Preview

"All Quiet on the Western Front": Movie and the Book

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
794 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
"All Quiet on the Western Front": Movie and the Book
In contemporary culture, many of the classic stories have been promoted as motion pictures and became major celebrations of literature, including Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front. Using advanced technology, the globe can see Paul Bäumer's story being vividly retold. However, there are both strength and weakness about the film adaptation of the novel. For All Quiet on the Western Front, even though both novel and movie portray the main idea, the movie version lacks effective emotions and descriptive details as the novel abounds in them.

Using the main universal truth of dehumanization of war, Remarque presents to us the compelling story of Paul Baumer, who goes through the most traumatic experience in life as he loses all his dearest friends and becomes estranged to his past. Both the novel and movie successfully bring out the theme of the terrible brutality of war, just in different ways. Using figurative language skill, Remarque in the novel illustrates the psychological damage on soldiers while the movie, using visual effects, shows the physical damage. As a result, they both send an eloquent message about the horror of war. Also, Paul's character is appropriately developed in both novel and the movie. In the novel, readers can go into Paul's mind and comprehend his thoughts; in the movie, audience can see Paul's facial expression and straightforward reaction towards various events. It is hard to judge which version of the story is better because both the novel and the movie achieve the goal of revealing the truth of war.

The film version of All Quiet on the Western Front should be greatly credited because it moves the audience with thrilling scenes while the words in the novel are simply black and white. The novel requires the readers to have unconstrained imagination in order to step into Paul's world. Through the aid of visualization, the movie version demonstrates some additional emotional details. For example, the movie shows Paul's

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front is a World War I anti-war novel that uses different objects that all symbolize different themes that impact the story. The leaves and different seasons impact the storyline to show the point in the lives of Paul and his comrades and to represent their feelings. The beginning of the novel takes place in late summer while everyone is experiencing a short period of lighthearted fun (9). The end of summer is usually associated as a time that people begin to wonder what had happened to the time that had previously appeared to be everlasting. Paul is faced with the stripping of his childhood due to being exposed to the harshness of war immediately after he was living without a care. Paul reports…

    • 185 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    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
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Erich Maria Remarque’s book All Quiet on the Western Front explains the brutal and filthy life inside the trenches during the first world war. The story revolves around high school friends who through nationalism and propaganda are convinced to join the war effort. However they did not get the heroic lifestyle they were expecting. Instead they got years filled with death, despair, and fear as they continued to fight and attempt to stay alive. Readers will follow the story and learn the true horrors on the battlefield and how even in a state of hopelessness people will still be human.…

    • 100 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Contrary to other literary history works, “All Quiet on the Western Front” by Remarque Erich Maria is so unique because of the way it displays such a realistic view of war and the associated loss of humanity, innocence, and emotion that accompany it. Throughout this novel, Remarque proves his point that war is unnecessary, and dishonorable. The novel really emphasizes on the accumulating body count everyday, showing every aspect of how war is absolutely gruesome and such a waste of pure lives. Also, “All Quiet on the Western Front” shows how the position of being in war can change a person dramatically preventing them from returning to their previous lives, and scarring them permanently.…

    • 114 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Remarque tells of the dehumanizing effects that are perceived in ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’. When the young soldiers arrive at the frontline its nothing to what was anticipated as they had “just begun to love the world and being in it, but we had to shoot at it.” Remarque’s characterisation of Paul is naive and inexperienced as he only just begins to grasp the understanding, through torment and fatality, that they didn’t “believe in those things anymore; we believe in war” their new objective was to survive. Trained to disregard their conscience and distancing themselves from their own emotions, taught to let go of their former lifestyle. “Keep things at arm’s length” was their innovative technique in being able to endure the horrors of war. The audience is alarmed by the lack of emotion deemed by the young soldiers through Paul’s metaphoric language that “we have become wild beasts” enlightening context to the overall traumatic experiences that were inflicted. Remarque continues to portray the emotional state in a distant tone that “we are dead” convincing the audience they are completely detached…

    • 932 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Erich Maria Remarque’s original 1928 novel, turned movie, All Quiet on The Western Front, is very useful in helping to understand the many social and cultural difficulties soldiers faced in WW1 during the period of 1914-1918. One could argue that the given film is reliable, but being a secondary source this is arguable. AQOTWF exhibits the saviour physical, and mental stress German soldiers of World War 1 encountered, and the raw emotional detachment from civilian life displayed by many on returning home from the front. The film has a strong connection and relation to many poems, letters and images received and taken right from the Western Front itself and is very useful in helping viewers to grasp unique insight of physically commencing in battle, living conditions, and rare friendships formed in such harsh, dreadful conditions.…

