"Westfront 1918" is a film about the First World War that was released in the same year as the more famous ""All quiet on the Western front" (1930, Lewis Milestone).
Both films have similarites. For exampla both films contain a love affair between a German soldier and a French girl, implicating that it is the leaders of the countries that are at war, not the citizens. "Westfront 1918" is made on a smaller, more intimate, scale and is in my opinion the bleaker film.
In both films there is a scene in which a soldier has furlough and returns to his hometown for a while. The main difference in my opinion is the way in which this hometown is portrayed. In "All quiet on the Western front" the homefront is represented by Professor Kantorek, the schoolteacher still holding his pro war speeches to recruit his pupils. In "Westfront 1918" the homefront is represented by the wife of the soldier, caught in bed with the butcher, driven as she is by hunger. It goes without saying that the furlough, to which the soldier has been looking forward so much, becomes a torment for both. I would almost say that this scene is just as fierce as the battle scenes, but this is not true.
Towards the end of the film the scenes are becoming ever more shocking. It begins with a cynical foreshadowing. When the soldier returns from the (disappointing) furlough he passes a workshop for crosses on the grave. Not long thereafter begins the French attack on the German trenches. This scene is memorable among other things because of the oppressive sound of gunfire and exploding grenades. A fine performance by Pabst, who was mostly a silent film director. "Westfront 1918" was his first talkie.
Few scenes have illustrated the madness of war as clearly as the scene in the field hospital that ends the film. The end is announced with a question mark "Ende?". Eerily prophetic when you realise that the film was made at the same time as the rise to power of the Nazi's.
Both films have similarites. For exampla both films contain a love affair between a German soldier and a French girl, implicating that it is the leaders of the countries that are at war, not the citizens. "Westfront 1918" is made on a smaller, more intimate, scale and is in my opinion the bleaker film.
In both films there is a scene in which a soldier has furlough and returns to his hometown for a while. The main difference in my opinion is the way in which this hometown is portrayed. In "All quiet on the Western front" the homefront is represented by Professor Kantorek, the schoolteacher still holding his pro war speeches to recruit his pupils. In "Westfront 1918" the homefront is represented by the wife of the soldier, caught in bed with the butcher, driven as she is by hunger. It goes without saying that the furlough, to which the soldier has been looking forward so much, becomes a torment for both. I would almost say that this scene is just as fierce as the battle scenes, but this is not true.
Towards the end of the film the scenes are becoming ever more shocking. It begins with a cynical foreshadowing. When the soldier returns from the (disappointing) furlough he passes a workshop for crosses on the grave. Not long thereafter begins the French attack on the German trenches. This scene is memorable among other things because of the oppressive sound of gunfire and exploding grenades. A fine performance by Pabst, who was mostly a silent film director. "Westfront 1918" was his first talkie.
Few scenes have illustrated the madness of war as clearly as the scene in the field hospital that ends the film. The end is announced with a question mark "Ende?". Eerily prophetic when you realise that the film was made at the same time as the rise to power of the Nazi's.