All Quiet On The Western Front [DVD]

This 1979 TV movie stands well along side the 1930 classic & the 2022 movie. Extremely well made & highly recommended. Delivery & packaging were also excellent. Thank to the third party supplier.

Although pre used the is in good condition. Packaged well , would buy from the seller again.

Out of at least three versions of this film has been made, but in my opinion this is by far the best. Great acting from Richard Thomas as the young lead character, but Ernest Borgnine suited and played the part of the older crusty, more cynical version of a soldier and IMO gave an OSCAR winning performance that really makes this version the best!

Although often dismissed - usually by those who haven't seen it - the1979 version of All Quiet On the Western Front is surprisingly impressive and well worth a look. Originally made for American television as one of a slew of superior adaptations of classic novels by producer Norman Rosemont that also included The Man in the Iron Mask, The Count of Monte Cristo, Oliver Twist and A Christmas Carol, this earned a theatrical release outside the US and certainly stood up admirably on the bigger screen. Unlike the 1931 version, this version follows the flashback structure of Remarque's novel much more closely and provides a slightly different ending (because it was a new adaptation of the novel rather than a remake of the Universal film, they couldn't use the butterfly ending invented for the 1930 film), but still retains much of its power. The cast is starrier but good - Richard Thomas, Ernest Borgnine, Donald Pleasance, Patricia Neal and Ian Holm are all memorable - the attack sequences are well staged and the ugliness and daily horrors of life in rat-infested trenches are portrayed with more discomforting realism than you'd expect for 70s US TV. Indeed, footage from them has even crept into historical documentaries over the years. It may not be as great and enduring a piece of filmmaking at Lewis Milestone's version, but it's still a forceful and worthwhile adaptation. The version currently available on DVD in the UK is the theatrical release, which is slightly shorter than the US TV version. The German DVD includes both the two-and-a-half hour TV version and the feature film version with English soundtrack option (though here are synch problems with the German soundtrack). But the best release to date is ITV's Blu-ray release (also released by Beyond in Australia), which is the full 156-minute version in its original fullframe ratio with stills galleries and the film's cinema trailer as extras. The only irritant is an infuriating 90-second trailer for ITV's other releases that it's impossible to skip.

A good anti-war film

very good movie

Enjoyed watching the DVD. Perfect.

It is a good film, but the disc stops quite a lot, as if there is a scratch on it.

A timeless classic. This version is in colour and extremely well done- the acting is above reproach- as a movie about war one often finds themselves getting caught up in the mayhem delivered via Special Effects and movies (often it seems trying to outdo each other) to recreate that realism which sometimes becomes the unintended primary focus of the story. This movie is extremely well balanced - about history, human interests, and the horrors of war. Watching it you are totally immersed in the story and sub stories; it is rare that a war story does not lead you to take sides - In this movie there are no sides; instead it is a story that provokes empathy and sorrow no matter the combatants identity. It is pithy, authentic and a very compelling story of boys caught up in propaganda and the rhetoric of patriotism only to be confronted with the grim, harsh and cruel realities of the horror of war (carnage, emotional and physical pain, as well as death). The overall focus of this movie is: War tortures the souls of the combatants in doing harm to others for the unknown and incomprehensible bidding of leaders under the guise of some nebulous concepts like God, Country, and the often concealed agendas of Rulers. Soldiers are pawns acting upon the ideological and power driven agendas between nations for control over each other.

