All Quiet on the Western Front (1979)
Directed by: Delbert Mann
Written By: Paul Monash (screenplay), Erich Maria Remarque (novel)
Starring: Richard Thomas, Ernest Borgnine, Donald Pleasence, Ian Holm
WHY IT’S ON THE LIST
I only have the vaguest of notions why this is on the list. I’ve seen the 1930 adaptation long, long ago — long enough that I can’t say I remember much of the film anymore. Perhaps 6 years ago I had a better memory and thought seeing the 1979 version would be an interesting exercise in comparing and contrasting. The fact that there is a 1930 version is definitely the determining factor in this being on the list. This probably wouldn’t have come onto my radar without the earlier version existing. However, there’s lots of movie remakes, lots of books with multiple adaptations, and why I should land on this one is a mystery to me. Clearly, having at the time recently put Platoon on the list, I was looking at war movies (if you’ve not read my post for Platoon, I’ll reiterate that war movies aren’t my thing), but beyond that…nothing.
My memory isn’t great on any of these, but I’d say this is my first instance where the WHY is so minimal. I even now have a passing curiosity in seeing this movie, but not one that would warrant putting it on the list — unless in 2011 I was in fear that I might forget All Quiet on the Western Front existed and never see it (there’s a lot of movies on The List that fall into this category, more on that when we reach one).
So it’s on The List. Who knows what I was expecting back then. What I’m expecting now is..well, I could about copy and paste words from the Platoon post into here. Pathos of war. I see it’s made-for-tv (didn’t know that before, couldn’t NOT see it when I went to IMDB) so I’m not expecting much in the way of action or sweeping epicness. However, with those things diminished, I’m expecting more meat in the characters. I’m hoping for less broad horrors of war flick and a more personal experience.
THE MOVIEI’ve not much to say about it, honestly. It didn’t shrink entirely into the Made-For-TV box I thought it would. There was more money than I expected put into the battles, especially a broad opening pan over the trenches which gives way to a battle scene full of activity using a variety of angles and camera motions in a rather good action scene.. However, as the filmed moved on a lot of the actual combat was tight in the frame, concealing what must have been a lack of true scope beyond that 16:9 square. Even outside of the battles, it seemed Mann was trying to get as much as he could into the small frame, sometimes it worked and felt like Mann was successfully bringing a cinematic depth to the smaller ratio — most times it felt cramped.
This is merely the limitation of the medium, however, and I’m not faulting Mann for what TV can’t do. In fact, my overall impression was good. Mann did the very best he could in bringing a huge war movie to the TV screen.
The classic story is familiar to anyone, even if you haven’t read the book or watched either adaptation. A group of naive, eager young boys enlist to serve their country and quickly learn the reality and darkness of war. Stripped of nuance, there is the essence of our tale, a tale that an opening text crawl tells us should be considered “least of all an adventure.”
It’s a long 2hrs8mins, let me tell you. The movie has a broken pace. I just watched Platoon for this blog, so there is my nearest frame of reference. In Platoon, I said the scenes were long, but that they didn’t overstay their welcome, that in fact they moved naturally and ended when nothing more was to be witnessed of that moment. It enhanced the “reality.” All Quiet on the Western Front similarly tells its story as more of a series of incidents at war, not trying to tell a tale of adventure, but to bring home the brutality and dehumanizing harshness of the battlefield. However, you’re never moved to become involved with the characters. You see what they go through, but there’s still a distance felt — the reality of this world never engulfs you. There’s sadness…at a safe distance.
One key scene to highlight this, and one of the longest moments of the movie, is an 8 minute segment where Richard Thomas finds himself alone under fire at night. It’s visually excellent as he runs and ducks and dodges as flares go up and shells explodes and unseen machine guns rattle away. Finally, he ends up in a shelled crater, hiding from enemy patrols. A lone enemy soldier climbs over the crest and Thomas is forced to kill or be killed. The man dies slowly, and Thomas dwells on never having killed another man up close in that way, eventually finding the man’s name and promising to write to the deceased’s family to tell them what happened. I can’t put my finger on why there isn’t more punch to this scene. Perhaps it just went on too long for my crude attention span and I was drifting by the time the emotional climax arrived. Perhaps it really is just melodrama and I dismissed it as such.
The entire movie collects and observes the experiences of Richard Thomas’s character, but I never felt inclined to an investment in Thomas or any of his cronies (despite a rich performance from Ernest Borgnine as the seasoned old vet trying to keep the young boys alive and well-fed). They die off one by one, as you’d expect, and nothing seems to change. Part of the problem is Thomas is just too charming, too endearing. He’s supposed to be gaining a world-weariness that he just doesn’t have the face or the voice to transmit.
The best parts of the movie are when Thomas goes back home for a 16 day leave. The old men at home want to hear that “the spirit” on the front is good and talk of war like a game. The women are distraught at the loss of their sons. His teacher who indoctrinated his class into enlisting can’t be made to face the reality of the deaths of these boys, let alone the wasteful meaninglessness of their deaths. Thomas can’t face the “real world’ anymore and is eager to return to the only place he fits in now: the front. These are the moments that spoke clearly, rather than overlong scenes of men being killed (since even 1979 audiences had seen PLENTY of that).
Fed up with the old men who think war is a game, easily won
I’m not going to turn my review into a 2hr8min long affair full of paragraphs that don’t seem to want to end. All Quiet on the Western Front was more of a document, a telling of war without emotional involvement or narrative momentum. Still, I’ll give it that it may have been the best thing on TV that night (tempted to actually research if that’s true, I’m sure it’s possible to find the listings, but ah, I’m not going to).
THE EXPERIENCE SO FARI took a break for the holidays, which was nice. Coming back to a war movie wasn’t so nice, knowing that the one after this is ALSO a war movie made it doubly so. I still don’t know where my head was at when I put them on The List.
I’m also coming up on a general movie break, I can feel it. Soon I’ll wander off to read or maybe just sit in the sunlight rather than hang out in my dark mancave watching a screen. I’ve got Lone Wolf and Cub manga calling my name. But I’m determined not to break my 3 movies a month goal. I’ve kept pace for two months, meaning I’ve lasted longer than I anticipated when I set that goal in my initial post. It’d be downright embarrassing to lose my stride before the six month mark.
I’ll pep myself up by looking forward to The Cabinet of Lucio Fulci, that run of 11 movies directed by Lucio Fulci. Surely by the end of it I’ll be sick of gouged out eyes and slit throats. But I’ll be refreshed by a long run of eclectic films…before slamming into the Say Goodnight to Bollywood wall of 19 Bollywood flicks. That, if anything, is where I go way off the rails on my pace, especially as I expect all of those movies to breach well past the 2 hour mark in runtimes. I’m dreading it already. If I do keep pace that’s…that’s….that’s 6 months. of Bollywood. Oh dear. I’m wishing I had picked 19 culturally significant Bollywood flicks at least so I’d have a better taste of India’s cinema. But, uh, no they’re all action films from the last 14 years. Oh dear, oh dear.
So you can see I’m sweating this task, even though I’ve given myself 11 years to complete it. Even though I’m off to a good start, and I’ve managed to still enjoy plenty of other films alongside this endeavor.
As a final note, I’ve had to pass on watching about 5 movies now, either for leisure or that podcast I’m working on with my buddies, because they’re on The List. I’ve been dutifully checking before I watch anything to make sure I don’t disrupt my sequence. I’m excited for the day that I slip up. Will I just post immediately? Will I save it for its turn in sequence with a disclaimer that I peeked early? We’ll see!
NEXT TIME: Capitaine Conan (1996)
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