All Quiet On The Western Front (DVD)

All Quiet On The Western Front tells the poignant story of a young German soldier on the Western Front during World War I.

Spring 1917. 17-year-old Paul Bäumer (Felix Kammerer) and his friends are extremely eager to go to war, to beat the French soundly and march to Paris victorious. This is how the boys imagine it. This is the war they are promised by their principal in a rousing speech. With jubilation, fanfare and song, the "youth of iron" marches off – for Emperor, God and Fatherland.

The enthusiasm, however, does not last long. When they arrive at the Western Front after days of marching. It's pouring rain. The trenches are filling up and fast becoming a swamp. But the French do not wait to attack. Flares rise up, brightening no-man's land with a surreal beauty. Until all hell breaks loose again and the French bombard the trenches.

What follows portrays Paul and his comrades' first-hand experience of how the initial euphoria of war turns into horror, suffering and fear as they desperately fight for their lives in the trenches.