All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

IMDb plot summary: A German youth eagerly enters World War I, but his enthusiasm wanes as he gets a firsthand view of the horror.

Directed by Lewis Milestone. Starring Lew Ayres, Louis Wolheim, and John Wray.

All Quiet on the Western Front is based on the book of the same name, about a German Soldier fighting on the front lines of World War I. We follow him from his early recruitment all the way up until he revisits his home and finds that it's not at all the way he remembers it. The film follows the soldier and his classmates, who were all recruited at the same time by their school teacher. While big war battle sequences are not my thing, I was very moved by the sections in which the soldier goes home and tries to enjoy his leave. He has to deal with people making broad statements about what the people at the front should or shouldn't be doing, as well as revisiting his old classroom and hearing the school teacher say the same bits of rhetoric without any nuance or understanding behind them. A very powerful early anti-war movie that holds up really well now.

How it entered my Flickchart:

All Quiet on the Western Front > Hustle & Flow

All Quiet on the Western Front < Long Day's Journey Into Night

All Quiet on the Western Front > Talk Radio

All Quiet on the Western Front < Murder on the Orient Express (2017)

All Quiet on the Western Front < Nine to Five

All Quiet on the Western Front > Backbeat

All Quiet on the Western Front < Say Anything...

All Quiet on the Western Front < Panic Room

All Quiet on the Western Front > Can You Ever Forgive Me?

All Quiet on the Western Front > The Detective

All Quiet on the Western Front < Laurence Anyways

Final spot: #1256 out of 3526, or 64%.