ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (1979)

 

Last year I chose the German-made adaptation of ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT as the best film of 2022. After I wrote a blog post on it a few people mentioned the 1979 TV film of the novel, which I had never seen. 

Recently I bought an 8-movie DVD set of action films from Edward R. Hamilton Booksellers for about $7. The set was made by Shout Factory, so the quality is good. What all eight of the movies featured on it have in common is that they were produced by Lord Lew Grade's ITC company--and one of the films in the set happens to be the 1979 ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT. The version in this DVD set has been formatted to 1.78:1 widescreen, and it is 157 minutes long. 

The 1979 ALL QUIET was one of the many American TV network adaptations of classic novels and stories made in the late 1970s-early 80s. This was an attempt by the networks to gain ratings by showing new versions of distinguished fare, usually with bigger stars (and bigger budgets) than a viewer would see in a typical TV show. The '79 ALL QUIET follows this pattern, with an international cast, a European shooting location, and an Oscar-winning director. 

Richard Thomas (best known at the time for his starring role in THE WALTONS TV series) plays Paul Baumer, the young German student who enlists in his country's army during World War One. As in other movie adaptations of Erich Maria Remarque's novel, Paul's youthful exuberance goes away rather quickly as he experiences the violence and devastation of the Western Front. 

The '79 ALL QUIET starts out with a major battle sequence, before any of the characters are even introduced. The story then shows how Paul and his schoolmates joined the army and went through training by a series of flashbacks. 

Due to the non-linear narrative, the movie is more a series of vignettes than a consistent main story, showing all aspects of the war as seen through the eyes of common soldiers. There's a lot of narration by Paul, which is something Richard Thomas did during THE WALTONS. This means that at times it does feel like you're watching JOHN-BOY GOES TO WAR. 

The cast is quite impressive, with Ernest Borgnine as the crafty veteran soldier Kat, along with Donald Pleasence and Ian Holm. Patricia Neal plays Paul's mom. Both Richard Thomas and Ernest Borgnine are very good, but it must be pointed out that they are much older than the characters they are playing. 

This production does have a theatrical rather than a television type of feel, especially when one views it in widescreen. The '79 ALL QUIET was filmed in Czechoslovakia, and the battle scenes are well-staged. The cinematographer was John Coquillon, and the production designer was John Stoll, so visually the movie is excellent. The director was Delbert Mann (MARTY), and he keeps a nice balance between the intimate and epic elements of the story. (This movie was actually released theatrically in a few countries.) 

I don't think that the '79 ALL QUIET is as powerful as the 1930 and 2022 versions, but it is definitely worth seeing, especially if you are able to watch the full-length cut (I believe the 157 minute version has scenes not included in the original TV broadcast). It's a fairly faithful adaptation, and it's quite grim for something shown on 1970s American TV.