All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) on Netflix
Professor Kantorek calls defending the fatherland glorious, so Paul Bäumer and his classmates enlist in the German Army. Sergeant Himmelstoss's training shatters their illusions.
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Plot summary
Early in World War I, Professor Kantorek tells his students that defending the fatherland is glorious. Paul Bäumer and his classmates enlist in the German Army, and their enthusiasm carries them as far as the training ground, where Sergeant Himmelstoss drills them without mercy. Sent to the Western Front, the recruits join the 2nd Company, whose older soldiers keep their distance. Corporal Katczinsky sells the newcomers a meal of stolen hog in exchange for tobacco, alcohol and soap. Artillery fire finds the company before the new men have settled into their positions, and their first mission alongside the veterans is a hard one.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- During and after the film's Berlin premiere on December 4, 1930, Nazi brownshirts under the command of Joseph Goebbels set off stink bombs, threw sneezing powder and released white mice in cinemas to break up screenings of All Quiet on the Western Front.
- Comedic actress ZaSu Pitts was originally cast as Paul's mother and completed filming the part, but preview audiences, used to seeing her in comic roles, laughed when she appeared onscreen, so director Lewis Milestone re-shot her scenes with Beryl Mercer before release.
- All Quiet on the Western Front was the first film to win the Academy Awards for both Outstanding Production and Best Director, and the first Best Picture winner based on a finished novel.
- The film was banned in Victoria, Australia, between 1930 and 1941 on grounds of "pacifism" by chief censor Walter Cresswell O'Reilly, and was also banned in Italy and Austria in 1931 until the 1980s, and in France until 1963.
- The film's final shot was filmed during the editing stage, after the actors were no longer available, so director Lewis Milestone used his own hand instead of Lew Ayres' hand.
- All Quiet on the Western Front was shot with two cameras running side by side: one negative was edited as a sound film, the other as an "International Sound Version" for distribution in non-English speaking areas.
- Many German Army veterans living in Los Angeles were recruited as bit players and technical advisers, and around 2,000 extras were used on the film, among them future director Fred Zinnemann.
