A testament to the ageless power of great filmmaking, All Quiet On The Western Front (1930) is proof positive that early talking pictures could be anything but static. Director Lewis Milestone and cinematographer Arthur Edeson achieve something that was a rarity in early 1930's movies: a film that is told primarily using fluid camerawork, powerful sound design, and layered, textured framing. The result is a film that has lost little of its power to move, haunt, and thrill, in equal measure.
Telling the story of a group of German soldiers during WWI, Milestone and co. deliver a sobering portrayal of the reality of war, and what it does to those who actually fight it on the front lines. Spellbound by patriotism and dreams of glory, young men volunteer straight out of school classrooms, with hopes of embarking on an exciting adventure. But reality is far more brutal, and as the film progresses, Milestone meticulously shows the trials of the life of a soldier, and the horrors of the battlefield.
It is astounding that a film made with such primitive equipment could be so kinetic. Milestone and co. capture such beautiful imagery and create such an immersive experience, that, at times, one forgets that this is a film that's almost a hundred years old. Although some aspects haven't aged as well as others (the editing can get a little choppy, and baby-faced Lew Ayers is woefully miscast as the lead), what the film achieves overall is just short of miraculous, culminating in a haunting, masterfully understated ending.
One of the greatest anti-war films of all-time, and a true groundbreaker, All Quiet On The Western Front is a film for the ages.
Text © Ahmed Khalifa. 2020.
Ahmed Khalifa is a filmmaker and novelist. He is the writer/director of the feature film Wingrave, released on Netflix, and the author of a number of novels and short stories, including the YA horror novel, Beware The Stranger, available on Amazon. Find him on Twitter @AFKhalifa and on Facebook @Dark.Fantastic.AK·Writer.
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