All
Quiet on the Western Front was a painful, presumably realistic
depiction of war and the lives lost and destroyed due to the decisions of the government.
I felt very emotional during the film, and I could often feel my heart racing
and anxiety rising during tense scenes. I do not know war, and hopefully I
never will, but All Quiet on the Western
Front depicts war exactly as I imagine it to be, which is to say brutal,
often meaningless, and filled with despair. It was enraging to watch the
government and authority figures—like the teacher of the main characters, who
encouraged them to enlist—invoke patriotism, their only reason being to
“protect the Fatherland,” knowing that many of them would not return home. I
know that this happens in just about every wartime in just about every country,
but it is angering every time. Soldiers are just the pawns of the government,
and patriotism is a handy tool to get them to voluntarily enlist. I would not
necessarily describe myself as a pacifist, but the film reminded me of all the
reasons I despise war unless absolutely necessary, and even then with hesitance.
Lives should not be worthless. Young teenage boys should not be sent to die
like flies. The main character surely died in a moment of brief joyous innocence
for a reason. The form of warfare—including trenches, chemicals, cavalries,
machine guns, flamethrowers—was also hard to watch, given how ineffective and
deadly they were. Trench warfare is largely considered ineffective, as there
are high casualties and little land gain. The use of psychologically terrifying
weapons like flamethrowers only made the war, and the film, more horrifying. Chemical
warfare was banned in the 1925 Geneva Protocol—though it definitely has not
ended chemical warfare, given the use of Agent Orange in Vietnam and, more
recently, the incidents in the Syrian Civil War—due to major ethical concerns
and inefficiency, and rightfully so. I really enjoyed All Quiet on the Western Front, probably in part because of my love
for history, but also because it was a well-executed film that lingered with me
even after it had finished.