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DVDs
All
Quiet on the Western Front
 By
Richard Moore
More
than 20 years after seeing the original 1930 version of All Quiet
on the Western Front I can still picture the shattering last
scene.
Based
upon the book by Erich-Maria Remarque, the movie was the first anti-war
film ever made and won huge praise - and two academy awards - for
its portrayal of young German soldiers during World War I.
The
hero, Paul Baumer was played by Lew Ayres, and you witnessed the
horrors of war as you followed him and his schoolfriends through
their initial patriotism and adventure-seeking through to disillusionment
and then a complete disregard about death.
In
1979, a TV movie of All Quiet on the Western Front was released
and the producers courageously went for Richard Thomas, of The
Waltons fame, as the lead character.
It
was a risk, but the gamble paid off in spades as Thomas gives one
of his best on-camera performances as the young soldier.
And
the story does lend itself to him as he begins as a fresh-faced
John Walton-ish lad and ends up by being a hard, cynical trooper
grieving for the losses of his friends and comrades.
To
balance the youth of Thomas, a seriously good batch of elder film
statesmen also joined the cast in the likes of Ernest Borgnine (Kat),
Ian Holm (Corporal Himmelstoss) and Donald Pleasance as the schoolmaster
who encourages his class to join up.
And
among those youngsters you will see many faces of actors who at
the time were not well known but you will easily recognise them
now.
The
plot is pretty brutal, but gives you a little taste of what the
poor devils in the trenches had to endure. Bombardments, attacks
into the teeth of machine gun nests, gas warfare, friends dying
...
The
video transfer of this movie is up and down with a fair few glitches
that will have some viewers pretty annoyed. There are regular examples
of artifacts and aliasing - and the images are quite soft - although
the colour is good. Sound-wise it's fine for a made-for-TV effort.
This
version of All Quiet on the Western Front is well above average
and if you haven't seen the original, then this is well worth taking
the time to look at.
Conclusion:
Movie:
80%
DVD
Extras: 20%
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