The Version of this movie that was made in '79 was played in front of my class by our history Teacher. It feels weird that my libertarian arse already knows Something about this topic... When i watched your Video about Waco i went into it with zero previous knowledge.
It's the best piece of anti-war literature ever written and the movie is an above average adaptation of the source, between it, Paths of Glory, and Breaker Morant it's really hard to justify what we do to one another, as all are heavily rooted in real events (though BM is depressingly viewed as in favour of the defendants who were guilty). The novel was actually banned nationally here in Australia because of it being "pacifistic".
Some don't like to admit it but people only have so much empathy to go around. All the people around the world dying in wars right now will never mean as much to you as the loss of a good friend or family member.
It’s always sad to see millions die for no reason but it will never feel the same as a close friend or family member dying ( My original comment had some harsh words that I didn’t mean so i remade it)
Having WWI veterans basically recreate something traumatizing from their past was probably really weird. My great great grandfather faught in the trenches and whenever my grandfather asked him about anything related to WWI and the trenches, he’d get scary PTSD attacks and start hyperventilating. If someone’s trauma was triggered by even mentioning, I can’t imagine filming a movie about it.
The ways that help individual people cope with their trauma are very different and so was their way of handling trauma in general. I can imagine that the soldiers working on this movie had at least to some capacity managed to work through the worst of it and found it helpful for their own peace of mind to put this horrible knowledge to good use. But it certainly wasn't easy. The film itself was known to give veterans flashbacks precisely because it was so true to detail in so many aspects.
I think for some people, reliving their trauma could help them process and deal with the impact that it had on them. but im not educated on thd topic so i could be wrong
@@vinyldash2333Man got so mad that one of his IPs was stolen, that it would never happen again…guess what, it wouldn’t. For the detriment of the world, it wouldn’t.
@theorangeoof926 I dont even think it was stolen. Mickey was supposed to go into the public domain for free use. He was never stolen. Just disney didn't want to lose their cash cow.
@@TheWolfie234so according to Time Magazine: the version of Mickey with his iconic red design, so the one we see today, is still copyrighted but all the versions BEFORE that design are copyright free in most countries
The thought of stabbing someone then spending hours with that person while he dies is so haunting and sad. I couldn't imagine anything more horrific or sad.
id just put them out of it at that point, or at least id like to think i would. i dont think id wanna be in the face of someone dying, you either gotta be alive or dead, i wouldnt want to see the halfway stage
That scene has a parallel in a later Australian film, The Lighthorsemen, there's a Turkish soldier who is lung shot. Neither are the worst deaths I've seen but it definitely helps show the reasons why Paul and Dave turned against war.
What's even worse is that Paul had no idea the guy was naturally mute. It's bad enough to stab someone and then spend 10 hours apologizing for it to them. Let alone to think that they've chosen to die while giving you the silent treatment!
@@rumpled4skin271 that, I think was very key to the scene, actually. We can see how totally green Paul is to war and death and combat. It's hard to imagine a seasoned soldier doing anything but quickly and humanely ending the French soldier so he doesn't suffer needlessly. But Paul was essentially still a boy until he came out the other side of this experience.
The part of the book that always stuck out to me is when Paul’s squad faces artillery fire while in a graveyard. Not only dirt was kicked up by the explosions, but pieces of wooden caskets and human remains rained down on them too
Yeah this book has so so many harrowing and memorable moments. Like one where someome told paul not to eat too much because when you get stabbed by bayonet it's harder to treat the wound. That scene stuck with me.
They actually blew up a real actual cemetery for that scene!!!! Back in the 1930's , they had no laws against killing animals or desecrating bodies in those days plus they used real actual live ammo in certain films that they shot at the actual actors with especially any James Cagney gangster film back then because blank bullets & squibs weren't even invented yet then so being a actor & doing stunts was extremely dangerous & most actors had to do all the dangerous stunts by themselves!!!!!
Watching a blinded soldier scream in absolute fear of death while Wendigoon chows down on hummus is the most bizarre thing I've seen all week. Great video
I noticed that too, I was like damn.. he looks like he's stoned and that hummus dip was the best thing ever. Chugging down a monster too. I'm surprised how much commentary he came up with when he had his eyes closed the whole time lmao
The absolute irony that the audience from so many countries all universally reacted to this film , in the same exact manner that the people in Paul’s town (teachers, students, etc) reacted to him saying “war is not what it’s been made out to be guys.” That in itself is satirical
The film covers those types with the teacher. No matter what they hear, they will denie it and attack and shun the people who speak the truth. It's not all that Ironic because the film specifically calls those people out.
