And this week's Friday night movie has been.....All Quiet on the Western Front!
_poster.jpg)
Well yesterday was Anzac Day so of course I will watch a war movie. And you can't do better than the granddaddy of them all.
It's always a risk going back to a movie pre-New Hollywood - and perhaps an even greater one going back to a movie that sits on the cusp of the transitional period out of the silent era. This is because they tend be ruined by the ravager that is time.
Mind you, this movie was, in it's prime, banned in Germany, Austria, Italy, France and Australia - but you wouldn't think that now.
But that is not the case here. The anti-war message hits like a hammer, the performances are top-notch, the spectacle is astonishing (more so for a movie made in 1930) and the humanism is prominent. Special mention must go to the war scenes which are both realistic and horrific in equal amounts (perhaps the ultimate goal for any war movie) and that unforgettable conclusion. Indeed, it says a lot when an eighty-nine year old move still commands such power.
No comments:
Post a Comment