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All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

Director(s) Lewis Milestone
Producer(s) Carl Laemmle Jr.
Top Genres Action, Drama, Epic, Film Adaptation, Historical, War
Top Topics Book-Based
More Films Directed by Lewis Milestone More Films Produced by Carl Laemmle Jr. More Films from 1930 More Films from the 1930s Top Classic Movies of the 1930s Top Book-Based Films

All Quiet on the Western Front Overview:

All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) was a Action - Drama Film directed by Lewis Milestone and produced by Carl Laemmle Jr..

The film was based on the novel of the same name written by Erich Maria Remarque published in 1929.

SYNOPSIS

Based on Erich Maria Remarque's timeless antiwar novel, this moving film follows a group of German recruits during WWI as they make their personal journey from patriotism to disillusionment. Shot on an epic scale with an impressive budget of $1.25 million, the film's realism and visual art created a sensation. Author (and war veteran) Remarque was forced by the reaction to the film to relocate from his native Germany to the United States.

(Source: available at Amazon AMC Classic Movie Companion).

All Quiet on the Western Front was inducted into the National Film Registry in 1990.

Academy Awards 1929/30 --- Ceremony Number 3 (source: AMPAS)

AwardRecipientResult
Best Cinematography(Arthur Edeson)Nominated
Best DirectorLewis MilestoneWon
Best PictureUniversalWon
Best Writing(George Abbott), (Maxwell Anderson), (Del Andrews)Nominated
See More Oscar Winners

All Quiet on the Western Front BlogHub Articles:

ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (1979)

By Dan Day, Jr. on Aug 12, 2023 From The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog

Last year I chose the German-made adaptation of ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT as the best film of 2022. After I wrote a blog post on it a few people mentioned the 1979 TV film of the novel, which I had never seen. Recently I bought an 8-movie DVD set of action films from Edward R. Hamilton Booksell... Read full article

All Quiet on the Western Front (2022)

By Alyson on Feb 4, 2023 From The Best Picture Project

Edward Berger’s All Quiet on the Western Front starts with a moment of juxtaposition. We are shown the beautiful winter forest in France, and then a family of foxes sleeping, nestled in their foxhole. A foxhole as nature intended. Then we are shown a gruesome, overhead shot of a nearby battlefield... Read full article

ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (2022)

By Dan Day, Jr. on Nov 7, 2022 From The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog

Erich Maria Remarque's acclaimed novel about World War One, ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT, was adapted into an Academy Award-winning, legendary film by Universal Studios in 1930. This year brings a new movie version of the book, made in Europe and featuring a mainly German cast & crew. I viewed... Read full article

ClassicFlix (Teen Scene): All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

By Virginie Pronovost on Jun 28, 2017 From The Wonderful World of Cinema

From March 2015 to April 2017, I was writing the monthly Teen Scene column for the website ClassicFlix. My objective was to promote classic films among teenagers and young adults. Due to the establishing of a new version of the website, it’s now more difficult to access to the old version and read... Read full article

All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

By 4 Star Film Fan on Aug 15, 2015 From 4 Star Films

Directed by Lewis Millstone and starring an ensemble cast headed by Lew Ayres, this archetypal anti-war film based on the novel of the same name, begins with a group of school boys during the dawn of WWI. This group of patriotic German youth is hungry for adventure and the glories of war.  Then th... Read full article

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All Quiet on the Western Front Quotes:

Mueller: Listen, the sum of an arithmetic series is S = A + L times N over 2. Interesting, isn't it?
Katczinsky: What do you want to learn that stuff for...? One day you'll stop a bullet and it'll all be worthless.
Tjaden: They tell me there's some people in this world take a bath every week.
Tjaden: There used to be some food in the sawdust. Now it's all sawdust.
Second orderly: Your deal. Get his name and number?
Medic Orderly: Yeah. Corporal Stanislaus Katczinsky, 306.
Paul Bäumer: War isn't the way it looks back here.
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All Quiet on the Western Front Facts
In part because of his experience in playing the part of Paul Baumer, Lew Ayres became a conscientious objector during the Second World War. His films were banned in over 100 Chicago theaters.
Nazi rabble rousers stormed screenings of the film in Germany, often releasing rats or stink bombs into the theaters, as the wounds of defeat in the First World War still ran deep. This led to the film ultimately being banned by the Nazi party. It wouldn't receive proper screenings in Germany until 1956, though it did play to packed houses in 1930 in neighboring Switzerland, France and the Netherlands with special trains and buses being laid on to transport Germans to screenings.
Made for the then considerable sum of $1.25 million, the production utilized over 2,000 extras. The knowledge that production began only a few months after the 1929 stock market crash puts into perspective the enormous gamble taken by Universal Pictures in making this film.
In the first classroom scene, two phrases are written on the blackboard: 1. in Greek, correctly written, the beginning of the Odyssey - Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, polytropon hos mala polla (the sentence breaks off, against grammar and sense); 2. Ovid, Remedia amoris, line 91 - Principiis obsta, sero medicina paratur (Resist the first elements of passion; it's too late when you resort to medicine). A third phrase appears at the end of the scene: Quidquid agis, prudenter agas et respice finem (Whatever you do, do it wisely and keep in mind your purpose), an anonymous traditional maxim with biblical echoes.
Visa d'exploitation en France: #10077 (reprise)
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