All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
Universal
August 24, 1930
Historical Drama
DVD
C

I was on the fence about this movie, so I gave it a half hour rather than my usual quarter hour.  I don't like war movies and, even though this is an anti-war movie (based on a 1928 German novel), it is still about war.  My favorite scene was when the professor gets his (all male) students fired up about defending "the Fatherland."  Ultimately, I decided not to stick with the movie, not drawn in enough.  (I couldn't tell all the young men apart for one thing.)  I went with a "historical drama" tag, because this being made about sixteen years after it's set gave it a hindsight that an actual film from the time wouldn't have had.

I'm tagging Lew Ayres, the only cast member whose name rang a bell.  (He was then 21 but had a lead role as Paul, and a long career ahead of him, lasting into the 1990s.)  Lewis Milestone directed.  This movie was apparently remade for CBS in 1979, with Richard Thomas and Ernest Borgnine.