All Quiet on the Western Front: A History Teacher's Reappraisal

59. A. E. Casgrain to Clark M. Eichelberger. Mar. 24, 1947. NCAl Collection. Box 33. ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT: A HISTORY TEACHER'S REAPPRAISAL By Eugene P.A. Schleh Eugene P. A. Schleh has written articles and reviewsfor Film and History on war film He is Professor ofHistoiy at the University ofSouthern Maine in Gorham, Maine. Periodically over recent years I have had occasion to view All Quiet on the Western Front (Universal, 1930) in the context of a course focusing on film portrayals of modem warfare. While other assignments change, this film remains a fixed part of the syllabus. I have come to believe in it; it is World War I; it is the spirit of the post-war decade. Acting styles, dialog, and filming techniques are somewhat dated, but the film has an ageless quality. It can still move and stimulate a contemporary youthful audience and introduce them to the overwhelming experience of war. The basic production history of All Quiet is a familiar story. Erich Mana Remarque's international best seller (published in 1928) told the story ofthe impact of the War on a class of German schoolboys, representing their generation. Producer Carl Laemmle, Jr. obtained a contract from Remarque for the screen rights to his novel. Director Lewis Milestone was signed on and with Dell Andrews, Maxwell Anderson and George Abbott, produced a screenplay praised for its Americanization of the dialog while remaining faithful to Remarque's story. The writing team resisted the temptation to add a happy ending, reportedly finally winning the case with Anderson's reply to Laemmle's pressures: "I've got your happy ending for you. We'll let the Germans win the war." Casting was excellent, with particularly outstanding work by Louis Wolheim as Katczinsky, "Slim" Summerville as Tjaden, and young Lew Ayres as Paul Baumer. Milestone went on to win high praise for directing a work which restored visual impact to film at a time when movies were often restricted by the primitiveness of early sound equipment. (In part, he did this by filming action sequences with more mobile silent cameras and later synchronizing in studio recorded sound.) The end result is a classic, perhaps more powerful in theme than the original novel. It ran over two hours, although the version released on 16mm film in the 1950s and most commonly seen today is only 103 minutes in length. Since the film is essentially so faithful to the book and since the latter is still so widely read, an initial book-film comparison seems appropriate. Milestone did revise the chronology of the novel making it easier for theatre audiences to follow the story. While Remarque began well into the war and filled in earlier events by reference, the film begins with the boys in their school classroom and progresses through enlistment, training, and combat, to eventual destruction. Characters are little changed with the most notable exception being Summerville's mature Tjaden rather than Remarque's teenage version. In this instance the modification works perfectly. The book has several episodes, which were not adapted into the film. Kantorek, the teacher who badgered the boys into enlisting, was eventually called up into the army and found himself, uncomfortably, under the boys' authority. In the film he remains in the 66 classroom, preaching to new students his unchanging message of strident patriotism. This provides an opportunity for Paul, home on leave, to make a memorable speech to the students when Kantorek urges him to say a few inspiring words. Instead. Paul denounces Kantorek and gives the class some insight into the horror of the war with the summation: "When it comes to dying for your country, it's better not to die at all." This is but one of several scenes where the film modifies Remarque's original message. Remarque focused, as he stated in his foreword, on "a generation ofmen who, even though they may have escaped its shells, were destroyed by the war." Repeatedly this theme is driven home. While the older soldiers have families and jobs to return to, the schoolboys feel themselves no longer a part of the classroom, yet not prepared or even suited for civilian...