Westfront 1918 (BLU-RAY)
G. W. Pabst brought the war movie into a new era with his first sound film, a mercilessly realistic depiction of the nightmare that scarred a generation, in Germany and beyond. Digging into the trenches with four infantrymen stationed in France in the final months of World War I, Pabst illustrates the harrowing ordeals of battle with unprecedented naturalism, as the men are worn away in body and spirit by firefights, shelling, and the disillusion that greets them on the home front.
BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
- 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- Hour-long French television broadcast of World War I veterans reacting to the film in 1969
- Interview from 2016 with film scholar Jan-Christopher Horak
- New restoration demonstration featuring Martin Koerber and Julia Wallmüller of the Deutsche Kinemathek
- Brief audio interview from 1988 with editor Jean Oser
- New English subtitle translation
- PLUS: An essay by author and critic Lucy Sante
New cover by Anthony Gerace