1. The reputation of AQWF (US, 1930) as the classic antiwar film is well established. See, for example Basinger J.The World War II Combat Film: Anatomy of a GenreNew York 1986 98 98Isenberg, M. T. (1981)War on Film: The American Cinema and World War I, 1914–1941(London), pp. 30, 132, 138. Its leading rivals from the period are G. W.Pabst'sWestfront 1918(Germany, 1930); andLa Grande Illusion(France, 1937), but these never obtained a comparable mass audience or impact. In 1961, when thirty filmmakers, theorists, critics, and historians, were asked which films were “most effective” in addressing the problems of war and peace, twelve of them listedAQWFmore than any other film.Hughes, R. (Ed.) (1962)Film: Book 2. Films of War and Peace(New York), pp. 154–202. Historical studies ofAQWFand its place in the larger political and cultural history of the period have been few and largely fragmentary, for example,Kelly, A. (1989), “All Quiet on the Western Front: Brutal Cutting, Stupid Censors and Bigoted Politicos, 1930–1984”,Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 9 (2), pp. 135–50;Wenden, D. J. (1993), “Images of War 1930 and 1988:All Quiet on the Western FrontandJourney's End: Preliminary Notes for a Comparative Study”,Film Historia3 (1–2), pp. 33–37; andFirda, R. A. (1993) “All Quiet on the Western Front”:Literary Analysis and Cultural Context(New York), pp. 92–106 on the film. Some particular aspects have been more effectively dealt with such as the banning in Germany, inSimmons, J. (November 1989) “Film and International Politics: The Banning ofAll Quiet on the Western Frontin Germany and Austria, 1930–1931”,The Historian, 52 (1), pp. 40–60. In a class by itself is the provocative if often unsatisfying interpretation of Remarque and his setting inModris Eksteins, (April 1980), “All Quiet on the Western Frontand the Fate of a War”,Journal of Contemporary History15 (2), pp. 345–366, and his similar account inEksteins(1990)Rites of Spring: The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age(London). pp. 368–397. With the passage of time, authorities have differed over the artistic value of the Milestone film. Many still credit it with introducing a number of brilliant filmatic devices and becoming a landmark in cinema history. See, for example,Wright, B. (1976)The Long View: An International History of the Cinema(St Albans, UK), pp. 163–168;Crowther, B. (1967)The Great Films: Fifty Golden Years of Motion Pictures(New York), p. 77. However, much of the acting and dialogue and even some of the direction and camera work have been criticized particularly in recent years. For example,Coursodon, J. withSauvage, P. (1983)American Directors(New York), I, pp. 260–261, calls it “an astonishingly uneven piece of work” and “by no means a flawless masterpiece”. Sergei Eisenstein reportedly dismissed the film as “a good PhD thesis”. Quoted byCoursodoninibid., p. 261.
2. Remarque .All Quiet on the Western Frontv–v.