''All Quiet on the Western Front' offers a warning about what fanatical nationalism does to a country,' writes Cory MacLaughlin
. He is currently working on a biography of film pioneer Carl Laemmleeering through the yellow lens of his gas mask, seventeen-year-old Paul Bäumer struggles to breath. Like a creature from a distant planet, he takes in his first glimpse of the western front. Bullets ding overhead. Mortar shells explode. The trench is flooding. A sergeant, convinced Paul will be dead by dawn, pulls the mask from his face and orders him to bail the rainwater from the trench.
It is this candor that made the novel an international bestseller and in 1930 caught the attention of movie mogul Carl Laemmle, the founder of Universal Pictures. Laemmle, who retained deep ties with family and friends in Germany, traveled to Berlin to meet Remarque and buy the rights to the book. Sparing no expense in production, the film offered a visceral cinematic experience, immersing audiences in the sounds and images of war.
The film ends with the first moments of peace. But as Berger notes in a recent interview at the Middleburg film festival, the end “is the beginning of a much greater horror.” The rift between social democrats and militant nationalists, between those who want democratic peace and those who embrace authoritarianism, will tear Germany apart.
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