I think film land, at least Hollywood, is relying too much on remakes or, if the film is a hit, you will see a 2nd, 3rd or in the case of Fast and Furious, #350 in the series. There are some original films out there but, usually, they are made on a small budget. I just watched the latest version of a film based on a book by Erich Maria Remarque who fought in World War 1. So there are 3 versions based on his book, there may be others, but these films have the same title as the book. Here are the 3…
1. ALL QUIET IN THE WESTERN FRONT-1930
This is the first and, to me, the best version of this classic war novel that stars Lew Ayres as the young Paul who, along with his friends, get riled up by their school teacher into patriotic furor and join the German army in 1914. They must go through training with the trainer being their old postmaster who feels he is the next 5 star general and lords it over the kids. Soon enough, these young boys are in the trenches, terrified at the horrors facing them. Over time, one by one is killed until Paul is left alone in the trenches. This is an early sound film and was actually made as a silent until the higher ups realized that it must be a sound film. Sound is used to great effect from the machine gun blitzing the enemy like ducks in a game. The cinematography, by Arthur Edison, is stellar making the black and white come alive. Lewis Milestone is the director who understood what the book was about and knew how to end the film in a great way using his own hand at the very end. By the way, Lew Ayres was so affected by this film that he stated he was a conscientious objector during WW2 and faced taunts and threats. What many did not know is that he joined in the hospital medic field and was truly heroic coming to the aid of soldiers.
2. ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT-1979
I’d love to see this version again which was a TV film that spanned over 3 nights. I had already seen the 1930 version so I was ready to be unimpressed by a tv movie but, I was wrong! This is an excellent adaptation that stars Richard Thomas ( John Boy from The Waltons) as Paul and Ernest Borgnine as the I,Der soldier that takes Paul under his wing. You also have the great Donald Pleasance as the tough commander faced with whipping these kids into shape. Donald Pleasance was in the war and was a prisoner of war for the last couple of years of WW2. It is well acted and the first movie filmed in the former Czechoslovakia, a Communist held country at that time. I hope, one day, you can see this version which, to me, is not quite as good as the original but it’s so worthy.
3. ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT-2022
I just watched this newest take of this classic book and film versions that stars Felix Kammerer as Paul who, along with his friends, join in the last 2 months of the war so they can be war heroes. They learn very quickly that there are no heroes only mud, blood, tanks and death. The bloody scenes are quite realistic and I will not get the image of one soldier, flattened by a tank, out of my mind any time soon. The grittiness and horrors are very realistic and almost too much but I was left wishing for more. Whoever decided to change the time and have it start near the end of the war made me feel like I was gyped. They cut out the scenes when they were being trained and when they visited some French girls. Here it was just one soldier who left and came back with a scarf. Again, I felt like I was cheated and I never felt the real warmth for the characters like I felt in the first film nor the 2nd. The editing, especially at the beginning, left me a bit confused and the friends died so quickly that I just didn’t ….care. This did win many awards and, if I didn’t know the book nor the other 2 films, it might have done more for me but I just didn’t fall in love with the characters like the first one. In the first film, when the first dies and you see another wearing his boots, you feel bad for that boy and icky that his friend took his boots but you understood why. In this film, they omitted the hospital scene but dealt with the footwear in a different way…which I have already forgotten.
Which films have you seen all the versions and which do you like the best? You have Superman, Spiderman, Dune but you have Love Affair as well. Maybe you prefer the first Dune film and, if you do, you might need some shock treatments:)
No comments:
Post a Comment