All Quiet on the Western Front
Release date 24th August 1930
Country : USA
Running time : 131 mins
Genre : War
Starring Lew Ayres, Louis Wolheim, Slim Summerville
Screenplay by Maxwell Anderson based on a novel by Erich Maria Remarque
Directed by Lewis Milestone



A class of young men discover the true meaning of war is death not glory amid the horrors of the Western Front.

This film is devastating in its impact, so riveting and realistic that it is impossible to forget. 

Earlier war films like The Big Parade (1925) and Wings (1927) had love stories to lighten the horror, there was nothing like that here. The film is unremitting in its portrayal of the horrors of war and very cynical about it. It is no wonder that on its initial release some countries banned it including Poland and Germany. Ironically it had been intended to establish good will toward Germany and its people, and its anti-war theme which applied to all sides it was hoped would help to curb future wars. Variety agreed, urging the League of Nations to show the film every year in every nation until the word "war" could be removed from dictionaries. 

 

The movie's star, twenty-year-old Lew Ayres proved to be an offscreen sensation. He proved as pacifistic as the hero he played (the film reportedly formed his rigid nonviolent convictions).After appearing in the popular "Dr. Kildare" series, he shocked America and fell into mass disfavor at the beginning of World War II by stating that he was a conscientious objector.

Yet he was redeemed in the public eye when it was made known that he served bravely throughout the war as a medic, risking his life repeatedly under fire to save wounded soldiers.