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influence of the ‘fatherland’ to help their cause. Expecting young people to want to break away from poor urban areas and giving them great excuse to do so. “And so the army cam to be seen as the ‘school of nation’ where poorly educated young men from the provinces were filled with conservative values about the Hohenzollern monarchy and national unity. ‘ Whoever has influence over the youth has command of the army’ was a later social slogan’”(Bergahn, 1994,93 ). Already, the sense of authenticity in the film is shining through, throughout this scene. It is important to note why the use of indoctrination thought needed to be used. Many welcomed it and welcomed suffering, due to many reasons: Politically the government saw war as an opportunity to solve social and political problems and find a scapegoat. In addition, the idea of socialist Germany could be spread and many like the youth movement (demonstrated in this film) used war as a chance to escape from boredom and search for heroism.(Hughes, 1988, 177)
The scene is extremely important as it introduces us to seven friends all eagerly waiting to do their country justice. Albert Kropp, Josef Behm, Leer, Franz Kemmerick, Muller, and Paul, the main character whose life is followed all the way through the film. Right at the beginning of the film we are introduced to Himmelstoss the village postmaster. Himmelstoss has now become drill sergeant Himmelstoss, and is quickly going to bring the young recruits into the gruelling reality of war by training them strictly by taking pleasure into ordering them to fall into mud and participate into other physically and mentally straining tasks. The young boys listened nervously as Himmelstoss spoke the extremely hard-hitting words “You're going to be soldiers, and that's all. I’ll take the Mother’s milk out of you, I'll make you hard-boiled. I’ll make soldiers out of you, or kill you!”(Milestone,1930) The realisation then starts to kick in and from then forward their lives will never be the same.
The young lads were now ready to be sent onto the front line in a shell-torn French town. From this scene onwards, the film becomes extremely distressing, yet affects the emotions of the viewer by helping us to understand the reality of war. Callously hard faced war veterans inside an old factory greet the young recruits. The war veterans they meet have been fighting for a while and understand they are a lot wiser than the young boys are. Although the boys feel intimidated by the men, it is interesting to note that the individuals that did last through part of the war would grow to become the same. Sergeant Kat plays a large part in the film as he and the main character Paul develop a strong relationship as the films goes on. Kat goes on to make an extremely interesting speech that states just what the rest of the film is going to be like “Some time, I'm going to take one of you volunteers apart find out what makes you leave school and join the army. Hey, this is no parade ground.” (Milestone,1930) The realism of what lays ahead is starting to become very clear. Following on from wiring duty, the recruits are warned they are to see “some shell fire, and you're gonna be scared. (Milestone,1930)” Once a shell is fired, one of the young men soils his underwear. This part of the film comprehensibly explains the representation of war. The film is trying to draw attention to the real horrors of war and instead of glamorising war; it actually displays an extremely horrid and shameful picture in the viewers head. The realism in battle can be backed by a real front line battle account
written by Ernst Junger "When day dawned we were astonished to see, by degrees, what a sight
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surrounded us. The sunken road now appeared as nothing but a series of enormous shell-holes filled with pieces of uniform, weapons, and dead bodies. The ground all round, as far as the eye could see, was ploughed by shells. You could search in vain for one wretched blade of grass. This churned-up battlefield was ghastly. Among the living lay the dead. As we dug ourselves in we found them in layers stacked one upon the top of another. One company after another had been shoved into the drum-fire and steadily annihilated."(Junger, 1918)
Sergeant Kat then lets the viewers know that it is not an irregular occurrence to become so afraid with the line ‘Never mind It's happened to better men than you, And it's happened to me. When we come back, I'll get you all some nice, clean underwear.” (Milestone,1930) Recognising that most soldiers went through extreme dismay, in fighting for their country.
During the recruits first time at the front line, for the era many special effects occur. However, the effects seemed to aim at letting the audience perceive a realistic view of what actually went on in the trenches, not to promote violence and torture as a heroic venture. During the night, fighting at the front line a young recruit (Behm) is blinded by a shellfire. Staggering queasily, he is shot by a machine gun as he runs out onto the front line. All the horrors or war are becoming even more apparent to the students now as not only have they watched their friend die, but they also have to learn that going to help their friend is foolish and that nothing is fare in war. The anti-war message is already clear by this part of the film and the interminable message gets stronger as it goes along. The next scene sees the men cooped up in an underground bunker starving, exhausted and losing hope. The sounds of explosions are apparent.
The strain is starting to show through nervous breakdowns due to the claustrophobia and strains of trench warfare.
