” were
Britain, France and Russia. Various smaller states
and areas outside of Europe were also involved.
Turkey was an ally of the “Central Powers” and
lost most of her empire as a result. British,
French and South African troops conquered German
possessions in Africa. The Western Front was in
stalemate until the U.S. entered the war. Fresh
troops and abundant hardware and supplies, tipped
the scales decisivel