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This is an English language film (made in America) adapted from a novel by German author Erich Maria Remarque. The film follows a group of German schoolboys, talked into enlisting at the beginning of World War 1 by their jingoistic teacher. The story is told entirely through the experiences of the young German recruits and highlights the tragedy of war through the eyes of individuals. As the boys witness death and mutilation all around them, any preconceptions about "the enemy" and the "rights and wrongs" of the conflict disappear, leaving them angry and bewildered. This is highlighted in the scene where Paul mortally wounds a French soldier and then weeps bitterly as he fights to save his life while trapped in a shell crater with the body. The film is not about heroism but about drudgery and futility and the gulf between the concept of war and the actuality.
With the onset of World War I, a group of students are egged on by their teacher and enlist in the German army. As seems to be the case with all wars, the young men march off in the belief that the war will be a short one and they will all soon be home, basking in the glory of victory and treated as heroes. Reality begins to set in at the training depot where their one-time amiable local postman is now their demanding training instructor. Soon shipped to the front, they face the daily challenge of surviving trench warfare and killing on a scale that they could never have imagined. All become disillusioned with their once great cause and many suffer from shell shock, severe wounds or simply are killed. One of them, Paul, manages to survive for several years at the front. After some leave at home after being wounded, he is dismayed to find that little has changed and his old professor is still encouraging his students to bask in the glories of war. Paul returns to the front for the last time.
Lew Ayres
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Louis Wolheim
Kat
John Wray
Himmelstoss
Arnold Lucy
Kantorek
Ben Alexander
Kemmerich
Scott Kolk
Leer
Owen Davis Jr.
Peter
Walter Rogers
Behn
William Bakewell
Albert
Russell Gleason
Mueller
Richard Alexander
Westhus
Harold Goodwin
Detering
Slim Summerville
Tjaden
G. Pat Collins
Bertinck
Beryl Mercer
Paul's Mother
Edmund Breese
Herr Meyer
Zasu Pitts
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