A bunch of young German school boys enlist to fight in the First World War. Once they get to the Front they begin to suffer the many horrors of War. The main character (who we don't spend time with till the middle of the film) is a young soldier named Paul (Lew Aryes). To make the review a little interesting I'm going to divide the film into four parts (Without giving away too much) and then end with my rating for this movie.
PART 1
The first part is about the young boys enlisting in the war and going through hell at the training camp.We first see our main characters in a classroom daydreaming about being war heroes while their teacher (Arnold Lucy) gives an inspirational war monologue. The shots in the classroom of the kid’s facial expressions really show how much they want to fight in war and also show the type of characters they are. When they enter the Training Camp they're still daydreaming about being heroes, and are eager to use a gun and fight out in the front. What's really sad is a lot of people think like that before they go to war, especially when they play "Call Of Duty" for 24 hours.
Once Sergeant Himmelstoss (John Wray) walks in, play time is over and the movie begins to get serious. When we first see Himmelstoss earlier in the film, he's just a friendly Mailman and doesn't look like he has a mean bone in his body. When we see him as a sergeant, forget it. He's completely nasty and enjoys abusing his Trainees. John Wray is good as the character because he plays it so natural; his best scene is when he tells the Soldiers about how he's going to train them. Even though he's a brutal sergeant the scenes when he trains his Trainees are just flat out goofy and aren't effecting. The complaining from the soldiers sound like they're having a tough time and their facial expressions show their pain but we really don't get into the cruelty of training camp. It's basically just showing the Trainees marching around and ducking in the mud that's it. The training Camp scene does end with something I'm sure a lot of audiences wanted to see and without giving it away I was hoping a scene like this would come.
PART 2
This part is about our heroes arriving at the Front, doing their first war job and learning about loss. We are also introduced to our supporting character Kat (Louis Wolheim), an older soldier who becomes very close to our main character Paul (Lew Ayres). Louis Wolheim as Kat (Not just in this part) plays the role as natural as most of the cast members in this movie. His acting really makes the character interesting and fun to watch. You like the character right away when you first see him as he sneaks around looking for food for his fellow troops. You just got to love the scenes when he's ordering the crew around or talking about the cruelties of war, it actually sounds like the actor's really been there.
Our main characters so far start showing their fear. When they first get to the front already bombs are falling and they're scared stiff. The scene that I find painful to watch is when one of our main characters dies. His acting is a bit over the top but you still feel bad for him and his death looks realistic (Thanks to the help of the sound effects). This part maybe short but it builds you up to the evils you'll see in the next part.
PART 3
This part is when we really get into the horrors of war. We also spend more time with our main character Paul and from here on out that's who we're sticking with. This part opens with our heroes in an underground rat infested bunker of soldiers scared, starving, going insane and suffering from claustrophobia. This scene is very intense because the actors really act like they're in danger; the bunker looks like it's going to collapse; and the sound of bombs falling along with the cinematography makes the audience feel like they're trapped down there with our heroes.
The battle scenes are so realistic and look like actual war footage. Just looking these scenes are still violent to look at, especially for the people who saw this film when it first came out. The cinematography for this movie is cleverly done great and helps show the realism of the war scenes. I think the best scenes where the cinematography shines is the infamous Boots Montague; the scene when our heroes are looking at poster of a gir; the overhead shots of men in the trenches (Which by is one of the earliest crane shots ever used in film); the off-screen sex scene (With only one shot and just dialogue); and the machine gun sequence.
The acting in this part is still as epic as the last two parts. When you hear the soldiers sit around talk about their opinions of war actually sound like they mean it and talk like regular people instead of being over the top. The scene when a soldier finds out his legs been cut off is so traumatizing that you can't help but feel bad for him. The scene that really caught my emotions the most is the scene when Paul and a wounded Frenchman (Silent film comic actor, Raymond Griffith) that Paul just stabbed are trapped in a shell hole for 24 hours. Paul’s look of guilt and sad emotions toward the man he just stabbed has me moving every time I see this movie. It's also painful to watch the Frenchman slowly die and just lie there with it's eyes open as Paul gives one cinemas powerful movie speeches, the "You'll have to forgive me Comrade" speech.
PART 4
In this final part, Paul returns home and is then sent back to fight. The scenes when Paul returns home show pretty much how Soldiers feel when they return. People act like wars a game; treat Paul like he doesn't know anything about war even if he has fought in it; and thinks it's great to die for "The Fatherland" which really ticks off Paul. The best scene that shows Paul's anger and feelings about war is in the scene when returns to his old classroom right when his old teacher gives the same speech he gave to Paul’s class. While he tells the young students what it's truly like out there, they all call him "A coward".
The scenes that I think are very emotional when Paul comes home are the scenes with his ill Mother (Played by the great grandmother of film Moms, Beryl Mercer). When she first sees Paul she thinks she's dreaming and when she finds out it's really him he begs him not to leave her or die when he goes back to the front. It's just so emotional and touching to see them together. I'm not going to talk about what happens when Paul goes back to fight but let me tell you it's one of the saddest and poetic endings to a war film that you’ll ever see and the last minute is all quiet.
The film was a complete shocker to audiences who saw this
movie and it's still shocking to watch today because of its realism. Before
World War 2 the Nazis banned the film in Germany
to avoid future screenings because it shows the downfall of Germany. It
would later be re released in Germany
in 1956. The film was nominated for 4 Oscars and won 2 for Best Director and
Best Picture, also being the first war talkie film to win best picture. AFI
(American Film Institute) put this film as number 54 in their "100
Movie" list and is number 7 in their "Top Ten Epic Film List".
If you haven't seen it check it, it was shocking back then and it is still
shocking now.
RATING 5/5
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