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All Quiet on the Western Front

Catalog Number
9029
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All Quiet on the Western Front (1979)

Additional Information

Additional Information
They left for war as Boys, never to return as men.


Years after directing the classic Marty (1955), Delbert Mann became a creator of prestige TV movie projects, none more daunting than his adaptation of All Quiet on the Western Front (1979). Richard Thomas stars as Paul Baumer, a teen who, at the urging of zealously patriotic teacher Kantorek (Donald Pleasence) enthusiastically enlists to fight for Germany in WWI, accompanied by several school chums. After training at the hands of the sadistic Corporal Himmelstoss (Ian Holm), Paul and his friends head for the front. There, they discover that war is a bloody, deadly business, although they are heartened by the presence of their commander, wily veteran Stanislaus Katczinsky (Ernest Borgnine). When a French soldier jumps into the bomb crater where Paul has taken refuge one night, he is forced to stab the enemy, then must watch the man die in agony. This incident and the violent deaths of his friends convince Paul that war is a senseless exercise. One of the most respected anti-war novels ever written, the book resulted in the German citizenship of author Erich Maria Remarque being revoked by the Nazi Party. Though a 1930 film adaptation by Lewis Milestone was widely beloved by fans of cinema and the source material, Mann's TV movie was well received, earning a Golden Globe and Emmys for Borgnine and Patricia Neal, who played Paul's mother.


All Quiet on the Western Front is a television film produced by ITC Entertainment, released on November 14, 1979, starring actors Richard Thomas from The Waltons fame as Paul Baumer, and Ernest Borgnine as Katczinsky. It is based on the book of the same title by Erich Maria Remarque.
The 1979 film was directed by Delbert Mann; though the acting of some of the performers was praised, the general opinion of most film fans is it failed to equal the 1930 film directed by Lewis Milestone.[citation needed] Nevertheless, the film has its share of tension and death, and in the spirit of the novel, manages to convey a sense of desolation, hardship and waste. Late in the film, the turmoil and wretchedness of the main character, Paul Baumer, is manifested in his extreme disassociation while home on furlough.
Most of the filming was done in Czechoslovakia in what was one of the first Anglo-American produced films to be shot in a Communist Bloc country


Airdate: November 14 , 1979

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