FatCat
Well-known member
Just watched this on Netflix - First World War from the Germans perspective. Interesting film!
All Quiet on the Western Front https://g.co/kgs/5og4uf
All Quiet on the Western Front https://g.co/kgs/5og4uf
It’s all quiet on the western front
- Thread starter FatCat
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LeeMiller
Well-known member
A great watch. Even more so with the boy. War is horrible, not glamorous, appalling.
As said before, the lengths humans can go to submit other humans to suffering never fails to appall me. I’ve never had to go to war, pray that my boy doesn’t. That’s why I wear the poppy to pay thanks to those who didn’t have a choice
As said before, the lengths humans can go to submit other humans to suffering never fails to appall me. I’ve never had to go to war, pray that my boy doesn’t. That’s why I wear the poppy to pay thanks to those who didn’t have a choice
atypical_boro
Well-known member
That’s a nice sentiment, but what about the folk who volunteered?
LeeMiller
Well-known member
Respect
locomansimon
Well-known member
xxlshirts_fit_all
Well-known member
The cenotaph says to the glorious dead… but it’s always been glorified up until the time it was pumped direct into our living rooms on tv seeing how ‘glorious’ those dead looked all twisted and broken
I certainly don’t celebrate Remembrance Day (I do reflect though) and agree some people love the one upmanship almost as much as they do with their Xmas lights…
My military friends plaster their FB with loads and loads of memes and poppy images as if saying they remember more than the rest of of us..
Don’t get me started on poppy fascists and ‘it’s not racist’ types..
Hap
Well-known member
I think the book by Kramer was excellent, and upsetting. It's hard to represent things like this on film.
I didn't spot that many inconsistencies in 1917. It's been a while since I saw it though, so there probably were.
There are things that weren't accurate in All Quiet on the Western Front though. But I remember those because I was watching that recently. Both good.
Merrykoala
Well-known member
Having served in the military I can say its a pretty unique environment where the comraderie is unlike anything else and for most ex mil remembrance day is an opportunity to reconnect with that life and remember those we serves with.
As regards the film, it definitely highlights some of the more horrific parts of war in probably the most horrific war but its also nothing new. Perhaps being on Netflix it might open the eyes of the younger generation but they're not the ones who need educating, it's the people who make the decisions that lead to and prolong these wars that should be forced to watch this.
Paths to glory also deserves a watch, it wasn't just the Germans who were b***ds to their own men after all.
As regards the film, it definitely highlights some of the more horrific parts of war in probably the most horrific war but its also nothing new. Perhaps being on Netflix it might open the eyes of the younger generation but they're not the ones who need educating, it's the people who make the decisions that lead to and prolong these wars that should be forced to watch this.
Paths to glory also deserves a watch, it wasn't just the Germans who were b***ds to their own men after all.
Cardiffdaffs
Well-known member
The Film by Peter Jackson They Shall Not Grow Old was the most poignant work to remind the younger generations how bad WW1 was. The portrayal of excited lads running down to the recruitment office in their naive expectancy that they will see of “the Bosch “ in days and return home heroes. The reality couldn’t have been more grim.
Jedi boro
Well-known member
I’m watching it now and I’m going to turn it off as it’s nothing more than German propaganda and it’s part of this altering of history under going in the media within Germany to how they can look at their own history in a more neutral forgiving light.
The French are the bad guys here and we don’t get a mention.
Very very suspicious motives behind this
The French are the bad guys here and we don’t get a mention.
Very very suspicious motives behind this
masquesmog
Well-known member
The novel was written by a WWI German war veteran based on his experiences (and trauma) of the trenches. He was only in trenches facing the French. So, to add the British to a film based on his book, would be rewriting history.
The book was written in 1929, the original film (a Hollywood 1930 production) and this is not so much asking for forgiveness, but reasonably portraying the message from the novel - trench warfare was hell for all concerned.
Of course, 39 to 45 puts a completely different frame on Germany and WWI.
On the 'us' issue. Didn't we just have a great WWI film, 1917, with no reference at all, that I can recall, about the French involvement in the war that year?
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Jedi boro
Well-known member
The book is a masterpiece on the horror of the Great War this wasn’t that it didn’t even reflect the book.
atypical_boro
Well-known member
I thought 1917 was great. But it always bugged me a bit that he turned up with the letter and it was bone dry. Is that possible? Did they have special super waterproof tins in the military even back then?
masquesmog
Well-known member
We can disagree about that, but both films and the book present an individual German soldiers view of the experience of their war. The book was written with a particular geographical focus (Germans facing French trenches) and didn't have the intention, at the time, of "neutralising" the German involvement.
.... or excluding any reference to the British and Commonwealth forces ...
Muttley
Well-known member
You need to worry more about the way in which British history is taught rather than German which absolutely does not shy away from the horrors of the Holocaust and the sins of their predecessors.
British history is it is taught carefully ignores the evils of Empire and when people have the temerity to offer a more accurate opinion they are shut down. As Blackadder said "I hardly think that we can be entirely absolved of blame on the imperialistic front." And then we trumpet the abolishing of the slave trade whilst failing to acknowledge our long history of slaving and indeed how slave owners were compensated when slavery was abolished but slaves were not and often endured years more of slavery in all but name.
Our poor grasp of history has led us down the path of Brexit.
Hap
Well-known member
The Human condition can be really quite disturbing when you back historically.
The British Empire is quite rightfully held up as a terrible example of power in the wrong hands. Sheer greed at all costs.
What is glossed over, or missed, is the global nature of conquest and barbarism. Romans, Mongals, Goths, Aztecs, even the bloody Dutch. Every society has witnessed greed, domination, racism and slavery.
It's deplorable, not new, and as a society we need to demand more and more of each other.
The British Empire is quite rightfully held up as a terrible example of power in the wrong hands. Sheer greed at all costs.
What is glossed over, or missed, is the global nature of conquest and barbarism. Romans, Mongals, Goths, Aztecs, even the bloody Dutch. Every society has witnessed greed, domination, racism and slavery.
It's deplorable, not new, and as a society we need to demand more and more of each other.
uncle_rico
Well-known member
Totally agree, as that is a masterpiece! Its worth watching the forgotten voices, as that gives a true account from the people that were there. I don't know how that generation survived after the great war, given what we have seen from more recent conflicts. A visit to the battlefields of Flanders really brings it home, and every time I visit it makes me reflect just that little bit more.