All Quiet on the Western Front (1979 film)

1979 American television film by Delbert Mann

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All Quiet on the Western Front

DVD cover

Genre| Drama
War
Based on| All Quiet on the Western Front
by Erich Maria Remarque
Written by| Paul Monash
Directed by| Delbert Mann
Starring| Richard Thomas
Ernest Borgnine
Donald Pleasence
Ian Holm
Patricia Neal
Dai Bradley
Music by| Allyn Ferguson
Country of origin| United States/United Kingdom
Original language| English
Production
Executive producers| Martin Starger
Ron Carr
Producer| Norman Rosemont
Production location| Czechoslovakia
Cinematography| John Coquillon
Editors| Alan Pattillo
Bill Blunden
Camera setup| Arriflex Cameras
Running time| 150 minutes / 129 minutes (theatrical release)
Production companies| Norman Rosemont Productions
Marble Arch Productions
ITC Entertainment
Original release
Network| CBS
Release| November 14, 1979 (1979-11-14)

All Quiet on the Western Front is an epic anti-war television film produced by ITC Entertainment. It was released on November 14, 1979. Based on the 1929 book of the same name by Erich Maria Remarque, it stars Richard Thomas and Ernest Borgnine. Directed by Delbert Mann, this film is a joint British and American production for which most of the filming took place in Czechoslovakia.

## Plot

[edit]

In 1916, 18-year-old Paul Bäumer enlists in the German army with five of his high school friends (Behm, Kropp, Muller, Kemmerich and Leer), after being indoctrinated by Kantorek, their teacher, as to the glory and superiority of German culture. After surviving training camp under the brutal Corporal Himmelstoss, the young men board a troop train bound for the front line. Ominously, at the same moment, they notice another train arriving in town loaded with returning wounded soldiers, who are carried off on stretchers.

Once at the front line, they are placed in a squad, along with soldiers Tjaden, Westhus, Detering and others, under the supervision of Stanislaus "Kat" Katzinsky, an older recalled reservist. Kat teaches them how to take cover, how to find extra food, and other survival skills.

When Paul and his squad return to a French town for a rest week, they see the new recruits have grown younger and younger. To their delight, the leader of these new recruits is their recently demoted training NCO, Himmelstoss. When Himmelstoss tries to make them obey him, they stand up to him. Later in the trenches, while the Germans are launching an attack, Paul sees another squad cowering in a crater, which includes Himmelstoss. Paul forces Himmelstoss to keep on the offensive.

The French and German armies are shown attacking each other repeatedly over a few hundred yards of torn, corpse-strewn land. Kemmerich is wounded, and later dies in an overcrowded army hospital. Paul returns to the trenches with his squad, distraught over Kemmerich's death.

When a French soldier falls into a crater Paul is hiding in, Paul stabs the man in the stomach with his trench dagger. Forced to spend the night with him, Paul tries to bandage the dying soldier's wounds, but he dies anyway. Paul escapes from the crater, stricken with guilt. An inexperienced new recruit, after falling into a pit of poison gas, is carried off by the medics to a slow, painful death; the medics had appeared before Kat could put him out of his misery.

Although Paul, Kropp and Leer have their first sexual experience with a trio of accommodating French village girls, the vast majority of the young men's experiences are horrific. One by one, practically all of Paul's schoolmate friends die. A haughty Kaiser Wilhelm II (Denys Graham) visits their camp to ceremoniously pin medals on heroic soldiers, which includes Himmelstoss.

When Paul's squad is bombed in a French town close to the front, Behm dies while Kropp loses a leg and Paul is seriously wounded. Paul improves and he is granted two weeks' leave. Returning home, Paul learns from his sister that their mother is dying of cancer. In visits to a beer garden and to his former teacher, Paul realises that his town's older men, in their enthusiasm for war, have no sense of the horrors they have sent their youth to. He also visits Kemmerich's mother and lies to her that he did not suffer.

Paul returns to duty, Kat is wounded in the leg by an artillery shell and Paul carries him many miles to a field hospital. Only at the hospital does Paul discover that Kat has died, bleeding out to a piece of shrapnel in his back at some point during the journey.

Paul writes a letter to Kropp, the sole survivor of their class, who is now an amputee. After finishing the letter, Paul walks through the trench checking on the younger soldiers, having taken up Kat's position as a mentor. He spots a bird and begins to sketch it. The bird starts to fly away, and as Paul stands up to see where it went, a sniper's shot rings out, killing him. A field communique from the German High Command is captioned over Paul's lifeless body, declaring "All Quiet on the Western Front", the date on the communique showing '11 October 1918', exactly one month before the Armistice of 11 November 1918.