    • 1089 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    My knowledge of World War One was solely built on the works of European writers, which I had a chance to read in high school and university. The books such as All Quiet on the Western Front by German writer Erich Maria Remarque, Death of a Hero by English poet Richard Aldington, Doctor Zhivago by Russian novelist Boris Pasternak and The Good Soldier Švejk by Czech satirist Jaroslav Hašek shaped my view on the subject, giving me a chance to see the history from many different perspectives. However, only this semester, taking the course with professor Gendal, I finally got an opportunity to learn about American view on this historic event. Among all the books we have read, Company K by William March stood out the most; this book got my full attention from the first page. Company K is an intense…

    • 1239 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The novel, All Quiet on the Western Front is the harshest story about war ever written. This novel was written by Erich Maria Remarque, based on his real life experience about World War 1. It tells a story about a group of companions at war and how they live their life everyday there. After analyzing the novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, readers realized that almost all the characters were either very noble or not noble at all. The one character that stood out of all the character for being a noble man was the narrator, Paul. He is the most noble for being loyal to all his companions, for being sensitive to others and for being selfless in difficult times.…

    • 785 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, written by Erich Maria Remarque, the characters sacrificed their youth in the war and their innocence was lost. Paul Bäumer, the narrator, was forced to discover a harsh reality. Paul’s high school teacher, Kantorek, pressured Paul and his classmates to enlist in the army. Paul was optimistic and naïve. At first, he was convinced that it would be an honor to die for his country. He enlisted, unknowingly signing up for a terrible suffering. His patriotism vanished and his personality battled with the truth of war. This led him to feel great sorrow. Paul and his classmates later realized that there is another aspect in the world and things around them are not as simple and innocent. The battle influenced their minds and attitude throughout the novel. Paul and his group of friends changed their thoughts and outlooks on life by witnessing the horrors of war when they became soldiers. The many deaths became part of their lives, which they were forced to deal with. The innocence that they once knew slowly altered.…

    • 613 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, the author Erich Maria Remarque, explores the effects of war through both literary and structural techniques. Remarque himself being involved in the war, writes from the perspective of young German soldiers who were on duty during the World War One campaign. Using various literary techniques, Remarque is able to convey the effects of war through the destruction of natural imagery, the displacement experienced by the soldiers as well as the loss of identity which eventually affects the soldiers the soldiers.…

    • 908 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    All Quiet on the Western Front is a novel about a young teenager named Paul Baumer and his friends who enlist in the war. He and his friends in World War I. Paul and many of his friends from school volunteered to join the army after listening to their teacher, Kantorek talk about how honorable it is to fight for your country. When the boys started training, they realized that war was a lot more harsh than they had anticipated. After experiencing about two months of rough training from their cruel trainer, Corporal Himmelstoss, they realized that the talk and rumors about war were completely opposite than the reality of it. They lost their belief that war is glorious or honorable, and they live in constant fear; physical and emotional. Much like actual soldiers, Paul had a difficult time recapturing what his life used to be when on leave back in his hometown. Paul goes through more trauma than any young man should. His friends were killed in war one by one as Paul wondered why he was still alive. He faced many trials; guilt from killing enemies who he believed were just people like he was, losing friends, and losing himself. Paul was injured multiple times at war, and was eventually killed. This book focuses mainly on the struggles of a young man at war and his battle to overcome it.…

    • 1097 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Erich Maria Remarque’s novel All Quiet on the Western Front Paul and other soldiers lose their sense of innocence and youth before they are prepared. Paul, a young man enlists in the German Army of the First World War with some of his classmates. These young men become enthusiastic soldiers, but incidents of horror break them down. Paul and other soldiers lose their sense of innocence and youth when they discern the poster of a beautiful woman in the white dress, when Paul does not feel comfortable in his own home and, when Paul realizes he would not know what to do with his youth if he gets it back. Innocence and youth do not last long in the young soldier's’ life.…

    • 1015 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout All Quiet on the Western Front Remarque displays many things for example, how World War I affected the Lost Generation, Paul Bäumer and his friends suffered greatly in a senseless war, and that they cannot live a normal life when their first calling was…

    • 521 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Remarque shows a very strong effect of war on the soldier and also on the family member back home, the civilians of home front. Remarque shows how Paul returning home has made…

    • 858 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    War is often viewed as one of the most dangerous and brutal events ever created. It utterly destroys the humanity and mental state of soldiers fighting in the war. In All Quiet on the Western Front, a world renowned war novel by Erich Maria Remarque, the epigraph states that this novel “will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped shells, were destroyed by the war.” Staying true to this quote, Remarque tells of the horrors of World War I and fittingly describes the effects that war has on humans through the eyes of the protagonist, Paul Bäumer. In his epigraph Remarque says, “this book is to be neither an accusation, nor a confession, and least of all an adventure.” Except for a few notable exceptions,…

    • 1401 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays