Review of All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) by Chris H — 28 Aug 2009

Quite rightly, the Library of Congress' National Film Registry, in 1990, selected this film for preservation, being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." Most of the performances are dated to the point of laughability, but many of the shots and sequences are genuine works of art - ageless in their power and beauty, and immune from improvement.

It's easy to see how this was part of the inspiration for Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan" and one can see its influences even in his "Schindler's List". Milestone's direction vaults this to the highest tier of American cinema to rub shoulders with (indeed, it's easy to imagine even having fostered) a rare company of masterstrokes like Citizen Kane, Gone With The Wind, and Lawrence of Arabia.

Forgive it, easily, the mostly stale acting and the too-often stagy dialogue, to appreciate an epic that delivers -- as a film should, more in picture and sound than in dialogue -- as powerfully the sting and stain of war as any film has done.