Film

All Quiet on the Western Front

Name: All Quiet on the Western Front
Genre: Drama, War
Released: 1930
Cast: Louis Wolheim, Lew Ayres, John Wray, Arnold Lucy, Ben Alexander

Lewis Milestone's adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque's novel is the granddaddy of anti-war cinema, made just twelve years after the armistice by people who'd lived it. Silent-era theatrical instincts collide with early sound technology to eerie effect — long static shots of trench horror, sudden bursts of gunfire. It's slow by modern standards but its bluntness about the death of idealism still lands like a gut-punch.

TMDb rating

7.8

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