Death Is Not an Adventure: All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)![]() On February 4th, the last living veteran of WW1 passed away in King’s Lynn, England. Florence Green was 110 years old, and had joined up with the Women’s Royal Air Force in September 1918, two months before the armistice. The last surviving combat veteran, Briton Claude Choles, died in Australia in 2011. The Great War is no longer part of the world’s living memory, and so drifts slowly from history and into myth (see: War Horse). This process will accelerate in 2014-2018, the 100th Anniversary of the conflict. But no images, not even Spielberg’s, have defined the war more than those in All Quiet On the Western Front, Universal’s grim gamble of 1930. Banned in Poland, reviled in Germany, and a tough sell to studios, this adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s landmark novel is one of the bleakest films ever made in Hollywood. Universal is releasing it on Blu-Ray today in a pristine restoration, in a nearly-complete 133 minute version, while also including the rare silent edition, which was made for theaters not yet equipped for sound (For background on all the edits inflicted on the film, please read Lou Lumenick’s article in the NY Post).
Journalists were denied their Schadenfreude when Laemmle, Jr. organized a wildly talented team for the production unit. According to Kelly, Paul Fejos (who directed the sublime Lonesome (1928)) claimed to have initiated the purchase of the book rights, and wanted to make the film. He was then dropped, sadly, for Herbert Brenon, who had recently completed the East-Indies adventure The Rescue (1929), starring Ronald Colman. Universal balked at his asking price ($125,000, according to Patrick McGilligan in his George Cukor biography), and instead gave the job to Lewis Milestone, who had just won the only Oscar ever for Best Director, Comedy Picture (a category that should return!) on Two Arabian Knights (1929), a WWI POW laffer with Boris Karloff in a supporting role. Ironically, Milestone would end up pocketing $135,000 after the film went over-schedule and over-budget. Maxwell Anderson was tapped to adapt the script, since he had written the play that was the basis for Raoul Walsh’s hit As in the book, the film follows Paul Baumer (Ayres) and his classmates as they join the Army out of high school, burning with ideological fervor for land and country, only to end up in the killing fields of the Western Front, where they are slaughtered like cattle. The film hews close the book’s plot details, but simplifies its structure. Remarque’s novel begins in combat and interpolates flashbacks of Baumer’s naïve youth,while Milestone’s film smooths out the narrative, making the story a linear march from boyhood to soldier-dom. This robs these early scenes of some of their bitterness in the book, where Baumer recounts his youthful fervor while enduring a mortar bombardment in a muck-filled trench.
In these exultant close-ups they are still individuals, but for the rest of the film Milestone will break them down into inhuman lines. Lines that, when erased, will be immediately replaced by other lines, as if in the manic hand of a sadistic
0 Response Death Is Not an Adventure: All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
![]() This movie is shook me to my core when I saw it for the first time. Well, and every time after, too. Just seeing the images makes me shiver. I didn’t know there was a silent version, that will be an interesting addition. I will be looking for the Blu-Ray; it needs to join my collection. ![]() One of the few Best Picture winners that actually seems to have improved with the years and probably even more relevant today. With very few exceptions, you would not think of this film being an early talkie-fascinating what a year difference there is between something like THE COCOANUTS which is totally stagebound and this film, which moves the camera in ways that make films made later in the decade seem static. A wonderful film that still has the power to shock and make you cry at the end. Is it possible that Universal has released this on Blu-Ray in the proper aspect ratio of 1.2:1 or is it in the Academy standard? ![]() One of the few Best Picture winners that actually seems to have improved with the years and probably even more relevant today. With very few exceptions, you would not think of this film being an early talkie-fascinating what a year difference there is between something like THE COCOANUTS which is totally stagebound and this film, which moves the camera in ways that make films made later in the decade seem static. A wonderful film that still has the power to shock and make you cry at the end. Is it possible that Universal has released this on Blu-Ray in the proper aspect ratio of 1.2:1 or is it in the Academy standard? ![]() JeffH: 1:37 flat Academy according to DVD Savant. One of the most moving pictures i ever saw, and still one of the few true anti-war movies, and not the more prevalent “yeah, war is hell, but kinda exciting too” type. Now for a dvd release of Journey’s End! ![]() JeffH: 1:37 flat Academy according to DVD Savant. One of the most moving pictures i ever saw, and still one of the few true anti-war movies, and not the more prevalent “yeah, war is hell, but kinda exciting too” type. Now for a dvd release of Journey’s End! ![]() Not sure who controls the rights to JOURNEY’S END at this time…It was a Tiffany/Stahl production but might have been released by UA. I have seen the film in a slightly dupey print but I hope that there is good source material for a home video release in the future. ![]() Not sure who controls the rights to JOURNEY’S END at this time…It was a Tiffany/Stahl production but might have been released by UA. I have seen the film in a slightly dupey print but I hope that there is good source material for a home video release in the future. ![]() A great film, but I do note that an anti-war attitude was not exactly controversial in the wake of WWI; it was in fact so widely held in Britain, France, and the US that it caused them to stand aside as Hitler built his war machine. A fact that then caused later generations of Americans to jump into conflicts that could have been avoided for fear of repeating