My 100th review is a World War 1 film based on the book of the same name. The film follows a young German, Paul Bäumer (Lew Ayres), over the course of the war. While eager to serve his country at first, he quickly realizes that the war is dehumanizing and serves no purpose. While the film is somewhat slow to begin, the second half is much better and offers a powerful anti-war message.
The film stars Lew Ayres and numerous others. As the film follows Ayres' character throughout, the majority of the cast members have small parts. Ayres is rather impressive portraying a typical soldier. Over the course of the film, the audience becomes emotionally attached to his character and is sympathetic towards his plight.
Although the plot is slow at times and most of the action in the film seems somewhat random, this is still a very good film and powerfully delivers its message. As
Variety wrote, "The League of Nations could make no better investment than to buy up the master-print, reproduce it in every language, to be shown in all the nations until the word 'war' is taken out of the dictionaries."
84/100
BUP NEXT: Alfred Hitchcock's remake of his own film,
The Man Who Knew Too Much.
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