Trench warfare, leg amputations, crossdressing, and one great film
Just finished up watching All Quiet on the Western Front and I can't help but be extremely impressed with its visually striking quality despite its being based upon a book. I suppose this is a positive consequence due to the fact that it was released in 1930; only 3 years after the advent of sound cinema. Thus that which can be shown, is. This is one of the major strengths of the film whether it be in the battle sequences (which have an astounding amount of kinetic movement using what's inside the frame to establish an idea of what's going on outside of the frame) or in the training (with images of the soldiers being forced to put their faces into the mud). There is a degree of controlled spoken moralizing but never to the degree of The Great Dictator's final, somewhat didactic speech. Images such as the final shot move the viewer to understand that while war can be as epic as the movie portrays it as in the trench scenes, in the end, it is the individual that it kills. Lew Ayres' performance as Paul accentuates this point by adding emotional poignancy to the randomness of war and the horror of awaiting death. The movie itself brilliantly embodies this "war is hell" essence much in the same way Apocalypse Now would later on with the Vietnam War, by structuring the film as an epic free form tragedy.