Preview

All Quiet On The Western Front: Movie Analysis

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
735 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
All Quiet On The Western Front: Movie Analysis
Many movies and novels throughout world war history talk about experiences such as the increase of nationalism and patriotism, but “All Quiet on the Western Front” based on the novel by Erich Maria Remarque does the complete opposite and engages the audience in the real horrors of war such as the lost of pride, innocence, and emotion that eventually leads to the defeat of the central powers. The movie only talks about those changes, but how patriotism fueled the war and the millions of men that fought in the war.The movie takes place during the “Great War” and it’s all based on the feelings and emotions of a young man by the name of Paul Baumer. Like all wars, the war started off with the full undivided support of the people caused by their nationalism and pride of their nation. They all believed the war was going to end quick, but later find out that was nowhere near possible.

The term patriotism means to love your country or have pride in your nation, and this is exactly how people felt at the very start of the war. Many say that patriotism was fueling the war and the millions of troops fighting in it. In the movie, the young boys and Paul Baumer …show more content…
Paul’s experience at the front line changes him forever, and loses the urge to fight day by day. Patriotism is believed to fuel wars like this one by inspiring young men to go and fight for the love/pride of their country. These teachings do not conrispond correctly to what’s actually going to happen to them while in the fight for survival. The war was greatly extended because of the trenches. To conclude, patriotism or the love for your country contrasts does greatly contrast when compared because of the realities of war such as the ones that Paul and his friends had to face in the movie “All Quiet on the Western
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Filmreport 'All Quiet on the Western Front'
    • 1353 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Filmreport 'All Quiet on the Western Front'

    Paul Bäumer is a German, young boy, who, together with his classmates, enlists for the army to fight in the Great War. Full of enthusiasm and adventurous thoughts, they arrive at the front, but then are faced with the horrific and soul-destroying war. One by one the classmates are fall in action……

    • 1353 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Summary Of All Quiet On The Western Front
    • 245 Words
    • 1 Page

    Summary Of All Quiet On The Western Front

    In the story All Quiet On The Western Front, the author Erich Maria Remarque uses the motif of blood and death to display a theme of withering innocence, and how soldiers had to witness horrible events through humanity’s downfall. Erich uses animals to show crude human nature, the story describes to us how “the belly of one horse is ripped open, the guts trail out. He becomes tangled in them and falls, then he stands up again” (63 Remarque). This passage of gruesome death shows decaying innocence by humans forcing innocent creatures of the land, to fight for their own selfish needs and ways. Throughout the story, Paul is thrown again and again into life or death situations, “I grab for my gas-mask.…

    • 245 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    All Quiet on the Western Front
    • 822 Words
    • 4 Pages

    All Quiet on the Western Front

    “All quiet on the western front” was a war story of a young man’s life during World…

    • 822 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Film Analysis: All Quiet On The Western Front
    • 317 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Film Analysis: All Quiet On The Western Front

    Battle also depicted an untraditional perspective of good and evil. The point of view of the film supported the side of the FLN and painted the French in a bad light. Often, the FLN would be characterized as terrorists for their acts in order to try and obtain independence. While the FLN did use terrorism, they also revealed the brutality the Algerians faced at the hands of the French. Traditionally, due to Euro-centric teaching of history, Algerians were made-up to inhumane and immoral. However, the film provided insight on the oppression faced by the muslim Algerian population and instead, portrays the French as terrorists. The strong sense of nationalism displayed by native Algerians was what allows for this insightful perspective to be…

    • 317 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    All Quiet On The Western Front Themes
    • 1576 Words
    • 7 Pages

    All Quiet On The Western Front Themes

    The major themes that are found in the book is the pressure of patriotism, shattered dreams, and the tragedy of war. During World War I, joining the military was a patriotic thing to do for one’s country. In the book, Paul and his friends reference their old teacher Kantorek quite a number of times. In chapter one, Paul says that “Kantorek gave us long lectures until the whole of our class went, under his shepherding, to the District Commandant and volunteered” (Remarque 11). Kantorek would encourage all his students to go out to enlist in the German military because they were the “Iron Youth” and because it was a patriotic thing to do. Paul and his friends would end up losing their sense of patriotism during their experience at the Western Front since they feel as if they were pressured to join the German military because of nationalism. Paul believes that the older generation who have him and his friends fight in the frontlines do not understand what they go through on the Western Front. For example, when Paul goes home for a little in chapter seven, a patriotic German man tells Paul how the Germans can win the war. Paul then says that “the war may be rather different from what people think. He dismisses the idea loftily and informs me I know nothing about it” (Remarque 167). Paul believes that time has undeniably changed, but the…

