ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT Free Screening at Webster University April 14th

“You still think it’s beautiful to die for your country. The first bombardment taught us better. When it comes to dying for country, it’s better not to die at all!”

ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT screens Tuesday April 14th at 7:30pm at Webster University’s Winifred Moore Auditorium. The event is FREE

The German program at Webster will commemorate the centennial of the end of WWI with three screenings of films about war and Germany with a brief historical introduction before each one.

The film series kicks off April 14 with ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (1930) — the first major anti-war film of the sound era, faithfully based upon the timeless, best-selling 1929 novel by Erich Maria Remarque, who had experienced the war first-hand as a young German soldier. The film was advertised with the brooding face of one of the young German recruits sent into World War I. The landmark, epic film used acres of California ranch land for the battle scenes, and employed over 2,000 extras. From four Academy Award nominations, it won the Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Director (Lewis Milestone with his first sound feature), and it was also nominated for Best Writing Achievement (George Abbott, Maxwell Anderson, and Del Andrews) and Best Cinematography (Arthur Edeson).

ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT is easily one of the most gripping, realistic interpretations of the horror of military combat. Also a rarity, it’s an American anti-war film told through the eyes of German soldiers. While some of the dialogue may be dated, and the early-sound film mix today seems muffled, the graphic and vivid scenes really bring out the horror and make you feel sympathy for all involved. Some of the dialogue is inspired, and stands the test of time – Soldiers mulling over just how a war starts (“One country offends another country”…”How can a mountain in Germany offend a field in England?”)

Some scenes in ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT are some of the most famous in movie history – a machine gun’s view of the carnage, indiscriminately mowing down hundreds of soldiers who drop dead six feet in front of the camera, soldiers ceasing to exist after a shell hit (all that remains, in one case, are the soldier’s hands, clutching a strand of barbed wire). The battlefields are miles of muddy, shell-cratered wasteland, the soldiers too numerous to count. The final scene, concerning a butterfly, is definitely one of the most startling movie endings of all time in terms of emotional power.

The other films in this series are:

STALINGRAD April 21^st

DAS BOOT April 28^th