All Quiet on the Western Front
About All Quiet on the Western Front
Professor Kantorek tells his German class that the fatherland needs them, and Paul Bäumer and his classmates enlist. Training under Sergeant Himmelstoss knocks the speeches out of them. At the front, Corporal Stanislaus 'Kat' Katczinsky shows Paul and Albert Kropp how to scrounge and how to stay alive. The first mission cuts the company down. Paul kills a French soldier in a shell hole and has to stay with the dying man. An air bomb breaks Kat's leg. Paul carries him to a field hospital and finds a second wound has killed him. Back in the trench, Paul reaches over the parapet for a butterfly and a sniper shoots him. The last image lays a cemetery over the class arriving at the front.
Cast & crew
More about All Quiet on the Western Front
Lewis Milestone directed. Carl Laemmle Jr. produced, with Carl Laemmle. The script is credited to Maxwell Anderson, George Abbott, Milestone, and C. Gardner Sullivan, from Erich Maria Remarque's 1929 novel. Arthur Edeson is the credited cinematographer. Karl Freund and Tony Gaudio also have camera credits. It opened in Los Angeles on April 21, 1930, and in general U.S. release on August 24, 1930. The original running time is 152 minutes. A restored version runs 133 minutes. Worldwide rentals were reported at $3,000,000.
Themes
Background
Remarque's novel was the bestselling title of 1929 in the United States, Britain, and Germany. Universal filmed it the next year.
Making
The last shot was made in the editing room. Ayres was no longer on the payroll, so Milestone put his own hand over the sandbags.
Reviews
Variety called it a harrowing, gruesome, morbid tale of war, compelling in its realism, and wrote that the League of Nations could circulate it if the point was to end the idea of war.
Look
Arthur Edeson is the credited cinematographer, with Karl Freund and Tony Gaudio also listed. The closing shot of the hand was filmed after the cast had left.
Preservation
The Library of Congress placed it on the National Film Registry in 1990. A restored version runs 133 minutes. It entered the U.S. public domain on January 1, 2026.
Notes
- Lew Ayres plays Paul Bäumer. Louis Wolheim plays Kat. John Wray, Slim Summerville, and William Bakewell are in the company. Arnold Lucy plays Kantorek.
- The butterfly death is not in the novel, which does not say how Paul dies. It was suggested by a butterfly collection in Paul's house. Milestone used his own hand for the reach, because the actors had already gone.
- The sequel The Road Back (1937) follows men of the 2nd Company after the armistice.
- The film entered the U.S. public domain on January 1, 2026, after the novel's copyright ended in 2024.
- Variety wrote that the League of Nations might buy the film and show it everywhere if the aim was to make war unthinkable.
Awards
- Academy Award for Outstanding Production
- Academy Award for Best Director (Lewis Milestone)
- National Board of Review: Top Ten Films
Scenes
- Kantorek's speech sends the class to the recruiting office.
- Paul stays in a shell hole with the French soldier he has stabbed.
- Paul reaches for a butterfly and a sniper fires.
Influenced by
- All Quiet on the Western Front (novel by Erich Maria Remarque, 1929)
Influenced
- The Road Back (1937)
Also available
- Internet Archive (All.Quiet.on.the.Western.Front.1930_201605)
- Wikimedia Commons (All Quiet On The Western Front trailer (1930).webm)