    • 1576 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Lost Generation In All Quiet On The Western Front
    • 521 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Lost Generation In All Quiet On The Western Front

    In Erich Maria Remarque’s novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul Bäumer and his generation feel separated from the rest of the world. These boys’ lives were drastically changed by the war, and “even though they may have escaped its shells, they were destroyed by the war,” (Remarque Epigraph) describing that even though they survived the war physically,they were mentally destroyed by the dangers and chaos of war. Paul expresses that “he has been crushed without knowing it” and “does not belong anymore, it is a foreign world” (Remarque 168). The generation of men who fought in the war are “pushed aside,” (Remarque 249) as an unpleasant reminder of a war that society would like to disregard. After surviving such dreadful…

    • 521 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    All Quiet on the Western Front
    • 884 Words
    • 4 Pages

    All Quiet on the Western Front

    In the book All Quiet on the Western Front the main character and narrator Paul describes the war as not fighting for his country but fighting for his own survival. This theme has been repeatedly outspoken in the book because Paul and the other characters have lost their sense of patriotism. Once the characters have left their previous feelings of patriotism, which is why they joined the war initially, they have no other choice but to fight in order to survive the war. Throughout the book Paul thinks back to when he was in school listening to one of his teachers lecture and he thought that at this point he had great feelings of patriotism and love for his country. Later on in the book when he is with his classmates overseas in the war he realizes that he no longer fights in the war is for love of country but for his own survival.…

    • 884 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    All Quiet on the Western Front
    • 808 Words
    • 2 Pages

    All Quiet on the Western Front

    Many men were destroyed by the war mentally. The Soldiers that survived the war and came home almost all had PTSD and were mentally ill from what they had seen or experienced. (Chapter 5, pg.87) "The war has ruined us for everything” This quote means that what they have seen and done in the war has transformed them into only being able to think of and understand the life of war. War becomes what they live and breath and cannot comprehend with other jobs that do not relate to war and the horrifying killing that they were trained to do. Paul was destroyed by the war when he was in a shelling whole and an enemy jumped into it with him and Paul stabbed…

    • 808 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    All Quiet on the Western Front Essay Example
    • 1097 Words
    • 5 Pages

    All Quiet on the Western Front Essay Example

    In a later chapter, Paul explains why he reacted so quickly. War has turned all the soldiers into "unthinking animals in order to give us the weapon of instinct." This primal instinct is one of survival; it is the only thing that matters during war. It allows the soldiers to remain calm in battle, it allows them to escape solitude, and aids them in survival. "As in a polar expedition, every expression of life must serve only the preservation of…

    • 1097 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    All Quiet On The Western Front: Film Analysis
    • 426 Words
    • 2 Pages

    All Quiet On The Western Front: Film Analysis

    Throughout the whole movie, the idea of bringing honour to Germany is always mentioned and that is one of the reasons of why Paul had joined the army and gave his life for it. At the beginning of the movie, Paul’s teacher kept talking about how they are all grown up men now, that are about to graduate so they should start to fulfill there duties as German citizens and repay back their country. Kantorek kept speaking about the glory of Germany and that everyone should be proud to be German; he mentioned that everyone should join the army as it is part of their duties to help their country during difficult times like that. He said that none of their dreams or hobbies would matter to anyone if they did not fight for the county they grew up in and Kantorek urging have slowly pursed the boys in joining the army. Moreover, one of the other reasons that Paul decided to join the war for seemed to be his father. When,…

    • 426 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    All Quiet on the Western Front
    • 793 Words
    • 4 Pages

    All Quiet on the Western Front

    War can do many horrible things to its soldiers, but it can also save them from themselves. All Quiet on the Western Front written by Erich Maria Remarque is a testament of Paul Bäumer. He and seven classmates enlist in World War I. They experience and witness unspeakable violence becoming soldiers. More violence than anyone should ever see. It corrupts most of the soldier’s minds because of the trauma that they have faced. Although war dehumanized many of the young men, war in many ways made Paul Bäumer more human.…

