April 20, 2009

All Quiet on the Western Front

Title: All Quiet on the Western Front
Year: 1930
Director: Lewis Milestone
Writers: Maxwell Anderson, George Abbott & Del Andrews, based on the novel by Erich Maria Remarque
Starring: Louis Wolheim, Lew Ayres
Distinctions: Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director; Oscar nominations for Best Writing and Best Cinematography; currently #211 on IMDb's Top 250
Synopsis: a few years of WWI from the perspective of young German soldiers
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), September 2008
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay).
Objective Rating: 7/10 (points off for story, characters and acting) c. 2.5/4 (Okay).

I couldn't watch it again because the acting is so bad, but the battle sequences are at least as good as any other serious war movie I've seen. And making it about Germans rather than Americans or British is kind of brilliant.

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