“Westfront 1918” (“Vier von der Infanterie”) is a
German war film that came out the same year as “All Quiet on the Western
Front”. It has been overshadowed by that
behemoth, but they are both great war films.
“Westfront” was directed by the renowned Georg Pabst. He was the leading practitioner of the New
Objectivity style of filmmaking in Germany.
The style was noted for its sober realism. Its bleak, down-to-earth take on trench
warfare got the film labeled “cowardly defeatism” by Josef Goebbels and it was
one of two dozen films banned by the Nazis.
Another was “All Quiet”. The
movie was an adaptation of the novel by Ernst Johannsen. The cast included several well-respected
German actors including Gustav Diessl who was held prisoner for a year during
the war.
“Westfront 1918” follows four soldiers in the closing
days of WWI. They are the Student
(Hans-Joachim Moebis), Karl (Gustav Diessl), Bayer (Fritz Kampers), and the Lieutenant
(Claus Clausen). This is not a
heterogeneous small unit movie. None of
the four has a memorable personality or background. Pabst is profiling the war, not the
soldiers. The movie is a series of
episodes that could have happened to any soldiers, but specifically to these
four. Only the Student and Karl get arcs
and they are romances that cover the two extremes of male/female relationships
in a war.
The movie opens with the core group in an inn
enjoying some time away from the front.
Note the tilted portrait of Jesus.
There is a saucy serving girl named Jacqueline (Jackie Monnier). This is the first inkling that this movie
established some standard tropes of WWI movies.
One of the soldiers refers to coffee as “Negro sweat”! A character develops as the Student falls in
love with Jacqueline. It is his first
experience with love, so he is all in.
They will get married after the war, if all goes well. All does not go well. Their rest is interrupted by orders to the
front. There they undergo a bombardment
that features Karl, Bayer, and the Lieutenant having to hold up the ceiling of
their dugout with their heads and hands.
The Student digs them out when the roof collapses. Ironically, they are being bombarded by their
own artillery.
So here is proof the old knife in the teeth came before the old pulling the grenade pin with the teeth |
As is realistic for this war, combat is followed by
down-time. The men attend a stage show
that includes a girl leading a singalong to a risqué song, a comedy routine,
and a brass band. (This scene has the
only appearance of a xylophone that I have seen in a war movie.) The scene will influence the famous cabaret
scene in “Paths of Glory”. Karl gets his
first leave in eighteen months. On the
home front, civilians are forced to wait in long lines for food. When his mother sees him, she decides not to
lose her place in line. This is not the
clueless home front that Paul Baumer returns to in “All Quiet”. Karl’s wife is not having to wait in line at
the butcher shop because he catches her in bed with the butcher. Awkward!
She begs forgiveness (“It’s not my fault”), but Karl is stoically unforgiving. There is a definite chill for the whole of
his leave and he returns to his real home with his marriage on the rocks. The whole trip home is totally believable.
Did I mention it is anti-war? |
It’s
time to get some characters killed and the rest of the movie is bleak and
bleaker. There is a great long combat
scene that includes lots of grenade throwing, poison gas, and some really cool
tanks lumbering toward the German lines.
The movie has some of the best bombardment effects of any war movie. One character gets shell shock. 25% seems about right. Three of them end up in a charnel house of a
hospital. An indelible image is of a
damaged crucifix in the midst of the horrific wounds. Karl summarizes the theme of the film when he
says “It’s everyone’s fault”.
This is an amazing movie. The film is a technical marvel for an early
talkie. Pabst uses tracking shots (one
of soldiers moving through the trench inspired a similar shot in “Paths of
Glory”), but also allows the French soldiers to move across the face of a
stationary camera for the big battle scene.
The tanks come to the camera for a striking effect. It contrasts well with the modern style of
making the camera part of the action. It
is one of the great combat scenes in war movie lore. The action is realistic, as are the sets. No man’s land, the dugouts, and the trenches
are well constructed. There are nice
little touches that you will see in few if any WWI movies. For instance, a message is sent by a dog. Since the movie is not character driven, the
acting does not stand out. In a sense
that is a compliment because the actors do not overact like you see so often in
the early talkies. There are no
scene-chewing moments like in “All Quiet”.
Even the shell-shocked Lieutenant is effectively played based on actual
cases. Needless to say, the movie is
strongly anti-war. There are no heroics
in the film. The violence is not
exhilarating like in other so-called anti-war movies.
happy ending - not |
In comparison to “All Quiet”, “Westfront 1918” covers
some of the same ground but in a more depressing way. Keep in mind that the time frame for the two
are very different. Paul and his
comrades go to war in the naïve early days and gradually learn that war is
hell. The home front does not reach that
point at all. In “Westfront”, the war is
already lost and the home front is suffering as evidenced by Karl’s wife and
mother. Another way to see the different
perspectives is to compare the two hospital scenes. The hospital in “Westfront” is a horrific and
not orderly with nice rows of cots. Also
note that in “All Quiet”, the dugout roof does not collapse. On the other hand, “Westfront” has four songs
including two in a row! Both movies
have powerful scenes, but “All “Quiet” is more epic in scope. It has more of a flow to its plot and this is
mainly due to it following the Baumer character. None of the characters in “Westfront” are
memorable, but that was not Pabst’s goal.
“Westfront 1918” is probably the second best WWI
movie. It is obviously a must see. I
have to admit I am embarrassed to admit it took me this long to watch it. In my defense, it is not an easy movie to
find and is criminally underappreciated.
I found little information on it from my usual sources. At least the readers of this post will now
know a bit about it. My work is done.
About 25 years ago, I obtained a VHS English-dubbed copy of Westfront 1918 from a company dealing in foreign films. A major difference with All Quiet on the Western Front is German actors and German film.
ReplyDeleteAll Quiet has American actors portraying Germans. I read somewhere that All Quiet is like Saving Private Ryan made by Germans.
I do think All Quiet on The Western Front is a superior work of art, but Westfront 1918 being a German made film gives it a tone and atmosphere, authenticity, if you will,
ReplyDeleteI do think All Quiet on The Western Front is a superior work of art, but Westfront 1918 being a German made film gives it a tone and atmosphere, authenticity, if you will,
ReplyDeleteGreat film and great review. I blogged about it here https://greatwarfilms.wordpress.com/2015/05/02/westfront-1918-1930/ and made some similar points about its influence on Paths of Glory. Glad I've found your blog. Think I might be trawling around for some time.
ReplyDeleteThanks. I'll check out your site. Sounds like we are kindred spirits.
DeleteNice review. It is indeed a great film, from a great filmmaker who was also a veteran. France initially banned the original multi-lingual version, allowing only for a fully French-speaking release. Though it garnered praise from older French critics who had fought in the war, the younger generation gave it mixed reviews, mostly because of its "hesitant" politics as, contrary to Milestone's movie, Pabst's work doesn't blame any particular group or ideology for starting the hostilities.
ReplyDeleteThis point of view was shared by Weimar Germany leftists critics like Kracauer and Eisner. Mind you, they were still hoping that movies could make a difference... Yet, I think the deliberate refusal to engage into anything else than ordinary soldiers' experiences and the overall minor mode of the film, not to mention its cinematic qualities, are precisely what make it still a great watch today.
PS: though more lyrical in visual style you might want to grab a copy of Boris Barnet's Outskirts which has a lot in common with Westfront. From a military operations point of view, the nazis' answer to Westfront, Zöberlein's Stosstruppe 1917, contains some impressive infantry combat scenes - but obviously it is far from being anti-war and you may have to brush up your German... or not.