The Thinking Man's ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’

In 1930 Georg Pabst’s ‘Westfront 1918’ was Germany’s most anticipated cinema release.

It chronicled the shattering impact of the Great War upon four German soldiers on the Western Front.

The film lived up to expectations. At its premiere in Berlin, its unsparing realism reportedly caused 20 people to faint.

In the film’s most harrowing scene, a disillusioned lieutenant suffers a nervous breakdown and slides into insanity. He repeatedly shouts ‘Hurrah’ as he salutes a pile of corpses.

The film was a critical success. A correspondent dubbed it ‘the most vivid argument yet contrived against war.’

The film has also stood the test of time.

In 1995 it was selected as one of the 100 most significant German movies ever made.

‘Rotten Tomatoes’ scored it 100%, with one critic labelling it as ‘the thinking man's “All Quiet on the Western Front”.’

Yet the obvious question is, why have so few people ever heard of it?

Firstly, it came out just after the movie adaptation of ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’. This picture was a huge international hit, had Hollywood financing and equipment; its cast, including extras, ran to the hundreds, whereas that of ‘Westfront 1918’ was in the dozens.

Secondly, with the rise of National Socialism, the German authorities quickly judged the film to be unsuitable for the public for its pacifism and denunciation of war, which Joseph Goebbels labelled as ‘cowardly defeatism’.

Despite its relative obscurity ‘Westfront 1918’ is a film I have returned to again and again.

It captures the relentlessly bleak existence of ordinary soldiers condemned to the trenches, like no other movie does.

It’s still viewable on YouTube.

Have you watched ‘Westfront 1918’? Your thoughts?

Photo image: Nero Film

Comments

World War II as you've NEVER seen it before! Light-hearted photos of nude British and Allied soldiers revealed in eye-opening new book

World War II as you've NEVER seen it before! Light-hearted photos of nude British and Allied soldiers revealed in eye-opening new book From the horrors of the Blitz to kamikaze attacks in the Pacific, World War II inflicted terrible suffering on troops and civilians alike. But as these photos reveal, soldiers fighting the war, whether in the Far East or Europe, did enjoy some more light-hearted moments. Hidden away in the attics of former servicemen for more than 60 years, the pictures, which show soldiers from the UK, Australia and the USA among others, shed fresh light on the friendships fostered between the men who fought. His extensive collection includes snapshots of soldiers and sailors from Australia, the UK, France, Italy, Poland, Russia, and the USA, cavorting on the sand in the South Pacific, shivering in the snow of Eastern Europe, posing solo in the barracks, and in great happy groups. Many are barely out of boyhood, at their physical peak and are responding to...

"Sims acquired a total of eleven women slaves with vesicovaginal fistula from their masters by promising to lodge, board, and treat them, and he built a spartan wooden building, where he conducted surgical experiments on them for the next four years.

"Sims acquired a total of eleven women slaves with vesicovaginal fistula from their masters by promising to lodge, board, and treat them, and he built a spartan wooden building, where he conducted surgical experiments on them for the next four years. During the Victorian period, layers of dress signaled sexual chastity, and doctors were not in the habit of viewing women's unclothed bodies; not even their professional stature gave them license to gaze at women's genitalia. When Sims undertook his fistula experiments, even the term 'gynecology' was a few years in the future. Instead, 'women's doctors' averted their eyes in a chivalrous fashion as they knelt to tend to the modestly clothed ladies of their class, relying upon their sense of touch beneath voluminous Victorian skirts. However, Sims, working with enslaved blacks, was constrained by no such delicacy. He made the women undress completely, then kneel on hands and knees while he and several phys...

DOZENS OF MEN SAY SRI LANKAN FORCES R*P£D AND TORTURED THEM – ABC NEWS

DOZENS OF MEN SAY SRI LANKAN FORCES R*P£D AND TORTURED THEM – ABC NEWS One of the men tortured in Sri Lanka said he was held for 21 days in a small dank room where he was raped 12 times, burned with cigarettes, beaten with iron rods and hung upside-down. Another man described being abducted from home by five men, driven to a prison, and taken to a “torture room” equipped with ropes, iron rods, a bench and buckets of water. There were bl00d splatters on the wall. A third man described the prisoners as growing accustomed to the sound of screaming. “It made us really scared the first day but then we got used to it because we heard screaming all the time.” R*ped, branded or beaten repeatedly, more than 50 men from the Tamil ethnic minority seeking political asylum in Europe say they were abducted and tortured under Sri Lanka’s current government. The previously unpublished accounts conjure images of the country’s bl00dy civil war that ended in 2009 — not the palm-fringed paradise...

My Shocking Experience With Patient In A Hospital

My Shocking Experience With Patient In A Hospital I once cared for a middle-aged patient who presented to emergency with a dildo-related very embarrassing situation. He purchased the toy for one of his sexcapades. Curiosity hit. And he shoved the damn thing in his pooper, high-high up! “Me first” attitude didn’t do him much good. Funny feelings subsided fairly quickly and the horror struck when he couldn’t get it out. His drainage was jammed, the toy was slipping further up and after about 24 hours of wishfully waiting for it to naturally pass, it hurt bad enough to seek medical help. The official party line, that he vehemently iterated, was I just fell onto it, how else do you think it got up there! Needless to say, emergency surgery was necessary and he landed in the ICU with sepsis related post-op complications. It took him loooong before being able to use the toilet normally! Google ** NOT the patient’s X-ray, but it looked similar** Though I have seen some really absurd stuf...

