All Quiet on the Western Front

[Rigadog]

Saw it on Netflix last night, wow what a movie; one of many that make war look like the Hell it is. Nominated for Oscar.

[Keith Wilson]

The book's even better.

[dutchpp]

^ I agree, read the book as well.

[TomF]

The movie's very fine. Been a while since I read the book...

[ron ll]

Was there an earlier movie? Or is this the first from the book?

[TomF]

I've found it interesting to compare/contrast "All Quiet" with the recent "1917." Similar levels of horror, and similar approach of essentially getting that monumental scale horror across by focusing the movie into a "small" drama revolving around a small group of characters.

What my son (of an age to have died in the conflict) observed is how bloody similar the mindset and experience was of the cannon fodder on each side.

[Dan McCosh]

Was there an earlier movie? Or is this the first from the book?

It's the third movie based on the book--the first was made in 1930, banned in Germany and France.

[Vernon]

Thanks for the heads up. I watched the trailers and added it to my list.
Vern

[George Jung]

What if (our 'leaders' ) threw a war - and nobody came?

You read accounts of 'cease fires', where opposing teams get together, swap stories/stores etc., 'get along fine' - and when the cease fire ends, return to killing one another. Mindless, the way 'we the people' allow ourselves to be (mis)lead, and to do the dying while those responsible sit safely ensconced, away from all harm.

[sandtown]

You read accounts of 'cease fires', where opposing teams get together, swap stories/stores etc., 'get along fine' - and when the cease fire ends, return to killing one another. Mindless, the way 'we the people' allow ourselves to be (mis)lead, and to do the dying while those responsible sit safely ensconced, away from all harm.

The WWI Christmas Truce (actually, it was a mutiny) held for weeks in some sectors of the front. Soldiers were threatened with execution if they did not resume killing.

Buffy St. Marie was right.

[Jim Bow]

A truly great novel of the horrors of WW1. It’s Vietnam equivalent is “Matterhorn: A Novel Of The VietNam War” by Karl Marlantes.

[George Jung]

The WWI Christmas Truce (actually, it was a mutiny) held for weeks in some sectors of the front. Soldiers were threatened with execution if they did not resume killing.

Buffy St. Marie was right.

Just a thought - but had the soldiers 'stuck together' (they still had their weapons, right?), suspect the muckitymucks wouldn't have been too successful.

[Joe (SoCal)]

First 20 minutes of Saving Private Ryan ​ was enough for me to understand war is F’n HELL and I never want to go.

[Norman Bernstein]

'Paths of Glory' is yet another film in this genre... starring Kirk Douglas. It's a very powerful indictment of the stupidity and cruelty of war.

[bamamick]

I just got finished watching 'Narvik' (at 2am while the tornadoes were blasting through here) and one of my favourite 'war films', 'Regeneration'. I think that this is David Pryce's best work, and it will gut you to think that there was a dedicated staff of doctors whose sole purpose during WWI was to get guys put back together enough to rush them back to the Western Front. I would highly recommend that one to anyone with a constitution strong enough to deal with it.

Mickey Lake

[hawkeye54]

A truly great novel of the horrors of WW1. It’s Vietnam equivalent is “Matterhorn: A Novel Of The VietNam War” by Karl Marlantes.

I was not aware of "Matterhorn", Jim - thanks for the reference, I will have to look for it.



Rick

[AndyG]

A truly great novel of the horrors of WW1. It’s Vietnam equivalent is “Matterhorn: A Novel Of The VietNam War” by Karl Marlantes.

Dispatches, Chickenhawk?

Andy

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

I have seen the 1930 film and I’m not sure that a remake can add anything other than “more realistic” sets and better cameras. The original cast had either taken part in the events or lived through the events as children.

If I go to the theatre I can suspend my disbelief…

[skuthorp]

What if (our 'leaders' ) threw a war - and nobody came?

You read accounts of 'cease fires', where opposing teams get together, swap stories/stores etc., 'get along fine' - and when the cease fire ends, return to killing one another. Mindless, the way 'we the people' allow ourselves to be (mis)lead, and to do the dying while those responsible sit safely ensconced, away from all harm.

And I maintain that that is the reason we haven't had a nuclear war, especially since the development of guided missiles. In a nuclear war 'those responsible' and their families, friends and cities would be amongst the first to be impacted. Since then proxy wars on someonelses country, anyone elses country, have been the way to go. Nato and Russia fighting the latest European war in Ukraine is my and Hemlaga's case in point, Ukraine being the buffer state in point.

[JimD]

I just got finished watching 'Narvik' (at 2am while the tornadoes were blasting through here) and one of my favourite 'war films', 'Regeneration'. I think that this is David Pryce's best work, and it will gut you to think that there was a dedicated staff of doctors whose sole purpose during WWI was to get guys put back together enough to rush them back to the Western Front. I would highly recommend that one to anyone with a constitution strong enough to deal with it.

