Book to Film:
All Quiet on the Western Front
All Quiet on the Western Front is the World War One novel by Erich Maria Remarque, as well as the best picture winner directed by Lewis Milestone. Both are considered masterpieces of their own mediums. One of them is. The other had potential, but simply fell flat because of one major problem - a problem that will be discussed in this essay, but will not be the focus, simply because the rest is too good to be ruined. The book is one of the best I’ve read all year, and while the film isn’t quite great, its understandable that it won the oscar back in 1930.
The Book
In the book, young Paul Baumer enlists to fight for the German cause in the trenches of the first World War. Over the course of three years he learns about the horrors of war and the devastation of loss of everything from innocence to life. He makes friends and allies and learns about camaraderie as well, but in the end death is the overarching theme, as all of them in the end die.
The book version of All Quiet is better for a number of reasons, the main one being the writing style. Remarque is greatly descriptive, and easily creates a mood and tone for the story with doom-filled, dreary, and daring images. He is a poetic writer, making things lyrical and beautiful as well as dark and disturbing. It’s a heavily melancholy book that has much to say about war and the people that fight it. Its about young men fighting wars that they don't care about based on the hatred of older men, mostly leaders who have not and will not ever see a war on the frontlines, like this young generation will. Remarque himself fought in the war, and it shows in his knowledge and clear description of it. Reading the book you can tell it was written by a man who has been through hell, and came out with more than cuts and bruises.
The Film
The film version is also very good in its way. It tells the same story, in a similar way, but it doesn’t come near reaching the heights of the book. There are many things to admire here. Most of the cast does a nice job, with Louis Wolheim as Kat being the best of them, and giving a pretty great performance. It’s shot brilliantly, and is probably the second best looking WWI film (beaten by Kubrick’s Paths of Glory). There are a few truly great scenes that transcend the film itself in quality, like the surprisingly visceral and shocking battle scene, and the powerfully quiet ending. In fact the film is mostly great scenes scattered throughout a pretty good movie containing a few bad scenes. There are the scenes that are handled very well, like Paul returning on leave and visiting his old school were more young men are being told to enlist, and there are the scenes handled not so well, like Paul at the bedside of his dying friend.
All in all there is only one true problem with this movie: Lew Ayer’s performance as Paul. Lew Ayer doesn’t actually give a bad performance in this film, he just gives an absolutely terrible one. He is so bad he almost single handedly keeps this film from being truly great. His delivery is awful, with most scenes he’s prominent in being either cringeworthy, or just funny, from time to time even hilarious. One scene where he is being brought back to his old bed after spending time in the death room (a room in the hospital next to the morgue where they send the soldiers that they are sure are going to die) yelling and shouting things along the lines of “I did it! I said I would be back!” while he is wheeled up to his friend who has literally just found out he only has one leg. He manages to ruin gut-punch scenes from the book by overacting and being ridiculous.
The Verdict
The film is good, being brought up by great scenes and brought down by an abysmal performance. The book is great, period. It’s haunting and mesmerizing and lasts in your mind a while after finishing. It is called the best war book ever written and believably so.
- The Book: 10/10
- The Film: 8/10
