Comparative Essay on "All quiet on the Western Front" and "Saving Private Ryan".
Stage 1 English Studies
Comparative Essay
Compare the techniques that the authors of two texts use to explore the effects of war.
The author of All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque and the director of Saving Private Ryan, Steven Spielberg use various literary and filmic techniques respectively to portray the devastating effects of war. Both authors through the use of different techniques show the accurate revulsion of war, the loss of innocence, youth and ideals in the young soldiers and how the soldiers form bonds of comradeship and friendship during the hardships of war.
In both All Quiet on the Western Front and Saving Private Ryan, Remarque and Spielberg both portray the true terror of war. Both texts show the soldiers suffered both terrible physical and psychological trauma. Remarque portrays this with a young recruit having “collapsed like a rotten tree”. This simile shows that he had the appearance of “calm” and health but on the inside he is in terrible turmoil and fear. In contrast Spielberg portrays psychological trauma with a close up of Miller’s shaking hand throughout the course of the film. Miller’s shaking hand indicates that his psychological state is deteriorating, and with more frequent shots of his hands throughout the film shows it is getting worse towards the end. Both texts also display the horrific consequences caused by war. Spielberg shows this through the first scene of the landing on Omaha Beach, after the massive battle the camera pans over the beach where a mass of dead bodies just litter the beach and are also seen in the water. However Remarque portrays this through his description of the French attack, which was explicit and graphic “his body drops clean away and only his hands with the stumps of his arms, shot off, now hang on the wire”.