John Steinbeck's All Quiet On The Western Front

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Although All Quiet on the Western Front is an incredibly old, historical movie that should only be watched for educational purposes, it will at least keep you awake with its large display of weaponry and heart wrenching scenes. This film is a historical fiction movie about a young man volunteering for the German army roughly in 1914-1918, that alternates between the locations of France and Germany. The film begins with an enthusiastic teacher lecturing a class of schoolboys about the glory of “serving the fatherland”. That same class of schoolboys then go on to enlist in the army together. After weeks at a training camp where they are subjected to horrendous treatment by their superior, they are moved to the front lines. As soon as the new …show more content…
Considering that this film is intended to be a look into history, it is intriguing to see a portion of the types of weapons used in the time period from 1914-1918. Examples of these weapons can be seen in most of the scenes at the training camp; on of these occasions Corporal Himmelstoss was teaching the young men how to attack in close proximity to an enemy, and an old style gun with a bayonet attachment is visible. The the way the main character, Paul, displayed his emotions and his thoughts about the war was thought-provoking. For instance, when Paul is thrust out onto the battlefield and he kills groups of frenchmen and feels nothing; but then almost has a breakdown when he is forced to kill a single french soldier and then spent a long period of time with the dying man. As Paul reacted to the ever changing battle, the audience was able to understand his emotions and come to their own conclusions about the truth of war. Unfortunately, due to the time period in which this film was made, special effects is not a strong suit of All Quiet on the Western Front. An example of the lack of special effects is in the first few moments of the movie, when all of the men come out of the trenches and begin shooting and running at each other. This scene demonstrates the absence of special effects because, instead
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