A young man suspected to be a phone thief has been bu*nt to d"ath

A young man suspected to be a phone thief has been bu*nt to d"ath in Goldie along Unical and Eastern Highway, Calabar South Local Government area of Cross River State. According to an eyewitness, Benedict Ita, the incident occurred around 7am today, Thursday, February 22. Ita said that the suspect who was pursued from Unical axis to Goldie Cemetery was ly*ched alive by angry mob who were mostly students. He said that "he was begging for mercy but the mob comprising of mostly students who were determined to use him as a scapegoat over the incessant cases of phone snatching around the area paid deaf ears to his appeal. He was beaten very well before he was bu*nt alive". He added that "the boy who many said is a criminal known for phone snatching in the area was chased from Unical side to Eastern Highway where he jumped to Goldie cemetery but the number was too large for him to escape". Also speaking, the victim who said he was a 100 level student of Ling...

Jong Sang Thaek’s brutal execution: Stripped naked and eaten alive by Dogs

Jong Sang Thaek’s brutal execution: Stripped naked and eaten alive by Dogs North Korea, Jan 03: Unlike previous executions of political prisoners, the execution of Jang Song Thaek on December 12 was reportedly one of the most brutal ones ever conducted by the North Korean regime. According to a detailed account published in Wen Wei Po, a Hong Kong based Chinese newspaper, Jang Song Thaek, Korean supreme leader Kim Jong-Un’s uncle and the second most powerful man in North Korea, was stripped naked and thrown into a cage of 120 hounds who had been starved for three days. During the brutal execution, which was reportedly personally overseen by Kim Jong Un, the hounds were allowed to prey on Jang Song Thaek and five of his closest aides who also had been stripped and thrown into the cage. According to the report, the entire process lasted for about an hour by the end of which they were completely eaten up. This is called "quan je" or "execution by dogs". Political...

Exhibition

Exhibition (from the Latin exhibere , "to show") or neologism apodisophilia is the inclination of a person to exposure in public, spontaneously, remarkably and excessively. The term refers, specifically and more conventionally, to the behavior or perversity of showing the sexual organs or other organs considered as intimate parts: namely genitals , butt , torso and chest , to other people. Psychiatrically, the exhibition is considered a type of paraphilia or sexual behavior. The exhibition is referred to as perversion, the term is incorrect if it refers to the usual sexual life of the individual . Public nudity is regularly considered offensive or conducive to public disorder and is sometimes used in social protests. On the other hand, nudism is a cultural movement that tries to make social nudism a lifestyle. Nudism intends the accept...

Man s-xu#lly A$$@ults homeless woman in Brazil. Another demonstration of a shitty third world country.

Man s-xu#lly A$$@ults homeless woman in Brazil. Another demonstration of a shitty third world country. Man sexually assaults homeless woman in Brazil. Another demonstration of a shitty third world country. NEWS: In the video images obtained this Saturday – May 4, 2024 – it is possible to see the man touching the private parts of a homeless woman who apparently sleeps on the street. Didn’t she feel touched? The Public Secretariat of São Paulo, Brazil, analyzes the images and asks for public help in identifying the attacker. Rape is a serious violation of human rights and a devastating crime that affects individuals, families, and communities worldwide. To put a stop to rape, we need to address its root causes and work together to create a society that values and respects consent, equality, and the dignity of all individuals. Here are some steps we can take: 1. *Educate and raise awareness*: Teach children and adults about consent, healthy relationships, and gender equality....

The Unknown History Of Anasyrma - The Ritual Display Of The Female Genitals For An Apotropaic

The Unknown History Of Anasyrma - The Ritual Display Of The Female Genitals For An Apotropaic At the corner of Taylor and SW Third Street in Portland, Oregon, an early Saturday morning standoff between protestors and unnamed, unmarked, heavily armed (unconstitutional and illegal) federal agents ended when, as it is reported and recorded, a naked woman approached the skirmish line and eventually just sat right down on the pavement, legs open, placid. . .after a while, the agents dispersed. . .what powerful and ancient magic had occurred! It's called anasyrma - the ritual display of the female genitals for an apotropaic (warding off of evil) effect - and it appears in stories and mythologies across all eras and countries and peoples from Baubo in Ancient Greece, cheering up Demeter on the loss of her daughter, Persephone, to Hades; Hathor exposing herself to Ra to make him laugh so he wouldn't destroy the world in Ancient Egypt; the Lajji Gaura figures in India; the Sheela na gig...

Ana Mendieta, Untitled (Rape Scene), 1973

Ana Mendieta, Untitled (Rape Scene), 1973 "Untitled (Rape Scene) is the documentation of an action that the artist performed in her apartment in Iowa City, while she was a student at the University of Iowa on the innovative Intermedia art course run by the German artist Hans Breder (born 1935). It was created in response to a brutal and highly publicised rape and murder of a nursing student, Sara Ann Otten, by another student in March 1973. The following month Mendieta invited her fellow students to her apartment where, through a door left purposefully ajar, they found her in the position recorded in this photograph, which recreated the scene as reported in the press. Some time later, Mendieta recalled that her audience ‘all sat down, and started talking about it. I didn’t move. I stayed in position about an hour. It really jolted them.’ (Quoted in Ana Mendieta, p.127, note 11.) In 1980, she commented that the rape had ‘moved and frightened’ her, elaborating: ‘I think ...

HISTORY AND UNDILUTED DAILY NEWS

Search This Blog