Review of All Quiet on the Western Front

After putting off watching this film for a while, mainly due to seeing a few bad war movies and quite a few mediocre ones(The Thin Red Line, The Eagle Has Landed), I finally decided to watch this. I had heard that it was realistic and powerful, but I wasn't quite sure that I actually believed it. I barely glared at the first few seconds of it, uninterested and expecting a mediocre, dull and cliché-ridden war film, but was immediately captured by the purity of the film and the lack of pretension. The director doesn't shove the belief of war being pointless and devastating physically, spiritually and psychologically down our throat... he merely shows it as it is, and lets us decide/discover for ourself. The plot is very good, and the way it's told is great. The first half or so has a good bit of flashbacks, with the main character thinking back to the past, in a very disturbing and worrying fashion. Many of the major tragic events in the first half are made even worse when you see the flashback related to it. The pacing is good, but it drags a little at some points, and there are too many scenes that seem less important than they should. The acting is very good, none of the major roles disappoint. The characters are well-written, credible and human. None of them are heroes or villains. Everyone is equal, which is exactly what it is like in real life, in war. I was incredibly moved by this film, and deeply affected. It shows exactly how rotten, pointless and devastating to humanity and creativity war really is. I didn't cry, watching this movie, but had I not looked away during the most disturbing sequences and possessed an almost insurmountable amount of self-control, I would have. This shows that you don't have to display graphic violence, deafen your audience with loud, noisy heavy metal or throw in plot twists to shock your audience; you can show something that the general public is oblivious of, such as war in it's purest and most uncensored form. This movie is so close to being a masterpiece that it's too bad that it falls just a little short. The cinematography is good, but there were times where it could have been better(see The Thin Red Line for a good example). It's very, very close to a perfect rating, but it has just enough low points to pull it down. I recommend this film to just about anyone who believe they can manage to sit through it... everyone should see it. Everyone. The very end is so devastating and horrifying that no one can possibly see it without being affected. Beautiful symbolism. 8/10