Tuesday, February 24, 2009
We just finished watching "All Quiet On The Western Front" in my film class. It was an entertaining film, yet on the predictable side. I guess I am just too in tune to today's creations of war movies, that a war movie from the 1930's doesn't seem to intrigue me as much, even if it was during the time of an actual war. However, this being said, I still enjoyed the film. It had many symbols involved and included a wide range of emotion. It gave an audience a view on what war can do to a person and how times have changed so greatly, especially in the field of war. In this sense it was defiantly interesting to watch and study as a film and a classic.
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I don't know if the film works as an anti war vehicle anymore. I show it more because it illustrates basic elements of film in an easy to see and understand way. It was not made during war time. It came out in 1930. World War One ended in 1918, and WW2 started in 1939. So it is set squarely in the pacifist period of the interwar decades. In fact, it, along with the infamous Kellogg-Briand pact represent the high water mark of pacifism and anti-war philosophy.
ReplyDeleteLike you said, Vikkie, today's "war" movies and the "war" movie's of the 1930's are two very different experiences. Comparing the war scenes of AQotWF and say... I don't know... Black Hawk Down or Pearl Harbor or Troy or 300 or.... any of the 428742 war movies I can think of is kind of hard. The difference in technology, technique, and dramatics is very large. However, like Mr. Bennitt pointed out in class, AQotWF seems to be more realistic. Today people just want to see things explode, sexy stealth bombers, and big guns... how much of the truth of battle is distorted by this? Not to mention the fact that wars aren't fought with good ol'fashioned line-up-the-men battles anymore...
ReplyDeleteI guess it's hard to compare...
I very much agree with ya Steph, and i'm no knocking AQotWF at all. Of course I am an action lover and the war movies of today, though not completely realistic do tickle my fancy a bit more the AQotWf did. However i understand that it wasnt a film honored for its vicious battle scenes, blood, and drama, and therefore i was able to appriciate the film on a different level, like Mr.Bennett was trying to point out.
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