Last night Joy and I watched “All Quiet On The Western Front” (1930). I had not seen it before, and I thought it was a very powerful movie. I thought the scenes from the point of view of the machine gunner in the trench were particularly moving.
I can’t help but compare it to “Saving Private Ryan”, which I think of as a somewhat similar movie from my generation. I thought both movies were able to movingly depict some of the horrors of war, and I was a little surprised that AQOTWF was able to do that so well since it did so without the use of modern special effects.
One of the main differences I see between the two is one of tone. To me, AQOTWF tends to portray war as pointless, while I think SPR gives the soldiers purpose in their sacrifice. As a result, I think that SPR ends up portraying (in general) the soldiers as brave, good, honorable men, whereas AQOTWF does so to a notably lesser degree. Instead, AQOTWF tends to portray the soldiers as almost duped into fighting in a war they don’t understand, surely still brave, but just not depicted with the same awe/reverence/honor given to the soldiers in SPR. Some of that surely comes from the time periods in which the films were made, especially with SPR in a sense looking back at the “greatest generation”.
I think that difference in tone makes AQOTWF a little more difficult to watch for me, even though SPR is more graphic in its depiction of violence. I understand where AQOTWF is coming from, especially in its time and context, but my father served in the military and I have a friend over in Iraq right now. Whatever your thoughts on war in general, I think that our soldiers deserve all the respect and honor we can offer for their sacrifices for our country.