Mickey Lake

'Women at War' is a new French series on Netflix about female ambulance drivers and caring for the wounded, among other themes, set in France 1914.

[AndyG]

I have seen the 1930 film and I’m not sure that a remake can add anything other than “more realistic” sets and better cameras. The original cast had either taken part in the events or lived through the events as children.

If I go to the theatre I can suspend my disbelief…

I promise you, ACB, the remake is worth it.

Andy

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

I promise you, ACB, the remake is worth it.

Andy

Thank you for the recommendation and I shall follow your advice.

[sandtown]

Just a thought - but had the soldiers 'stuck together' (they still had their weapons, right?), suspect the muckitymucks wouldn't have been too successful.

There were many mutinies in WWI, but the gummints used nationalism to great effect to whip up war fever . .

rather like now, not to mention 2003, etc.

[Andrew2]

Read the book and saw the first film, very good... Then a later remake, also good.
He also wrote a good novel about a relationship between a dying consumptive and a racing driver. Worth a look.

[Tom Montgomery]

Thank you for the recommendation and I shall follow your advice.

Ditto

[sandtown]

During the Napoeonic Wars, whole fleets of British warships mutinied.

Somehow, that sort of thing rarely makes it into history classes.

[bamamick]

'Women at War' is a new French series on Netflix about female ambulance drivers and caring for the wounded, among other themes, set in France 1914.

Yep, just watched that one as well. Netflix seems to know how to prompt me with things I can tolerate.

Mickey Lake

[bamamick]

There were many mutinies in WWI, but the gummints used nationalism to great effect to whip up war fever . .

rather like now, not to mention 2003, etc.

Towards the end of that war there were cases where the private soldiers rounded up and executed their officers before deserting en masse. If ever there were a case of a culture reaching its breaking point, it was Europe in 1917-1918.

Mickey Lake

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

During the Napoeonic Wars, whole fleets of British warships mutinied.

Somehow, that sort of thing rarely makes it into history classes.

I think you may be mistaken.

There have been three large fleet mutinies in the Royal Navy; the Spithead Mutiny of 1797, the Nore Mutiny of the same year, and the Invergordon Mutiny of 1932.

All three are very well known events, with much Press coverage at the time and much interest from historians since.

The fleet mutinies at Spithead and at Invergordon were both basically strikes over pay and conditions. In 1797 inflation caused by the war had eaten into the buying power of wages that had not changed since Pepys’ times. The 1932 mutiny (sometimes cited as one of the causes of the Second World War because it gave Hitler the idea that Britain’s armed forces would not fight) was caused by a pay cut.

The mutiny at the Nore was very different - this was a potential revolution. Parker was a revolutionary, and the Nore anchorage lies at the mouth of the Thames.

I can assure you that these events are in school history textbooks.

Single ship mutinies were either fomented by malcontents (the Bounty) or by excessive punishments (the Hermione) but they are another matter.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spithe..._Nore_mutinies

[sandtown]

I think you may be mistaken.

There have been three large fleet mutinies in the Royal Navy;

Are they actually taught that at various British secondary schools ?? If so, that is great.

As for the US, I can assure you that the loyalists in 1778 . . 1812 . . and the San Patrisios of 1846 . . . and the refusniks of 20th century wars . .

are almost never taught.

[WX]

No man's land in (the new) All Quiet and in 1917 are about as graphic as you can get without the smell...or having been there.

[dutchpp]

"Pilkem ridge" just North of Ieper, hell in 1915-1917, it looks quite now.
pilkem ridge.jpg

[hawkeye54]

^^ " If fields could talk " , eh ?

[Osborne Russell]

No man's land in (the new) All Quiet and in 1917 are about as graphic as you can get without the smell...or having been there.

A challenge to the so-called "artists". Are they willing? What is their claim, tell me again?

I want to see intestines and body parts in the mud. For openers.

[TomF]

A challenge to the so-called "artists". Are they willing? What is their claim, tell me again?

I want to see intestines and body parts in the mud. For openers.

The films we're discussing show exactly that. I'm sure only to the degree that the filmmakers could stomach, but more than we've seen in most other war films. The smell is missing, and the overwhelming fear.

The podcast "The Rest is History" did a 2-part thing on Tolkien last year, and observed that Tolkien had not only served in WW1, but had been an air raid warden in north Oxford during WW2. The hosts said that the Siege of Gondor - surrounded on the ground, but also under attack from the skies by the Nazgul - really could only have been written by someone who had the experience of an aerial war to draw on. Also said that the horns of Rohan blowing at the start of the breaking of the siege would have been understood by British readers of that generation as an echo of the horns sounded by air raid wardens signaling the "all clear" at the end of an enemy bombing raid.