All Quiet on the Western Front (1930 film)
All Quiet on the Western Front is the name of two films based on the Erich Maria Remarque novel All Quiet on the Western Front, one a cinematic treatment directed by Lewis Milestone, the other a television film directed by Delbert Mann.
Milestone's theatrical version (1930)
1930 film directed by Lewis Milestone.It stars Louis Wolheim, Lew Ayres, John Wray, Arnold Lucy and Ben Alexander. The film won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1930 for its producer Carl Laemmle Jr., and an Academy Award for Directing for Lewis Milestone. It also received two further nominations: Best Cinematography, for Arthur Edeson, and Best Writing Achievement for Abbott, Anderson and Andrews. For many viewers, the film remains harrowing today, and its battle scenes are often considered extremely realistic even by contemporary standards, although the acting is considered very melodramatic. [citation needed] The film has been selected for preservation by the United States National Film Registry. In the late 20th Century and early 21st the United States Library of Congress undertook an exhaustive restoration of the film, which is vastly superior in sound and picture quality to most other existent prints. Twenty-nine years later, Milestone directed two other gritty war films, A Walk in the Sun set in the Second World War, and Pork Chop Hill set in the Korean War.
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Mann's television version (1979)
A 150 minute made for television version in full colour was released on November 14 1979, starring actors Richard Thomas from The Walton's fame, and Ernest Borgnine. Historical accuracy seems to have been strived for; the scene of Kaiser Wilhelm awarding decorations correctly shows him using only his right arm (in reality Kaiser Wilhelm's left arm was stunted). That film was directed by Delbert Mann, and written by Erich Maria Remarque.