All Quiet on the Western Front (Universal Cinema Classics)

Starring: Lew Ayres, Louis Wolheim, John Wray, et al.

Product Description

Unlike most "message" films which date themselves almost immediately, Lewis Milestone's low-key unpolished and deeply-felt screen adaptation of the Erich Maria Remarque anti-war novel has lost little... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: DVD
• Language: English
• UPC: 025193236821
• Release Date: August 1987
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Publisher: Universal Pictures Home Entertainment
• Director: Lewis Milestone
• Starring: Lew Ayres, Louis Wolheim, John Wray, Arnold Lucy, Ben Alexander, Slim Summerville
• Number of Disks: 1
• Other Video Info: multiple_formats
• Weight: 0.22 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.5" x 5.4" x 0.6"

Customer Reviews

An in-depth look at war and people’s attitudes.

The country is at war, and Paul Bäumer (Lew Ayres) is in school. His instructor is proud that Paul is volunteering to protect his country. He and his classmates are off on an adventure. This adventure will challenge the way they look at life and, in the process, change their life outlook. On the surface, this looks like a pacifist or anti-war movie. One may think this has something to do with an enemy's view of war. Also, there is a tendency to pick the film apart because it is not the book. This story is more of a, don't get overzealous” movie. At least do not let someone mesmerize you. It even happened in the contemporary film "Private Benjamin” (1980). She was promised the army with private condos. Again, we see the zealous ones in "Starship Troopers” (1997), where the movie shows the romantic side of the war. As far as the rating of the movie, it is ridiculous to compare a movie that has to pass censors and only has 130 minutes with the book. Naturally, the book is going to be more thorough and descriptive. What we can compare it to is the original movie "Westfront 1918” (1930) directed by George Wilhelm Pabst (1885-1967), "All Quiet on the Western Front” (1979), and “All Quiet on The Western front (2022.) Check them all out including the audio reading of the book. The points are made much clearer in "Westfront 1918." Even though it is shorter, it is a 5-star movie. Especially when we return to the schoolroom to see the teacher inspiring the next generation of students to become soldiers. “All Quiet on the Western Front” (1930), however, is easier to understand than “West Front”. You can spend more time on the message and less on the translation from German. In either film, the actual downtime (between actions) drove me crazy, as I remembered the time that we were not fighting or planning something in Vietnam, when I would get antsy. The 1979 movie is a boring TV-type movie with "John Boy" Richard Thomas playing the part of Paul Bäumer. The only good part is when he got shot. The film was shot in black and white but is still pretty graphic. It deserves to be seen on a big screen. At one point, they also sing “Watch on the Rhine.” "Im Western Nichts Neues" By Remarque: "He fell in October 1918, on a day that was so quiet and still on the whole front, that the army report confined itself to the single sentence: ‘All quiet on the Western Front.’" You will want to read “Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front (Bloom's Modern Critical Interpretations)”