Panning for Gold: 1930 (again) — 'All Quiet on the Western Front'
"When it comes to dying for country, it's better not to die at all."
Welcome to Panning for Gold, my new series looking back at every Best Picture winner in the history of the Oscars. Each newsletter will go over some of the other nominees, some historical context for each movie, and a brief review. Scroll to the bottom for a list of all previous entries in the series.
Today’s entry is Lewis Milestone’s “All Quiet on the Western Front” a World War I movie adapted from the German novel of the same name by Erich Maria Remarque.
Other Best Picture Nominees
“The Big House,” a prison drama
“Disraeli,” a historical epic about British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli
“The Divorcee,” a romantic drama
“The Love Parade,” a musical comedy
Other Awards
Best Director (Lewis Milestone), the first film to win both Best Picture and Best Director, which would become common years later
The Stats
Director: Lewis Milestone
Writers: Maxwell Anderson, Del Andrews (adaptation); George Abbott (screenplay); Erich Maria Remarque (adapted from his novel)
Producers: Carl Laemmle Jr.
Starring: Lew Ayres, Louis Wolheim
Cinematography: Arthur Edeson
Editing: Edgar Adams
Studio: Universal
Running time: 133 minutes (Library of Congress restored version)
The Context
The second Best Picture winner for 1930; this is the only year where two ceremonies happened in the same year
WWI ends in 1918
“All Quiet” novel is first published in book form on Jan. 29, 1929
The movie is released on April 21, 1930
Due to its perceived anti-German and anti-Nazi sentiment, Hitler banned the film in Germany
The Movie
The original anti-war war film, “All Quiet on the Western Front” arrived in theaters a little more than a decade after World War I ended. While this is the second film about WWI to win Best Picture, it’s a complete 180 from “Wings.”
“All Quiet” is much more concerned with the pointlessness and depravity of war, aided immensely by Erich Maria Remarque’s source novel, Arthur Edeson’s cinematography, and Lew Ayres’ portrayal of Paul, our main character who we see go from a young German boy enthused about joining the war effort to a jaded veteran over the course of the war.
Ninety-three years later, the violence depicted onscreen and the onslaught of this film’s sound design still packs a punch, and those final moments of Paul in the trenches with the butterfly are still some of the most effective anti-war images to be put on screen.
What’s interesting to me watching this now is just how influential this movie has been on war films in the near century since its release. Everything from “Full Metal Jacket” to “Band of Brothers” (Himmelstoss was Cpt. Sobel before Cpt. Sobel) cribs from this formula.
Its influences were felt this year, when Edward Berger’s all-German remake was nominated for six Oscars, including Best Picture. (The Oscars love a good look at why war is bad.)
But it never feels derivative; it’s like watching “Citizen Kane,” where watching it with the knowledge of all of its imitators and influences only enhances the viewing. “All Quiet” was the first to do it. The best? Maybe not, but it was a leap for the film medium (those crane shots and medium close-ups at the beginning are great) and a leap for the way war was depicted onscreen at the time.
The only weird thing was watching a bunch of clearly American actors portray German soldiers without a hint of an attempt at a German accent; the only foreign language spoken here is French.
That wraps it up for now. I’ll be back on Friday with 1931’s Best Picture winner: “Cimarron.”
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This newsletter is written by me and edited by my favorite person, Taylor Tompkins. Views expressed here are my own and don’t reflect the opinions of my employer.
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