All quiet on the western front imdb

With the loss of limbs and gory deaths shown rather explicitly, this is undoubtedly the most violent American film of its time. This is because the Production Code was not strictly enforced until 1934, and also because Universal Pictures deemed the subject matter important enough to allow the violence to be seen. The scene where a soldier grabs a strand of barbed wire and then is blown up by an artillery shell, leaving only his hands still grabbing the barbed wire, was told to director Lewis Milestone by a former German soldier working as an extra, who saw that happen during a French attack on his position during the war. Milestone used it in the film.

Lewis Milestone deliberately made the film without music so as not to take away from the seriousness of the subject. Much to his chagrin, however, some movie theaters added music in of their own choosing, as they weren't used to having films delivered to them without any form of background scoring.

The iconic final shot was filmed during the editing process. All the actors had left so that is actually Lewis Milestone's hand we see in the final shot.

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 fact 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 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.

The film was banned in Germany by Nazi Minister of the Interior Wilhelm Frick on the grounds that it ignominiously represented Germans as cowards. Ironically, in neighboring Poland, that country's censorship board proscribed the film on account of it's being "pro-German."

Around 2000 extras were utilized in the film, many of them Germans--including former soldiers--who had moved to the US after World War I.

The Greek writing on the blackboard in the schoolroom is the beginning of Homer's "Odyssey": "Tell me Oh Muse of that ingenious hero who traveled far and wide".

To ensure authenticity, director Lewis Milestone instructed the studio to try to find out if there were any World War I German army veterans living in the Los Angeles area, so he could have them authenticate German uniforms, equipment, etc. So many were found that Milestone cast a lot of them as German officers in the film, and had them drill the extras playing German troops (the scene where they are laying communication wire in the forward trenches was led by a former German soldier whose job during the war was to do exactly that).

Universal's first Best Picture Oscar.

Lewis Milestone's attention to detail--and desire to be as authentic as possible--was such that the chief sanitary inspector of Orange County, California, insisted that production be halted while he checked on the sanitary conditions of the trenches built for the film.

Banned in Italy until 1956.

Two-time Oscar-winning director Fred Zinnemann got his first job in Hollywood in the minor roles of a German soldier and a French ambulance driver, He was later fired for impudence.

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.

The title of the story is drawn from German newspaper articles. The articles would rave about glorious victories on the Eastern Front but dismiss the horrors playing out on the Western Front in a nothing-to-see-here-folks manner by the simple phrase, "nothing new in the west".

In his 2013 study, "The Collaboration: Hollywood's Pact With Hitler", Harvard scholar Ben Urwand documents how the German riots against this film prompted Universal Pictures chief Carl Laemmle to agree to major cuts in the movie so it could be re-released in Germany.

A special camera crane, built under the specifications of Pál Fejös for his film Broadway (1929), was brought to this film's location in Irvine and used for the battle scenes. The crane had its own concrete ramp, installed several months before at the location, allowed Arthur Edeson to film the extended tracking shots.

Future director George Cukor, having recently been brought out from Broadway (where he was a renowned stage director), was employed as a dialogue coach on this film. His job was to lessen the regional dialects of the actors so that American audiences could more greatly identify with the characters.

The complete text of the novel wasn't available in the USA until 1975.

Zasu Pitts was originally cast as Mrs. Bäumer (mother of Lew Ayres' character Paul Bäumer). Only the preview audience saw the version with Pitts. Because she was more known for comedy, the audience reportedly began laughing when Pitts appeared onscreen. Consequently all her scenes were re-shot, with Pitts being replaced by Beryl Mercer. Contrary to long-standing rumor, she did not appear in the silent version of this film that was simultaneously produced and released for theaters not yet wired for sound; nor does she appear in the international sound version. However, she DOES appear briefly in the original 1930 trailer for the silent version, a scene of her in bed.

The first talkie war film to win Academy Awards.

The "International Sound Version", restored by the Library of Congress, premiered on Turner Classic Movies on September 28, 2011. This version (with intertitles in place of spoken dialogue, which could be easily replaced with foreign-language intertitles, and synchronized music and effects track) differed from the original silent version, which was prepared for theatres not equipped for any sound reproduction. The international sound version was included in the 2014 Blu-ray release, which also contained the restored edition of the original sound version.

Until his death on December 19, 2014, Arthur Gardner was the only surviving member of either the cast or crew.

This film was selected into the National Film Registry in 1990 for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

The novel's title in German is "Im Westen Nichts Neues" which actually translates to "Nothing New in the West".

This film's opening prologue states: "This story is neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those stand face to face with it. It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped its shells, were destroyed by the war . . . "

The first ever film to win Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director.

In June 2007 it was ranked #7 on the American Film Institute's list of the ten greatest films in the genre "Epic".

The American Film Institute writes: "According to contemporary sources, the silent version with synchronized sound ran 15 reels. Var [Variety] reviewed the silent version when it opened in Paris in early Dec. 1930 under the title 'A L'Ouest Rien de Noveau'. The reviewer noted that a scene in which a French solider was killed in a foxhole was cut in the French release. Sequences with 'Zasu Pitts' as 'Paul's mother' were not in the sound version, which was viewed. In the sound version, Beryl Mercer portrayed the mother. The sound version was reduced to 10 reels for reissue in 1939."

