3. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

Director: Lewis Milestone

Starring: Lewis Ayres, Louis Wolheim

Other Oscar Wins: Best Director

Other Oscar Nominations: Best Writing, Best Cinematography

Favorite Line: "How could one country offend another? You mean there's a mountain over in Germany gets mad at a field over in France?"

The iconic final scene from All Quiet on the Western Front.

All Quiet on the Western Front, based on the novel by Erich Maria Remarque, is a beautiful and terribly sad picture about the loss of innocence for the young men who fought in World War One. The story follows a group of German schoolboys who are, at first, excited to go to war. They are ready for adventure, proud to fight for their country, and thrilled by the idea of honour and glory when they return home. All of this is shattered, however, once they see war the way it really is. As the main character, Paul, puts it on his return home, "We live in the trenches out there. We fight. We try not to be killed, but sometimes we are. That's all."

The battle scenes in this movie are really quite impressive, and also, surprisingly, rather gory. It is in fact the most explicitly violent film of it's time. This was possible as it was made before the film code was strictly enforced, and also, Universal Pictures deemed the subject matter important enough to show the violence. I found the film exceptional in that it showed not only the physical toll that war takes on the soldiers, as well as the sadness and loss, but that it also showed the incredible mental strain that was placed on all the characters. Many of them go almost insane, and I was stunned at how the film did not try to sugar-coat anything at any point.

Art by Olly Moss.

Two scenes that stand out in this film, for me anyway, are the scene in the pit with an enemy soldier, and of course, the butterfly. The scene where Paul is trapped in a pit with the enemy soldier who he just killed, and he begs the soldier to forgive him, is incredible, and so moving. The final scene, where Paul sees a butterfly just over the edge of the trench and reaches for it, is so simple and beautiful, and the complete lack of sound and near stillness of the moment is just so intriguing, that it is unforgettable. An interesting fact about the moment with the butterfly, is that it was actually shot during the editing process, after most of the actors had left, and so the hand that is reaching for the butterfly, is actually the hand of the director, Lewis Milestone.

A few other interesting facts about All Quiet on the Western Front. Lewis Milestone wanted to find real German WWI veterans who could offer some help in being historically accurate with regards to costumes and battles and such. He found so many willing to help that some were cast in the film as background officers, and some even did the jobs they really did in the war, on screen. My last interesting fact is that All Quiet on the Western Front was actually banned by the Nazi party, because they decided that the film portrayed Germans as cowards. However, at the very same time, the film was also banned in Poland as it was considered to be pro-German.

All Quiet on the Western Front is a wonderful film that I would highly recommend, and one that does a brilliant job of showing the futility and consequences of war, while still honouring those who fought and died in WWI.