    • 793 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    All Quiet On The Western Front
    • 1021 Words
    • 5 Pages

    All Quiet On The Western Front

    All Quiet On the Western Front, written by Erich Maria Remarque, is a war novel based on World War 1 with the German/French front. In this novel, Remarque applies the changes the war makes on the soldiers a probable and dependable theme throughout the novel that plays a climactic role in the growth of the characters. A soldier must fight against the physical and mental threats every second on the battlefield. Throughout the novel a young man named Paul Baumer, a 19 year old german soldier, narrates his story but is likely the explanation for all of the soldiers in the war at this time. Over the course of the story, one can see how his expeditions in the war changed him and his view on life and how the theme of the war affecting him begins.…

    • 1021 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Critical Review of All Quiet on the Western Front
    • 778 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Critical Review of All Quiet on the Western Front

    “This book…will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped shells, were destroyed by the war” (Remarque Preface). All Quiet on the Western Front, written by Erich Maria Remarque, tells a story of a young soldier, as he and his friends fight for the German army during World War I. The novel is narrated from the point of view of Paul Bäumer. He is nineteen years old and, like many of his classmates, he joins the German army. The story follows as they fight through the horrid experiences of trench warfare. Unlike many other war novels, All Quiet on the Western Front does not attempt to romanticize war. All Quiet on the Western Front does a superb job of describing war as brutal and destructive, rather than romanticizing it because it gives the reader a clear understanding of the emotional and mental state of the soldiers; and describes how the different setting where war is always present; and each character contributes to the horrid truths of the war.…

    • 778 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    All Quiet on the Western Front as an Anti-War Novel
    • 2090 Words
    • 9 Pages

    All Quiet on the Western Front as an Anti-War Novel

    All Quiet on the Western Front, written in 1929 by Erich Maria Remarque, is superficially the story of one soldiers’ journey in World War 1 and his eventual death. Beneath this, however, Remarque has composed a literary treasure which, above all, seeks to illustrate war as that which is engrained in the nucleus of humanity and through the hugely negative effects of war depicted, seeks to question humanities apparent advancement through its need to engage in such a futile exercise as war. Remarque’s Liberal Humanist ideology is given expression through the correlation between war and nature, thus emphasizing the innate position of war within man, the ultimate paradox contained within an advanced mankind engaging in primitive conflicts and the ironic search for an omniscient being derived from man’s reduction to the barest quest for survival. In addition through the examination of the negativities surrounding the social institutions and hierarchies set up in the absence of god, All Quiet on the Western Front becomes much more than an emotive and well constructed piece of historical realism. In All Quiet on the Western Front, the connections between war and the natural surroundings in which it is fought give rise to the position of war the collective psyche of mankind. The military jargon of the ‚the white puffs of smoke from the tracer bullets‛ is followed by the natural imagery of ‚the sun shining on them‛ in order to emphasize the apparent synchronization between war and nature. The colour imagery of white of the bullets and yellow of the sun, being light colours, connote the harmonious relationship between nature and war. Through the proximity of phrases describing both war and nature in an endearing fashion we are led to conclude that war and nature, or that which is primitive, are fundamentally linked. The gaian imagery ‚Earth, with your ridges and holes and hollows into which a man can throw himself , where a man can hide‛ is ironic as it takes a man-made…

    • 2090 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    patriotism
    • 315 Words
    • 2 Pages

    patriotism

    Patriotism is one of the best virtues of men. It is a noble feeling of the mind. It is said that mother and motherland are superior to heaven. Most men have got a love for their country. They wish to make their native land free. Some are ready to sacrifice their own interest for the good of the country. A selfish man cannot love his native country. A selfish man may be rich; he may he born a noble family; he may have a big title, but nobody respects him. After his death, he is forgotten by all. He is sometimes an enemy to the country. He seeks his own interest. He can even do harm to the country for his own interest. But everybody, praises a patriot. A patriot is immortal. He is worshiped by his countrymen. He is honored all over the world…

    • 315 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More

Related Topics