All Quiet On The Western Front Film Analysis

All Quiet on the Western Front, directed by Lewis Milestone, is a harrowing Anti-War movie depicting the horrors of World War I through the eyes of German schoolboys turned recruits. It stars popular actors from the time period, such as Louis Wolheim, Lew Ayres, and John Wray. It follows the life of a young soldier and his friends who voluntarily joined the war because of how gratifying and heroic their professor made it seem as he pressured them to fulfill their “patriotic duty”. They witnessed returning soldiers be worshiped by crowds of citizens and loved by beautiful women from the windows of their classroom in one of the very first scenes of the film, which only reaffirmed this idea. They would soon come to realize that the ideals of …show more content…
The time period is significant to the development of the book because it was actually written by a German veteran ten years after the war ended. As a result, this book is a first hand account of the cruelty of war. However, once translated, this book-turned-movie was released in America in the 1930 's. This having been a few years after American victory in the war, national pride and depictions of the Germans as the enemy could have influenced this movie 's authenticity and turned it into an Anti-German propaganda film. Despite possible influence, the director stayed true to the films original message without any prejudice or generalizations. Furthermore, American reception of the book was so positive that it testifies to its ability to speak for all soldiers who suffered through the horrors of World War …show more content…
They are forced to deal with the sudden deaths of their friends and fellow soldiers, and are subjected to constant physical danger. This intense threat also forces the boys to cope with primal, instinctive fear during every waking moment, which wreaks havoc on their sanity. The lesson that this classic film is trying to convey is very simple: that men, regardless of their intentions, are eventually worn down and broken by living in constant warfare. One very small but powerful scene that supports this is when the soldiers are being attacked from overhead and they are seeking shelter in a building together. There is a wide display of distress being expressed, such as boys crying, screaming, pleading, having nightmares, and even trying to escape into the shell shocked, unprotected outdoors. Such raw emotion says a lot about the vulnerability of humans, despite how they were trained to fight. Even though Corporal Himmelstoss promises to “make you soldiers, make you tough,”, no amount of training can prepare a person for the mental scarring that comes with participating in a