@@goosefootjones7196 You know I see this sometimes from people who really like the Kaiserreich. Perhaps a little too much, though don't take that as a personal attack on you. I've always wondered how much that really mattered when a generation of young Germans were massacred in the war. And how much this would fuel one of the worst regimes in human history.
I refer people harping on excitedly about war or "frenchies waving the white flag" to this movie. A thing I noticed is, the closer you get to those former battlefields, the less you tend to encounter those types. And even a simple visit can sometimes make the person "click". Places like Ypres, Verdun, the beaches of Normandy, the death camps of ww2... They carry something. And the people around there, often descendents of those who suffered, have something to them as well. The effects of war, a a certain sense of disillusionment, follows them accross generations.
I like how Wendigoon says "he's so funny" and "this is highly entertaining" with a huge smile and in the clip he just continues to casually munch on hummus with no sight of entertainment on his face
Paul has a childhood collection of butterflies and him reaching for the butterfly at the end is really him reaching for the life he had before the horror of war. Really can’t recommend the film or book enough. Thank you for this, Wendigoon.
I saw this video and said to myself: "Well I have some time spare so why not see it", the film was great, after watching it I can see the inspiration from the 1917 film, like I watched the ancestor of 1917.
@@truthhurts2879 you keep appearing under peoples comments saying this same thing. Wendigoons channel has a lot of people who just like comments and don’t comment. It’s just a quirk of his channel.
49:57 The fact that Paul’s death is offscreen and we only have his hand to show he died is soooo so much better than showing Paul die onscreen. To that sniper, Paul was just another German enemy to take care of. And on top of that, that hand could belong to any soldier (although we know it’s Paul), making him just another faceless casualty in a war he didn’t want. And that applies for all the soldiers; they’re just another casualty, another note to send to another family, another grave to dig, another hospital bed to empty and fill, another tick mark added to the death toll. 😭
I loved the new All Quiet on the Western Front movie overall, but I agree. Paul's death in that one and the last attack thing were my only two problems with it.
This left out one of the most horrifying scenes from the book. A ton of horses get hit with artillery and just sit there screaming as they start kicking, getting wrapped in their own intestines, tying themselves in their own guts. That scene in the book has stuck with me for many years
One detail of that is one of the soldiers had/has horses on his farm back home, and the contrast of his horses being safe and happy and the horses being killed causes him stress. They also ended up putting the horses down after the bombardment ended.
@@bassingaminandshootin5 I do, and the fact that they had to sit and listen to the horses scream for fear that shooting them would give them away added even more. He loved horses and had to sit there and listen to that for I can’t remember how long until someone finally shot them. The book truly is the most horrifying piece of literature I’ve ever read
That point is so strong because the amount of horses that were killed during that war just boggles the mind. Let's not forget that horses were still a common sight in the streets during that time too. It's just another notion of how unsparing WW1 (and war in general) is.
Yeah, and they couldn't put the horses down for several minutes because they were taking cover from a bombardment. They had to sit there and listen to their agonizing screams and pray they didn't get bombs dropped on them. My imagination conjured up a very terrible scene in my mind. But the fact that this probably actually happened? That is the true horror.
"If it weren't for these uniforms we could have been friends you and I"...dude I'm actually starting to cry. What a powerful line. That whole scene makes me sick to my stomach
I cried twice watching this to be honest. First was during that scene, and second time was at the end with Paul's death. This whole movie is so powerful and I wish every person could see it and understand its message.
@@mishy. I had to stop watching at the first dudes death, my goodness it was gruesome even by my standards and I watch happy tree friends (one of the characters in one episode of happy tree friends got their face shoved into a grill)
Sad thing is, its probably truth. Most of the soldiers fighting at WW1 didnt really feel any hatred against the opposing soldiers, they all just wanted to get home. The christmas truce where all of them played soccer and genuinely had a nice time together is so sad to me, because it really shows you that they were just fighting because nonsense, and that they really couldve been friends.
@@AnimaDwellerthis is kinda untrue I mean the Christmas truce only happened in the first year of the war and they only joined in festivities together in the British and German parts of the western front, the Belgians and French who were ya know occupied weren’t as happy to be nice to the Germans, it was stopped by the generals the next year yeah but additionally by the second year they had been exposed to poisonous gas and London had been bombed with zeppelins etc etc. But yeah no one really wanted the war although the Christmas truce is a bad example.
The scene where he is asking forgiveness to a corpse is something that struck me in the soul, it is very sad as he begs something that can't answer. Truly a tragedy.
