Nothing New in the West (1979)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | nothing new in the West |
| Original title | All Quiet on the Western Front |
| Country of production | USA , UK |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1979 |
| length | 150 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Delbert man |
| script | Paul Monash |
| production | Norman Rosemont |
| music | Allyn Ferguson |
| camera | John Coquillon |
| cut |
Alan Pattillo Bill Blunden |
| occupation | |
| |
The anti-war film on the Western Front in 1979 is the second film adaptation of the novel of the same author Erich Maria Remarque . The first film adaptation dates from 1930.
action
The film shows the life of the German Paul Bäumer and his classmates, who volunteered for the First World War for patriotic reasons and, after receiving their basic military training from Sergeant Himmelstoss, experienced the horror of positional warfare on the western front .
Paul Bäumer and his friends were particularly influenced by their teacher, who was an ardent patriot and who inspired the young men for war. He was also convinced of the superiority of German culture and passed it on to his students. The basic military training by Sergeant Himmelstoss hardens the men, but cannot really prepare them for the horror on the western front. They have a foretaste of what to expect when they see a platoon of combatants from the front who have been allowed home leave. At the front they are under the orders of old Stanislaus "Kat" Katczinsky, who teaches them how to survive at the front and how to get extra rations of food.
On the western front, the Germans keep conquering and losing the same piece of land. When Franz Kemmerich, a good friend of Bäumer, dies, his enthusiasm for the war slowly fades. Another horrific experience is the killing of a French man who has broken into the German trench and whom he first stabs down with a bayonet. Paul has to spend the night with the dying man and he reads his letters and is plagued by feelings of guilt.
Paul soon sees that the supply of soldiers is getting younger and younger and to his delight he discovers Himmelstoss again, who also has to go to the front. He tries to continue to act as a commander, but nobody at the front really cares. When another offensive was underway, Bäumer saw with disdain how Himmelstoss cowardly crouched in the ditch. In between, Bäumer has sex with a French woman whom he meets in the no man's land between the fronts. One day visit Kaiser Wilhelm II . the front and distributed medals, including at Himmelstoss. All of Paul's friends are gradually killed. During a vacation at the front in Germany, he talks to older men and notices that they don't know or want to know nothing about the misery at the front. Back at the front, he strides through the trenches, where fearful new recruits are baptized by fire. Paul has aged years due to the horrors of war and is drawing a bird perched on a tree. Carelessly, he leans a little too far out of the trench and is fatally hit by a single French shot. The film ends with the shot of Paul's corpse and the message from the Supreme Army Command for October 11, 1918: Nothing new in the West .
criticism
The lexicon of international films ruled that the film did not reach the intensity of the first film adaptation of the novel. "Because of its honest realism [it is] still [an] impressive anti-war film."
Remarks
Although this film, shot in Czechoslovakia, adheres more closely to the original book and was also produced with more modern technical means and in color, it also received good reviews overall and was awarded a Golden Globe for best film production for television in 1980, the remake did not achieve the degree of fame and popularity of Lewis Milestone's original version from 1930, not least because it - created at another time - was hardly politically controversial. The first broadcast on German television was on September 1, 1983 at 7.30 p.m. on Südwest3 . While the area around Flanders is the scene of the events in the novel , one scene in the film shows a poster with the inscription "Hessenplatz - Damvillers - Azannes", which suggests the Verdun theater of war .
Awards
- 1980 best film production for television
- 1980 Best editing: Bill Blunden, Alan Pattillo
- 1980 Best artistic directors John Stoll and Karel Vacek (nomination)
- 1980 Best Director Delbert Mann (nomination)
- 1980 best drama special Martin Starger and Norman Rosemont (nomination)
- 1980 Best individual achievement Roy Whybrow (nomination)
- 1980 Best Supporting Actor Ernest Borgnine (nomination)
- 1980 Best Supporting Actress Patricia Neal (nomination)
Web links
- Quiet on the Western in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Nothing new in the West. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .