All Quiet on the Western Front – Is it an Anti-War Film?
Uploaded by Estruch on Nov 09, 2001
All Quiet on the Western Front is based on a book by a German soldier who fought in World War 1. It follows the fate of a group of boys who joined in 1915.
The main hero of the film is Paul Balmer and we see the world through his eyes. In my essay I will use scenes to prove that this is an anti-war film.
One of the main themes of the film is the fact that people who weren’t fighting didn’t really know what it was like to fight in the trenches. Especially the old people encourage the young soldiers to fight; they are all desperate to be fighting and are quite jealous of their juniors.
At the start of the film we are introduced to the group of boys and we find them in a class. Their teacher is encouraging them to join up to the army and how that they would be doing the German fatherland proud. And when Paul comes home from the front because of his injury all that people talk about is the war. When he wants to go out, his father wants him to go in his uniform but he doesn’t want to go because he doesn’t want to be a killing machine any more he wants to be a normal person. When he does go out all people speak about is the war.
When the class does sign up they have to go through a terrible training exercise. The conditions are terrible and they have to crawl through mud and run for miles. They are taught to fight as a team and to be taught discipline. All this training doesn’t really prepare the soldiers for the harsh reality of the front line.
When it is time to leave, at the train station, the truth of war starts to become apparent to the young naive boys. They get a view of the injured people coming back from the front line. This shattered the idea they had that war was a game and that it was real life with real people.
When they do arrive they understand what the war is about. One of the first things that gets the soldiers is the sound of the horses. When the shells got fired they were landing near the horse and severely injuring someone of them. This made the horses screech and make a horrible sound as they died. This really...