| | | "Winner of 2 Academy Awards, Including Best Picture - 1930."
Features: DVD, Dolby, Digital Audio, English, French
Relive the drama, conflict and power of one of the most influential anti-war films ever made - All Quiet on the Western Front. Universal's first Best Picture Academy Award winner is now available in its original glory with a digitally remastered picture restored by the Library of Congress. Follow a group of idealistic young men as they join the German Army during World War I and are assigned to the Western Front, where their patriotism is destroyed by the harsh realities of combat. The hard-hitting, timeless masterpiece returns with stunning visual enhancement to its deserving place in film history!
"A classic and then some." Clint Morris MovieHole.com
"Peraps the greatest antiwar film ever made." TV Guide's Movie Guide
Editor's Note
Lewis Milestone's adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque's anti-war novel is a masterpiece whose power to disturb remains undiminished by the passage of time. The film stars Lew Ayres as the young Paul Bauman, who, along with a group of his teenaged classmates, are conscripted into the German army during WWI. The youths quickly realize that the patriotic hogwash they had been fed by their schoolmaster has absolutely has nothing to do with the horror they observe and experience on the front lines.
Plot Summary
Still widely regarded as the best war film ever made, director Lewis Milestone's adaptation of the Remarque WWI novel is clearly his masterpiece, a searing indictment of the insanity of war. Starring Lew Ayres as the young Paul Bauman, the film focuses on the fates of the boy and his classmates, who have enlisted to fight in the German army during WWI. Still on fire with the patriotism instilled by their teacher, Kantorek (Arnold Lucy), they arrive for training, eager to face death. When they reach the front lines, the realize that the German troops have few supplies and no food. Sgt. Katczinsky (Louis Wolheim), briefs the recruits on how to avoid getting killed, but on the first night, one of them gets shot. The carnage of the battle shocks the boys, and some are driven mad. Day after day, the recruits huddle in the trenches, frightened, starving, and unable to gain ground, realizing that it is not glorious to die for one's fatherland. This powerfully affecting film is brilliantly directed and written, and generally well acted despite some dated elements. Milestone's magnificent crane and tracking shots of the battlefields surely owe something to the work of Karl Freund, arguably the finest cinematographer in film history.
| Features | Audio: English Dolby Digital Mono | | Exclusive Introduction By Turner Classic Movies Host & Film Historian Robert Osborne | | Interactive Menus | | Original Theatrical Trailer | | Scene Selection | | Subtitles: English, French |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Universal |
| Release Date: 2/6/2007 |
| Running Time: 132 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 1930 | | Catalog ID: 61032368 | | UPC: 00025193236821 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English | | Video: B&W |
Aspect Ratio | | Standard 1.33:1 [4:3] |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
Winner (1930) | | | Oscar, Lewis Milestone, Best Director | | | Oscar, All Quiet on The Western Front, Best Picture | |
Nominee (1930) | | | Oscar, Arthur Edeson, Best Cinematography | | | Oscar, George Abbott, et. al., Best Writing, Achievement |
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| | Professional Reviews | USA Today
"...The third best-picture Oscar winner is still one of the best movies to have won the award..." 01/15/1999 p.11ETotal Film
"...Few films have conveyed the confusion, brutality and senseless sacrifice of organised conflict more vividly than Lewis Milestone's monochrome masterpiece..." 03/01/2001 p.106 Uncut
"It resonates with a sense of contempt for battle that has never been captured before or since." 12/01/2003 p.150 FilmCritic.com 8 of 10
You don't have to drag yourself all the way to the '70s to find a solid anti-war movie. One of the best actually dates back to the early days of sound, when World War I was still on people's minds. All Quiet on the Western Front is a masterpiece of the genre, alternating brilliant battle scenes with heartfelt moments of emotion, as one soldier learns firsthand about the horrors of war. He later preaches peace while everyone around him calls him a coward and a traitor. Heavy stuff, especially for 1930. - Christopher Null
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