appeasement. History is nothing if not tragically ironic. ![]() A great film, but I do note that an anti-war attitude was not exactly controversial in the wake of WWI; it was in fact so widely held in Britain, France, and the US that it caused them to stand aside as Hitler built his war machine. A fact that then caused later generations of Americans to jump into conflicts that could have been avoided for fear of repeating appeasement. History is nothing if not tragically ironic. ![]() Beautiful post on a landmark film – thanks so much. ![]() Beautiful post on a landmark film – thanks so much. ![]() Jeff, Emgee is right, the transfer is Academy ratio. There always seems to be wiggle room in AR arguments, but the framing looked fine to me on the disc. What is your argument for having the film in 1.20:1? I am ignorant about this part of its history. Has anybody seen James Whale’s adaptation of Remarque’s follow up novel, The Road Back? The film was made in 1937, and according to Lumenick suffered major cuts due to the request of German officials. I would love to track down a copy of it. ![]() Jeff, Emgee is right, the transfer is Academy ratio. There always seems to be wiggle room in AR arguments, but the framing looked fine to me on the disc. What is your argument for having the film in 1.20:1? I am ignorant about this part of its history. Has anybody seen James Whale’s adaptation of Remarque’s follow up novel, The Road Back? The film was made in 1937, and according to Lumenick suffered major cuts due to the request of German officials. I would love to track down a copy of it. ![]() Until the Academy standard was established in 1931, many sound films with the sound on the print usually were in an aspect ratio close to square in order to fit the soundtrack next to the image. 1.2 or 1.21:1 was the norm in theaters that showed sound-on-film usually had to use that aperture in order to not have the soundtrack show. The DVD release of SUNRISE had the film in 1.2:1 with the supplement of the foreign release version in the 1.37:1 ratio because the print was mute and the soundtrack not there. A lot of early talkies had both SOF and disc soundtracks, depending on what theater had which system. I noticed that the older DVD of ALL QUIET had the opening credits approximately 1.2 with the rest of the film in the Academy standard. I am just hoping that we are not losing some image on the top or bottom on the sound version in this set-I do know the silent version is 1.37, having seen that version on TCM and noticing that the image was a bit rectangular. ![]() Until the Academy standard was established in 1931, many sound films with the sound on the print usually were in an aspect ratio close to square in order to fit the soundtrack next to the image. 1.2 or 1.21:1 was the norm in theaters that showed sound-on-film usually had to use that aperture in order to not have the soundtrack show. The DVD release of SUNRISE had the film in 1.2:1 with the supplement of the foreign release version in the 1.37:1 ratio because the print was mute and the soundtrack not there. A lot of early talkies had both SOF and disc soundtracks, depending on what theater had which system. I noticed that the older DVD of ALL QUIET had the opening credits approximately 1.2 with the rest of the film in the Academy standard. I am just hoping that we are not losing some image on the top or bottom on the sound version in this set-I do know the silent version is 1.37, having seen that version on TCM and noticing that the image was a bit rectangular. ![]() A truly remarkable film and thanks for the announcement of it coming out on blue ray. Lew Ayres, I recall from a film segment on the Dr. Kildare movies, due to his portraying doctors so often, and being a pacifist, did serve in WWII, but as a medic. He trained other medics, and was sent to the South Pacific and worked at hospitals caring for the injured and dying. ![]() A truly remarkable film and thanks for the announcement of it coming out on blue ray. Lew Ayres, I recall from a film segment on the Dr. Kildare movies, due to his portraying doctors so often, and being a pacifist, did serve in WWII, but as a medic. He trained other medics, and was sent to the South Pacific and worked at hospitals caring for the injured and dying. ![]() As Emgee said, this film is one of the few that challenges the saying that there cannot be a true anti-war film, because the action sequences are inherently exciting. I think, like Remarque’s novel, the film is content with just stewing in the presence of war, not necessarily making a pointed statement, but allowing the audience to witness for themselves the horrors of war. Thank the Gods of Home Theater that we’re getting a great restored Blu-ray. ![]() As Emgee said, this film is one of the few that challenges the saying that there cannot be a true anti-war film, because the action sequences are inherently exciting. I think, like Remarque’s novel, the film is content with just stewing in the presence of war, not necessarily making a pointed statement, but allowing the audience to witness for themselves the horrors of war. Thank the Gods of Home Theater that we’re getting a great restored Blu-ray. ![]() I will never forget the first time I saw those severed hands hanging from the barbed wire. I couldn’t believe that was in a movie from 1930. It was a little shocking. ![]() I will never forget the first time I saw those severed hands hanging from the barbed wire. I couldn’t believe that was in a movie from 1930. It was a little shocking. ![]() Those hands are still shocking even today, and believe it or not, that shot is in the trailer, as well! You can tell this film is pre-Code due to that shot and the scene with the French girls. ![]() Those hands are still shocking even today, and believe it or not, that shot is in the trailer, as well! You can tell this film is pre-Code due to that shot and the scene with the French girls. Leave a Reply |
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This movie is shook me to my core when I saw it for the first time. Well, and every time after, too. Just seeing the images makes me shiver. I didn’t know there was a silent version, that will be an interesting addition. I will be looking for the Blu-Ray; it needs to join my collection.