All Quiet on the Western Front, 1979

by Edward Deaton

Synopsis of Film:
All Quite on The Western Front (1979) recounts the horrific events of the First World War from the prospective of a German boy named Paul Bäumer (Richard Thomas). Paul is barely out of high school and would prefer to be drawing or writing poetry rather than fighting in a war. Nevertheless, Paul and his schoolmates have been assured by their schoolteacher (and others) that it is their duty as the “iron youth” of Germany to take up arms and fight to defend the honor of their fatherland. With their chests full of patriotism, the enthusiastic young men march off to the battlefield to defend their country. Regrettably, the boys have yet to learn the realities of warfare and soon find themselves in a world of suffering and grief.  Their patriotism and pride soon wane as they are exposed to daily machinegun fire, chemical weapons, artillery shelling, and life in the pestilent trenches. A truly gripping story, All Quite on The Western Front gives an unflinching depiction of the futility of war and symbolizes the fate of a generation shot down in the flower of their youth.

Historical Context:

                Erich Maria Remarque, the author of the original 1929 novel All Quite on The Western Front, was himself a veteran in the First World War. Moreover, Remarque fought on the western front for Germany as a young man. He was eventually injured by shrapnel and transferred to a nearby hospital where he remained until the end of the war. Eight years after the end of World War One, All Quite on the Western front was published in Germany. The following year (1930) Lewis Milestone would create the first film adaptation of the novel. Milestone eventually won Academy Awards for best film and director for his film and it was, and continues to be, very popular.[i] Likewise, Remarque’s novel became increasingly prevalent the world over and attracted the attention of a wide spectrum of people. Including a man named Joseph Goebbels (Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany), who was not exactly thrilled about the overall message of the novel. In fact, during the Nazi era (1933-1945) Remarque’s novel was banned (and burned) in Germany and denounced as, “a literary betrayal of the soldiers of the World War.”[ii] Yet, despite Nazi efforts to destroy the book, it has continued to enjoy enormous popularity (as so have the films). The 1979 film version of All Quite on The Western Front (originally released as a T.V series) also won a Golden Globe in 1980 for Best Motion Picture Made for Television and a Prime Time Emmy Award.[iii] As a whole, the film does a great job of breathing life into the novel and putting into action Remarque’s words.

All Quite on The Western Front (1979) gives a stirring depiction of what warfare was like in the early twentieth century. With advancements in technology, the First World War ushered in a completely new era of warfare. Tanks, airplanes, machine guns, and various chemical agents created a theatre of war that had never been seen before. Compared to earlier wars, The First World War was futuristic and chilling in its capacity to produce causalities. All Quite on The Western Front (1979) gives the audience a glimpse into what that type of warfare looked like. The movie makes several references to how the stagnant style of trench warfare was fought. The film also exposes the miserable living conditions that soldiers endured. Moreover, the movie’s representation of the horrors of new weaponry is uncanny. Overall, the film deserves credit for an accurate portrayal of warfare during this era.
The representation of chemical warfare makes an appearance in one or two scenes from All Quite on The Western Front (1979). During these scenes the audience watches a young German solider choke on poisonous gas while the surrounding soldiers, all wearing gasmasks, debate whether or not to “euthanize” him out of mercy. During the film, Paul Bäumer refers to the gas as, “the most feared and obscene weapon of all.” He goes on to say that he remembers the gas patients in the hospital who, “suffocated” and “coughed up their burnt lungs in clots”[iv]. Generally speaking, there is evidence to corroborate the films portrayal. For example, a British news cable to The New York Times once stated that many soldiers lacked an understanding of the “new danger” and “were overcome by the fumes and died poisoned.” The cable goes on to say that many who escaped “cough and spit blood” and the dead “were turned black at once”.[v]

Many prominent German scientists, including Fritz Haber and Walther Nernst, made significant contributions to the advancement of this new theatre of warfare. Both Nernst and Haber won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work (Nernst in 1920 and Haber in 1918)[vi]. Fritz Haber has even been called “the father of chemical warfare” for his contributions for developing chlorine and several other poisonous gases into weapons used during World War One.[vii] Altogether, gas was indeed prevalent during this era and would have been commonplace during combat. The film All Quite on The Western Front (1979), although a fictional movie, accurately reflects the reality of chemical warfare during this period.

Another scene depicting realism from Quite on The Western Front (1979) displays soldiers baiting rats with rotten pieces of bread. Shortly after the soldiers have lured the rats into the open, they kill the rats with shovels. This was indeed a part of life in the trenches and soldiers used many methods to kill the pests. Often times terriers were used to kill the rats and many photographs exist that show soldiers posing alongside piles of rats with their dogs.[viii]  Furthermore, a soldier during the film is shown reaching underneath his shirt and picking lice off of his body. He then throws the lice into a hot pan and remarks, “You see the way he blows up?”[ix] These scenes accurately capture the realities of what life was life in the miserable trenches. Often the trenches were muddy, invested with rats and lice, and altogether filthy. The film does a good job of depicting the living conditions that the average solider would have had to endure. Author Gordon Kerr effectively captures the reality of this type of warfare when he wrote, “Rats fed on the dead bodies that lay in the trenches and soldiers often became infested with lice.”[x]

Perhaps it is worth mentioning the underlying enthusiasm depicted by the soldiers in the beginning of the movie. Some have called the initial patriotic enthusiasm Germans’ felt during August of 1914 as “The Spirt of 1914.” The concept being that most Germans felt great enthusiasm for the war effort and several displays of patriotism (parades, singing anthems etc.) ensued. Willhelm the II famously stated that the war would bear a resemblance to “lunch in Paris, dinner in St.Petersburg.”[xi] Many soldiers shared this sentiment and felt that they could win the war and possibly be back home for Christmas. During the film the soldiers are seen marching off to the recruiting posts singing a popular patriotic German anthem (at least a similar version) of“Die Wacht am Rhein“(The Watch on The Rhine). Historically, this song was used during the Franco-Prussian War to express the idea that Germany was keeping a watchful eye on their borders from French invasion. The anthem was also widely used during the First World War to boost morale and patriotism.[xii] On the whole, this was a nice detail added in by the filmmakers of All Quite on The Western Front (1979) to give the film a touch of historical authenticity.

Although, some historians have suggested the feelings amongst Germans during this time was a bit more complex, and that “The Spirit of 1914” was somewhat overly broad as a concept. Yet, it can be confirmed that the patriotism displayed during the film All Quite on The Western Front (1979) represents at least some those events and attitudes accurately. In fact, during the first month of World War One Germany resembled a “month-long patriotic festival” in which Germans said good-bye to their departing soldiers and ,“smothered them with flowers and so much chocolate that the Red Cross asked the population to be less generous; the soldiers were getting sick.”[xiii]

How true is this film?

The film All Quite on The Western Front (1979) is best described as fictionalized. However, it has strong connections to events from World War One that possess a factual basis. In that sense, the film is historically noteworthy on many levels. Many of the depictions in the film accurately reflect early twentieth century warfare and various attitudes towards the war at different stages. Namely, the film gives a good representation of the initial patriotism and the subsequent disillusionment felt by many Germans after the First World War. Furthermore, it accurately brings to the attention of the audience the atrocities that soldiers from the First World War would have typically endured.
Some details in the film pay great attention to historical accuracy. The depictions of Willhelm II during the film never shows his left arm move. This would have been accurate due to the fact that Willhelm II had a withered left arm from a trauma he endured during birth. Most of Willhelm’s life was spent trying to conceal his deformity which he felt signified weakness. Many photographs show Willhelm II posing his crippled arm atop the hilt of a sword or on other occasions using a cane. His left arm was around six inches shorter than his right arm and some have speculated that this deformity contributed to emotional stress and his overall unstable character.[xiv]
Moreover, the depictions of German attitudes towards the war in the film can be corroborated with fact. There was indeed a powerful sense of patriotism and pride during the early part of the war for many Germans. This zeal was followed by a subsequent feeling of disillusionment. For example, Herbert Sulzbach offers an interesting real-life case study of a German soldier fighting on the Western Front that reflects similar attitudes. Similar to Paul, Sulzbach spent four years on the Western Front and kept a detailed daily diary during his service. Many of his diary entries (published in the book With The German Guns: Four Years on The Western Front) effectively capture these changing attitudes throughout the war. For example, Sulzbach wrote (Saturday, 1 August at 6:30 pm) the following: “Try as I may I simply can’t convey the splendid spirit and wild enthusiasm that has come over all of us.”[xv] Furthermore, Sulzbach mentions (on August 8^th 1914) that “many of my school friends are in the same artillery battalion.”[xvi]
These diary entries pair nicely with the story plot of All Quite on The Western Front (1979) and corroborate a factual basis for the film. Sulzbach, similarly to the fictional Paul Bäumer, enlisted with his school friends and was initially enthusiastic about the prospect of fighting for his fatherland. Regrettably, Sulzbach’s final diary entry (December 4^th, 1918) stated that as he turned in his uniform after Germany’s defeat he felt as if he was, “walking to my own funeral.”[xvii]
During the final scene of the movie, Paul Bäumer can be seen writing a letter to his school friend Albert. Paul is covered in mud and smoking a cigarette. His image is the epitome of a broken man at this point in the film. The voiceover states, “Out of The class of 1916, out of the twenty who enlisted, thirteen are dead, four are missing, and one is in a madhouse. You and I live. How I miss you.”[xviii] Shortly after this scene Paul is shot and killed.
In conclusion, while the movie is classified as fiction it represents some very real concepts of The First World War. Including depictions of twentieth century warfare, politics, life in the trenches, and various attitudes from soldiers on the Western Front. Overall, the movie bears an uncanny resemblance to real events and is historically noteworthy on many levels.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX1PW2n8POg

[i] Löschnigg, Martin, and Sokolowska-Paryz, Marzena, eds. The Great War in Post-Memory Literature and Film. Berlin/Boston, DE: De Gruyter, 2014. Accessed January 30, 2016. ProQuest ebrary.

[ii] United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005852

[iii] Löschnigg, Martin, and Sokolowska-Paryz, Marzena, eds. The Great War in Post-Memory Literature and Film. Berlin/Boston, DE: De Gruyter, 2014. Accessed January 30, 2016. ProQuest ebrary.
[iv] All Quite On The Western Front. Dir. Delbert Mann. Perf. Richard Thomas and Ernest Borgnine. 1979. DVD.
[v] Faith, Thomas I.. Behind the Gas Mask : The U.S. Chemical Warfare Service in War and Peace. Urbana, IL, USA: University of Illinois Press, 2014. Accessed January 30, 2016. ProQuest ebrary.
[vi] Faith, Thomas I.. Behind the Gas Mask : The U.S. Chemical Warfare Service in War and Peace. Urbana, IL, USA: University of Illinois Press, 2014. Accessed January 30, 2016. ProQuest ebrary.
[vii] Faith, Thomas I.. Behind the Gas Mask : The U.S. Chemical Warfare Service in War and Peace. Urbana, IL, USA: University of Illinois Press, 2014. Accessed January 30, 2016. ProQuest ebrary.
[viii] Kerr, Gordon. Short History of the First World War : Land, Sea and Air, 1914-1918. Harpenden, GBR: Pocket Essentials, 2014. Accessed January 30, 2016. ProQuest ebrary.
[ix] All Quite On The Western Front. Dir. Delbert Mann. Perf. Richard Thomas and Ernest Borgnine. 1979. DVD.
[x] Kerr, Gordon. Short History of the First World War : Land, Sea and Air, 1914-1918. Harpenden, GBR: Pocket Essentials, 2014. Accessed January 30, 2016. ProQuest ebrary.
[xi] Kerr, Gordon. Short History of the First World War : Land, Sea and Air, 1914-1918. Harpenden, GBR: Pocket Essentials, 2014. Accessed January 30, 2016. ProQuest ebrary

[xii] Verhey, Jeffrey. Spirit of 1914 : Militarism, Myth and Mobilization in Germany. Port Chester, NY, USA: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Accessed January 31, 2016. ProQuest ebrary.
[xiii] Verhey, Jeffrey. Spirit of 1914 : Militarism, Myth and Mobilization in Germany. Port Chester, NY, USA: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Accessed January 31, 2016. ProQuest ebrary.
[xiv] Mombauer, Annika, and Wilhelm Deist. The Kaiser: New Research on Wilhelm II’s Role in Imperial Germany. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
[xv] Sulzbach, Herbert. With The German Guns: Four Years on the Western Front, 1914-1918. Barnsley: Leo Cooper, 2003. PG 22
[xvi] Sulzbach, Herbert. With The German Guns: Four Years on the Western Front, 1914-1918. Barnsley: Leo Cooper, 2003. PG 23
[xvii] Sulzbach, Herbert. With The German Guns: Four Years on the Western Front, 1914-1918. Barnsley: Leo Cooper, 2003. PG 22
[xviii] All Quite On The Western Front. Dir. Delbert Mann. Perf. Richard Thomas and Ernest Borgnine. 1979. DVD.