This film is really excellent, with a great cast, and a thoughtful and frightening message. We see the story of a group of high school boys graduating and then immediately joining the German army to fight in World War I. The story revolves around Paul Baumer, a thoughtful and sensitive young man who gradually sees so many horrors of war, and loses so many of his friends, that he is transformed into a different person, a war-weary pessimist with no illusions, no dreams, no purpose, and no homeland. Richard Thomas does a masterful job of playing Paul Baumer. He is supported with a fantanstic cast of actors. Ernest Borgnine plays the peasant shoe maker who leads their platoon. He is an earthy fatherly survival focused man who does his best to ensure his men have food, rest, shelter, and take no outrageous risks of glory. Paul learns much from this man, who becomes a surrogate father and mentor. Ian Holm plays a military school drill instructor who is a sadist. Eventually his sadism goes too far and he is sent to the front lines where he exhibits cowardly actions that ironically result in his receiving a medal from the Kaiser. Patricia Neal plays Paul's dying mother. Paul has seen so much death that he is only able to show dispassionate empathy with his mother and tells her lies about the front lines so that she does not die of cancer worrying about her son. Donald Pleasance plays a high school instructor who fills the heads of young men on concepts of national glory, heroism, manhood, and other nonsense to which 18 year old boys fall victim. The oddessey of pain is carefully told as Paul experiences one loss and disillusionment after another. The tired eyes of the German infantry speak volumes as the Kaiser urges them on to give their lives for the fatherland. Paul's return home is a wonderful turn in the film as he finds that his father and the older fellows have no idea of the reality and horror of the war. They make simplistic overgeneralized comments such as 'the war will be won if we surround them' and other such nonsense. Paul's eyes glaze over as they discuss these abstractions while his young friends die in the muddy trenches. Paul's best friend, a gymnast and forrester, dies after a leg amputation. Paul tells his mother a story that her son died immediately and painlessless, which is far from the truth. She makes Paul swear by everything he holds sacred that this is the truth. He does so. Then she makes him swear by his own safe return home that this story is the truth. Again, he does so. In this extremely painful scene we see that Paul has beent totally transformed by the war. He no longer believes in anything but his ability to periodically protect himself and others against random and senseless violence and pain. He also realizes that he is no longer able to feel comfortable in his past or in the land of the living away from the war. He returns to the front lines fully expecting that the random nature of war may soon take him. Exceptionally well done, this is a film every family should see. It is only when peopel face the reality of war rather than the abstractions that war would ever end.

I find often times when movie makers try to remake an all time classic they usually fall well short of the original. That is not the case with this remake of one of the greatest all time war movies "All Quiet on the Western Front" which came out in the 1930s in black and white. This remake was made in the mid to late 1970s and features such stars as Richard Thomas (John Boy Walton) and Ernest Borgnine (McHale's Navy). Both this remake and the classic closely follow the book as far as I can remember from reading it way back in high school. The story begins in Germany where a young teenage boy is about ready to graduate from school. It so happens that his graduation falls just as Germany is on the verge of WW I or has just started hostilities against its European neighbors. The young man is swept up in the strong nationalism of love for Germany and " it's your duty to sacrifice yourself for your country" zeal going on at the time. His school teacher practically bully's and peer pressures the entire graduating class to join up and become "heroes" for the nation. His dreams of greatness and glory are quickly shattered once he arrives at the front line and goes out on his first patrol. He sees horses and people blown to pieces and hears the screams of agony of those severely injured and dying in no man's land. He experiences hunger, cold, misery, fear, and death constantly. He slowly changes and realizes that war is a horrible thing and that man must find another way to resolve conflicts if we are to ever survive. The end of the movie is pretty climatic so I will leave it for you to see. I find the remake to be equal to the original and just as powerful in its message. All in all this too is a great classic!

The books' characters are well portrayed in the film and gave one the sense of naïve innocence of youth heading into war. The bond of classmates who experience death and destruction morphs into cynicism as their unit sees more and more action. Well acted and worth watching.

Little to add to what has already been written. The film accomplishes what it is meant to do, show the WWI, show war, various personalities of society and how they change in war, what war does to the individual. As a German speaker, I wish that this film was made in Germany with German speakers. Then when all is said and done, I could not help but think: Hollywood, Americans imitating Germans, Modern Americans trying to imitate older Germans. That said, I know nothing better as filming of this book. Some scenes are outstanding. Some character actors are outstanding. Definitely a recommended watch. A nice compliment to the book to make some of the content more real. Ernest Borgnine is great, but an overweight actor in a situation of famine?! IMO, could have been great as a film, with elements of greatness,but missed that category.