Wednesday, September 29, 2010, 20.00
Film: All Quiet on the Western Front
German author Erich Maria Remarque's novel about German schoolboys persuaded by their teacher to join up and the effects the fighting at the front has individually and collectively on them has become a classic of the 'futility' sub-genre of war movies. 'This story is neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped its shells, were destroyed by the war...' 'Deserves a place alongside Renoir's La Grande Illusion and Kubrick's Paths of Glory as one of the most effective pacifist arguments ever committed to celluloid. It is a torturous vision of death devoid of glory' (BBCi films)