Originally banned in New Zealand in July 1930 as anti-war propaganda, but the ban was lifted a month later.

The second most popular movie at the U.S. box office for 1930.

The silent version was thought a lost film until a copy was found in France in the 1990s.

The silent (synchronised sound, non-dialogue) version had its UK premiere 73 years after the film's original release at the Watershed in Bristol on Sunday 23 November 2003.

Several members of the cast and crew were actual military veterans. Director Lewis Milestone served in the U.S. Army during World War I while author Erich Maria Remarque was conscripted into the German Army and was wounded in combat; Remarque based the novel on his experiences on the Western Front. Actor Raymond Griffith served in the Navy prior to WWI while Louis Wolheim and G. Pat Collins were in the Army during the war; Collins then re-enlisted when the US entered World War II. Dialogue director George Cukor was also a WWI veteran, serving in the Army; Cukor later produced training and instructional films for the Army Signal Corps during the Second World War. Technical advisor Sterling Campbell was in the Canadian Army during the First World War; he then re-enlisted during WWII but was discharged to work on American films for the war effort. Actors Lew Ayres, Owen Davis Jr., William Bakewell, Russell Gleason and Jack McHugh all served in the Army during WWII, while Arthur Gardner served in the First Motion Picture Unit of the U.S. Army Air Forces. Milestone also cast several WWI German Army veterans to play the officers in the film, and had them drill the extras playing German troops (the scene where they are laying communication wire in the forward trenches was led by a former German soldier whose job during the war was to do exactly that).

This film hints strongly at some very adult themes such as when Paul and his two colleagues swim over to the French girls and it is strongly inferred that unmarried sex has taken place. Also there is some very brief nudity in several places and some mild blasphemy. A handful of years later the Hayes code was introduced to prevent such matters being repeated in future films. The Hayes code was rigidly enforced in the latter part of the 1930s, throughout the 40s, and most of the 1950s, finally starting to be ignored in the 1960s. As this film had several re-releases in the years afterwards it is assumed it became a victim of the censors. Most of the surviving cut scenes were restored by Universal in 1980 under the guidance of original director Lewis Milestone, who died not long after.

As of 2020, this is the second of 12 movies to win the Academy Award for Best Picture without receiving a single acting nomination. The other eleven, in order, are Wings (1927), Grand Hotel (1932), An American in Paris (1951), The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), Around the World in 80 Days (1956), Gigi (1958), The Last Emperor (1987), Braveheart (1995), The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), Slumdog Millionaire (2008), and Parasite (2019).

Included among the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider.

Included among the American Film Institute's 2001 list of 400 movies nominated for the top 100 Most Heart-Pounding American Movies.

The American Legion argued the film treated the German soldiers in a sympathetic way.

Included among the American Film Institute's 1998 list of the Top 100 Greatest American Movies.

Assuming its copyright has not lapsed already, this film and all others produced in 1930 enter the U.S. public domain in 2026.

The army did not cooperate with the making of the film.

The Hungarian émigré director Paul Fejos had been working at Universal and was hoping to get the job directing this film but was still busy finishing the musical King of Jazz so the direction of All Quiet on the Western Front was given to Milestone.Bitter disappointment at this was one of the reasons Fejos left Hollywood soon after and returned to Europe.

The film is mentioned in Gabriel García Márquez's Love in the Time of Cholera. An antillan war veteran who flees to the Caribbean and ends up in the north coast of Colombia becomes a film buff, rearely missing any screenings of the local, new, semi-imorovised cinema. He watched "Sin Novedad en el Frente" the evening prior to his death.

Despite winning Best Picture at the Academy Awards, it is the only Best Picture nominated film to not have any acting nominations that year.

The only film directed by Lewis Milestone to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards.

The future German film director Wolfgang Staudte was one of the dubbers who worked at the time on the German language release .

This film was released only 12 years after the end of World War One. As such all the actors including the young men were all born before the war began.

Louis Wolheim, who played Kat/Katchinsky died aged 50 less than a year after this movie was released.

The massive opening battle scene was shot silent and the soundtrack created later in the studio. This gave director Lewis Milestone and cinematographer Arthur Edeson a freedom of camera movement that would not have been possible with the restrictive sound recording equipment of the time.

Between 1930 and 1932 Universal produced a series of comedy shorts starring Slim Summervile. Some had military themes and had scenes filmed on sets from "All Quiet On the Western Front".

When ZaSu Pitts' scenes were re-shot with Beryl Mercer, a different actress appeared as Paul's sister.

The film has finally been passed the censors in Berlin (June 1931), despite violent protests from Hitlerian youth groups and the disapproval of the Reichstag, Special precautions have been taken in the cinema where it is being screened to avoid incidents. Years later like many films even German's ones would be banned.

Visa d'exploitation en France: #10077 (reprise)

Universal Pictures production number 5114 (some sources also state 2114). Production number for the 1939 "revised" version was 1034.

Spoilers 

The trivia item below may give away important plot points.

Final film of Raymond Griffith, who played the dying French soldier Gerard Duval stabbed by Paul Baumer (Lew Ayres). He had lost his voice through illness as a child. A popular silent-film star, the coming of sound meant the end of his career.

Is All Quiet on the Western Front worth watching?

How can I watch All Quiet on the Western Front 2022?

Why is it called All Quiet on the Western Front?