In the movie "All Quiet on the Western Front", I gained a new outlook on World War One, as seen through the eyes of the Germans, who I had previously only viewed as our enemies. I think the most important thing that I realized in watching this movie is that, while we try to un-personify the enemy, they are people just like us, they fight for their own cause, just as we fight for ours. However, as the war actually starts, people realize that they need to fight for their very own survival, and this is where all people are the same.
The movie starts in a high school classroom, where the teacher excites all the students about the glory and grandeur of war. He talks about the other brave schools that have had mass-enlistings, and eventually this happens to his class as well. These students are the men that we follow throughout the movie and watch as they realize how little nobility there really is in the trenches.
After what seems to be very little training, the men are sent off to probably die. How much training does death require anyways? They soon realize that the war is a never-ending bombardment of bombs and bullets that you can't see, day and night. People are dying everywhere, seemingly at random. Everyone is malnourished and starving for food. Men are willing to trade things that they had previously held with high value for mere scraps of food. Chaotic charges seem to be ordered death; everyone knew there was a great chance at them being killed, yet had no choice but to charge anyways. The grand purpose of both the charges and the war as a whole was completely not comprehendible to the men in the trenches. They could not believe that the people in charge had any idea of what was actually happening. They only saw the numbers and had calculated a certain amount of death to be acceptable.
Another scene that portrays the low levels of humanity that the men were forced to go into because of their survival instincts was when they guys all went to see their sick friend.
