All Quiet on the Western Front

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In a retrospective review, American film critic Pauline Kael commented, "The year 1930 was, of course, a good year for pacifism, which always flourishes between wars; Milestone didn't make pacifist films during the Second World War—nor did anybody else working in Hollywood.

In the New York Daily News, Irene Thirer wrote: "It smack [ sic] of directional genius—nothing short of this; sensitive performances by a marvelous cast and the most remarkable camera work which has been performed on either silent or sound screen, round about the Hollywood studios. criticisms, it should be said that from World War I to Korea, Milestone could put the viewer into the middle of a battlefield, and make the hellish confusion of it seem all too real to the viewer. A decade later, after the same organization polled over 1,501 workers in the creative community, All Quiet on the Western Front was ranked the seventh-best American epic film. The droning sound didn't help either (clearly the director has watched Christopher Nolan's "Dunkirk").Later re-releases were substantially cut and the film's ending scored with new music against the wishes of director Lewis Milestone. The bulk of the pretty comprehensive selection of extras are included on the 4K disc too, for good measure. But, as with the video, the devil is in the detail, and the disc's more weighty track gifts the film an even more immersive ride. The film was finally re-released in Germany on April 25, 1952, in the Capitol Theatre in West Berlin.

Their romantic delusions are quickly broken during their brief but rigorous training under the abusive Corporal Himmelstoss. Use the thumbs up and thumbs down icons to agree or disagree that the title is similar to All Quiet on the Western Front. The latter format additionally contains a 133-minute restoration of the international sound version, albeit mislabelled as the "silent version".

The latest in the now dangerously monotone 'war is bad' rhetoric, All Quiet on the Western Front struggles to say anything new but certainly provides a suitably - expectedly - punishing ride. On paper, you can see why it's won so many damn awards, and it is definitely a solid, impressively put-together feature.