Tapescript 21.

The film All Quite On the Western Part Front was made in 1930 with what was then an enormous budget of one and a quarter million dollars. It was based on the novel by Erich Maria Remarque and was the first ever anti-war film in era of sound. The film came out only a dozen years after the end of the First World War and the film reflects the anti-war mood of young people in this period. The movie was successful commercially and it won Oscars in Hollywood for Best Film and Best Director. It still remains one of the few early sound films watched by modern audience.

The film begins at the start of the war and shows examples of the enthusiasm for the war in 1914 whish persuaded millions of young Europeans to join up and fight for their country. It follows a group of young German soldiers from the moment they volunteer to the time when they actually go to the front in France. The young men are very soon disillusioned when they see the reality of trench warfare constant bombardment, senseless deaths, horrific living conditions, mud mad lack of food. In one scene, the French attack the German lines and are cut down by German machine guns. The Germans counteract but this time it is the turn of the French to drive them back. In the battles, the German soldiers lose a lot of men but find themselves in exactly the same trenchers as before. It is at this point in the film that the soldiers talk about the war.

Part 2

Soldier 1: There’s eighty of us left. The rest is in dressing stations or pushing up daises.

Soldier 2: Well, how do they start a war?

Soldier 1: Well, one country offends another.

Soldier 2: How could one country offend another? You mean there’s a mountain over in German gets mad at field over in France?

Soldier 1: Well, stupid. One people offends another.

Soldier 2: I don’t know any Frenchmen or Englishmen personally – nobody has offended me. Oh, that’s it. I shouldn’t be here at all. I don’t feel offended.

Soldier 1: It don’t apply to tramps like you.

Soldier 2: Good. Then I can be going home right now… The Kaiser and me… Me and the Kaiser feel just alike about this war. We didn’t neither of us want any war, so I’m going home. He’s there already.

Soldier 1: Somebody must have wanted it. Maybe it was the English. No, I don’t want to shoot any Englishman. I never saw one till I came up here. And I suppose most of them never saw a German till they came up here. No, I’m sure they weren’t asked about it… Well, it must be doing somebody some good.

Soldier 2: Not me and the Kaiser.

Soldier 1: I think maybe the Kaiser wanted a war.

Soldier 2: I don’t see that. The Kaiser’s got everything he needs.