## Cast

[edit]

* Richard Thomas as Paul Bäumer
* Ernest Borgnine as Stanislaus "Kat" Katczinsky
* Donald Pleasence as Kantorek
* Ian Holm as Himmelstoss
* Patricia Neal as Mrs. Bäumer
* Mark Elliott as Behm
* Dai Bradley as Kropp
* Matthew Evans as Müller
* George Winter as Kemmerich
* Dominic Jephcott as Leer
* Mark Drewry as Tjaden
* Colin Mayes as Westhus
* Ewan Stewart as Detering
* Michael Sheard as Mr. Bäumer
* Katerina Lirova as Paul's Sister
* Mary Miller as Mrs. Kemmerich
* Denys Graham as Kaiser Wilhelm II

## Production

[edit]

The film maintains a very authentic look throughout its course. Paul and his friends are clearly part of an industrialized war machine that ruthlessly uses them despite the soldiers having only a vague understanding of what they are fighting for. Authentic details such as new replacement soldiers seen in the film getting younger and younger as the story progresses are reflective of how Germany, like most of the combatants, struggled to find new recruits for the ranks of their armies at the front as the war progressed. Norman Rosemont paid Remarque's widow, Paulette Goddard, $100,000 for the film rights.[1]

## Reception

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The film won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture Made for Television as well as an Emmy Award for Outstanding Film Editing for a Limited Series or a Special.[2]

## Theatrical release and home media

[edit]

The original 150-minute US TV version was edited and received a limited worldwide theatrical release. The resulting 129-minute version was the one subsequently released on open matte (4:3 aspect ratio) VHS videos and DVDs.[3] Commencing with the 2009 UK Blu-ray, all DVDs and Blu-rays feature the original, unedited version.[4] All of these, bar the 4:3 UK (ITV) and Australian (Beyond Home Entertainment) Blu-rays, are also in the film's cropped widescreen aspect ratio.

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Davis Levin, "Why Norman Rosemont Likes to Film the Classics: Norman Rosemont's TV Films", The New York Times 23 Nov 1980: D35.
2. ^ Awards for All Quiet on the Western Front Archived 2022-11-18 at the Wayback Machine IMDb.com
3. ^ Alternate Versions for All Quiet on the Western Front Archived 2024-05-27 at the Wayback Machine IMDb.com
4. ^ All Quiet on the Western Front Blu-ray review Archived 2012-05-21 at the Wayback Machine Michael D's DVD Info Page

## External links

[edit]

* All Quiet on the Western Front at IMDb
* All Quiet on the Western Front at AllMovie
* All Quiet on the Western Front at the TCM Movie Database
* All Quiet on the Western Front at Rotten Tomatoes

* v
* t
* e

Works directed by Delbert Mann

Films|

* Marty (1955)
* The Bachelor Party (1957)
* Desire Under the Elms (1958)
* Separate Tables (1958)
* Middle of the Night (1959)
* The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (1960)
* Lover Come Back (1961)
* The Outsider (1961)
* That Touch of Mink (1962)
* A Gathering of Eagles (1963)
* Quick, Before It Melts (1964)
* Dear Heart (1964)
* Mister Buddwing (1966)
* Fitzwilly (1967)
* The Pink Jungle (1968)
* Kidnapped (1971)
* Birch Interval (1976)
* Night Crossing (1982)

Television|

* Heidi (1968)
* David Copperfield (1969)
* Jane Eyre (1970)
* She Waits (1972)
* No Place to Run (1972)
* The Man Without a Country (1973)
* A Girl Named Sooner (1975)
* Breaking Up (1978)
* Home to Stay (1978)
* Torn Between Two Lovers (1979)
* All Quiet on the Western Front (1979)
* The Member of the Wedding (1982)
* The Gift of Love: A Christmas Story (1983)
* The Last Days of Patton (1986)
* Ironclads (1991)
* Against Her Will: An Incident in Baltimore (1992)
* Incident in a Small Town (1994)

* v
* t
* e

Golden Globe Award for Best Limited or Anthology Series or Television Film

1971–2000|

* The Snow Goose (1971)
* That Certain Summer (1972)
* Babe (1975)
* Eleanor and Franklin (1976)
* Raid on Entebbe (1977)
* A Family Upside Down (1978)
* All Quiet on the Western Front (1979)
* The Shadow Box (1980)
* Bill / East of Eden (1981)
* Brideshead Revisited (1982)
* The Thorn Birds (1983)
* Something About Amelia (1984)
* The Jewel in the Crown (1985)
* Promise (1986)
* Escape from Sobibor / Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story (1987)
* War and Remembrance (Parts I—VII) (1988)
* Lonesome Dove (1989)
* Decoration Day (1990)
* One Against the Wind (1991)
* Sinatra (1992)
* Barbarians at the Gate (1993)
* The Burning Season (1994)
* Indictment: The McMartin Trial (1995)
* Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny (1996)
* George Wallace (1997)
* From the Earth to the Moon (1998)
* RKO 281 (1999)
* Dirty Pictures (2000)

2001–present|

* Band of Brothers (2001)
* The Gathering Storm (2002)
* Angels in America (2003)
* The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004)
* Empire Falls (2005)
* Elizabeth I (2006)
* Longford (2007)
* John Adams (2008)
* Grey Gardens (2009)
* Carlos (2010)
* Downton Abbey (series 1) (2011)
* Game Change (2012)
* Behind the Candelabra (2013)
* Fargo (season 1) (2014)
* Wolf Hall (2015)
* The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story (2016)
* Big Little Lies (2017)
* The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story (2018)
* Chernobyl (2019)
* The Queen's Gambit (2020)
* The Underground Railroad (2021)
* The White Lotus (season 2) (2022)
* Beef (2023)

* v
* t
* e

All Quiet on the Western Front (1928)

Literature|

* Erich Maria Remarque
* Arthur Wheen
* Brian O. Murdoch
* The Road Back (1930)

Films|

* All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
* The Road Back (1937)
* All Quiet on the Western Front (1979)
* All Quiet on the Western Front (2022)

Other|

* "All Quiet on the Western Front" (song)

* Category

Authority control databases

International|

* VIAF

National|

* Germany
* United States
* Spain

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