After the battle, the film intends to arouse the viewer’s emotions by revealing that out of 150 men only 80 are left! Either in hospital or no longer alive; the scene certainly promotes realism when questioning the consequences of war. However, the emotion carries on strong as the viewer then goes on to see Paul visit his friend Kemmerick in hospital. Kemmerick wounded himself in battle and the representation of a world war one hospital is realistically, clearly demonstrated. The scene in the hospital is horrifying as you hear screams of pain and witness the patients fighting for their dear lives. The film is clearly trying to shine the anti-war message through basing the hospital on real life world war one hospitals. We can understand this from writings such as Mary Borden’s who, set up a hospital unit on the Western Front. “It was my business to sort out the wounded as they were brought in from the ambulances and to keep them from dying before they got to the operating rooms: it was my business to sort out the nearly dying from the dying. I was there to sort them out and tell how fast life was ebbing in them. Life was leaking away from all of them; but with some there was no hurry, with others it was a case of minutes. It was my business to create a counter-wave of life, to create the flow against the ebb. If a man were slipping quickly, being sucked down rapidly, I sent runners to the operating rooms. There were six operating rooms on either side of my hut. Medical students in white coats hurried back and forth along the covered corridors between us. It was my business to know which of the wounded could wait and which could not. I had to decide for myself. There was
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no one to tell me. If I made any mistakes, some would die on their stretchers on the floor under my eyes who need not have died. I didn't worry. I didn't think. I was too busy, too absorbed in what I was doing. I had to judge from what was written on their tickets and from the way they looked and they way they felt to my hand. My hand could tell of itself one kind of cold from another. My hands could instantly tell the difference between the cold of the harsh bitter night and the stealthy cold of death.”(Borden,1929)
The reality of war continues to become more gruesome in another powerful scene, where Paul is flung into a shell hole and one of the French soldiers is flung into the shell hole with him. In a siege of panic, Paul stabs the man in the throat. Unable to leave the hole during the ordeal, due to explosions going of around him Paul is forced to stay with the dying man in the hole. After tears, and pleas of ‘sorry’ from
Paul the man eventually dies. Perhaps, one of the most powerful scenes of the film as messages such as nationalism does not play a part. Even though this man is, a French enemy Paul finds his wallet to discover a picture of the now dead soldier’s wife and child. All of a sudden, whether the man is French, British or German is no longer important, as this man was a person.
After recovering from a near-fatal wound in his side Paul is given leave to return to his hometown. Paul finds it hard to come to terms with his old life, and as he changes into civilian clothes in his old boyhood room, he looks at his mounted butterfly collection on the wall. He and his sister recall how they used to catch butterflies together when they were young. Ironically, butterflies signify freedom and innocence, the exact two things Paul is not feeling at the present moment in time.
Even his father and his friends are very ignorant to the actual horrors in the trenches with the comment “Naturally it's worse here” (Milestone,1930). However, one of the most significant parts of the film is when Paul overhears his old teacher Professor Kantorek, still glorifying war to a class of new students, the exact replicates to him, and his friends, like a flashback in time. Propaganda was still being used to hurl young men into fighting for the ‘fatherland’, even though the Professor once proposed to starry eyed Paul and his classmates “I believe it will be a short war” (Milestone,1930), three years had passed and the same words spoken. When Paul refuses to deliver a patriotic speech his teacher becomes furious. Paul then delivers perhaps one of the most vital speeches of the film explaining exactly the message the film wants to get across “heard you in here reciting that same old stuff, making more iron men, more young heroes. You still think it is beautiful and sweet to die for your country, don't you? We used to think you knew. The first bombardment taught us better. It's dirty and painful to die for your country. When it comes to dying for your country, it's better not to die at all. There are millions out there dying for their country, and what good is it?” (Milestone,1930).
Feeling lost and out of place, Paul returns to the front line, a few old comrades are still alive in his second company unit, but it is mostly filled with replacement recruits. The recruits are young, naive and again replicas of who he once was; and he was a replica of what they were to become if they were to survive. Few of Paul’s company had survived and food was short. Yet, another problem faced whilst fighting on the
front line “Food was more difficult than weapons to mobilize”(Chickering 1998, 175) Demonstrating the reality of the true sufferings the soldiers had to go through.
Excited to see Kat, Paul runs to find him, however, he shortly dies on Paul’s shoulder without him even realising. In a emotional scene, Paul lays Kat down and goes to get water for him to drink, but another soldier tells him not to bother. Ironically, not long before Paul was explaining to Kat how “All I could think of was: 'I'd like to get back and see Kat again.’ You’re all I've got left, Kat.” (Milestone,1930).
The final moments of the film appear slowly and quietly. Soldiers are bailing water out of a dilapidated trench. Ever so lightly, you can hear a harmonica, whilst Paul is sitting alone in the trench. Through a gun hole Paul notices a butterfly and reaches out for it, as he is about to touch the creature a French sniper takes a shot leaving Paul dead.. This small, poignant ending leaves the look of death on his face to your imagination. The ending explains Paul has lost his innocents forever and will never get it back, it is denied him just as the butterfly is denied him. I think that is the whole point of the movie and that the ending is necessary. It is clear from when Paul does go on
leave that he no longer belongs in the world...that is why he is so eager to go back to the war.
It is important to note that the author of all quiet on the western front , Erich Maria Remarque had experienced war first hand as a young German soldier himself therefore, when questioning the authenticity of the film one can be led into trusting the source. All quiet on the western front tells us directly what war was like personally for a soldier, the traumas one had to go through and that society at the time was unaware or just deliberately oblivious the matter proven by the continuous encouragement for young men to go and battle throughout the war. The dialogue at the beginning of the movie explains why the message is so important.
Words = 1968