@@lazy_lefty yeah, it's a lot more directly gory, but they really made it a horror movie, especially with how it's shot and the soundtrack. But yeah it's one of the few remakes that I have seen recently that managed to keep the original message and is pretty good
this scene also shows up as an opener in the Ukranian metal band 1914s "100 Days Offensive." If you want to hear a musical attempt to describe the horror of WW1, try them out. I also recommend their songs "...and a cross now marks his grave" , "A7V" , and their covers of "Something in the way" and "the green fields of France"
There was one account from a French soldier, running up some stairs up a bridge to meet advancing Germans. Met the lead man of thr group who raised his rifle to fire, just a boy, like the French man telling the story at the time. They had an identical expression, excitement and thrill of combat. The french soldier noted that the German soldier looked like he could've been a friend of his from college. The German soldier would never get to fire his gun, as the French soldier impaled him clean through the chest with his bayonet. Twist it, and kick him to the ground, dead. The rest of the column of German soldiers would be decimated by rifle fire. But the French soldier said that seeing the whole line of Germans gunned down was nothing in comparison to that young boy, he was within an arms reach, and their eyes met eachother as he killed him. He said he watched as the boy's expression turned from one of excitement to one of terror as the bayonet peirced his chest, the immense pain and grimace as he twisted it, and finally sadness and anguish, the tears that fell from his eyes, he said it probably hit him at that moment he'd never see his family again as the French soldier tore his life away. He saw vividly all these emotions go through this boy his own age in this 7 second exchange that haunted him the most
He goes crazy and starts building a giant man creature made out of magic spoon boxes, makes a national park inside of it, and then when the park goes under hide it by building a national monument over it.
The scene when Paul comes home broke me. He peruses his old books and drawings, and the things that once brought him joy and wonder don't anymore, and he breaks down into tears.
I remember a MASH quote about War being worse than Hell because "There are no innocent bystanders in Hell. War is chock full of them - little kids, cripples, old ladies. In fact, except for some of the brass, almost everybody involved is an innocent bystander."
Reminds me of the time in grade 12 where a woman came to speak to us about joining the military as a means to afford university education. Her daughter was a soldier that died (I don't remember where she died, what war etc). But I was absolutely disgusted by how this woman spoke so highly of war and the military, when it was what took away her daughter. So when we were leaving the auditorium, and other kids asked about signing up, I told her that I was so sorry for her loss. She legitamently looked at me like I had two heads.
That happens in every war and there's usually nothing overtly said,, just vague ideas about duty to the country and blah blah blah... I recommend the novel "bury him among kings," which deals with World War I and the insidious nature of the politics and propaganda behind wars even on the home front...... At one point the main character,, a junior officer in the British army remarks on seeing a poster in the streets of london, one of those War posters where there was a woman depicted standing on the shore of Britain, sending her son off to France with the exhortation, go lad, it's your duty.... And the character thinks, THIS was the poster the troops hated the worst, the one they never brought back from leave back to the front as a joke because how many mothers were there like this in reality? One would be too many, and another main character who is a professional and accomplished soldier comes to hate the backslapping at home,, his reason being that he was doing what he was ordered and he wasn't there for medals and none of them would be back slapping if they knew what he was doing in the trenches, up to his elbows in death...
This is the reality of some active duty soldiers. Their parents/spouses would glorify their deaths. My mom would have absolutely done that to me and it makes me sick to my stomach to think about.
I feel like it's a coping mechanism to think your child died for a higher purpose as opposed to dying for nothing or for another person's profits. Just easier to deal with it.
Meanwhile my us history teacher brought war vets to talk about the horrors of war, much like paul, only with pictures. There was also the known fact (at least in our circles) that green cards were offered to undocumented parents if their children served, only to be deported once their kids died in battle, so most were already weary to military propaganda. As ive gotten older, the cruel saying of "the only good soldier is a dead soldier" just seems more and more blatant, even when people are trying to glorify war while ignoring the trauma and damage done to those that serve. Its so sad...
So sad to see that this is the last footage of Wendigoon before he got trapped in Sand Cave for 15 days straight, Internet Historian just talked about this tragedy
Wait im so sorry if im just slow but what do you mean by “he got trapped in a sand cave for 15 days straight”?????? Is that like something at the end of the video?
I am German and in 11th grade in school we watched this movie. I still remember that there were often some students quietly talking throughout the movie, as students tend to do. But then, during the scene of the French charge with the oppressive sound ocean and the visuals, the entire class was silent all the way throughout. Then, when the Atrillery obliterated the one French soldier and only left him with his hands hanging, there was a gasp from many students in our class and even I remember feeling my heart somewhat sinking in that moment. I really love that you talked about how impactful this one moment is in the movie, because it is certainly the scene I first think of when thinking about this movie.
@@GeorgeWockington01 my entire history class laughed at the D-day scene in Saving Private Ryan. Specifically when one soldier was holding his guts in and screaming "MOMMA!" Don't worry, everyone is a little psychotic lol
An absolutely heartbreaking detail I noticed during the scene where Paul reaches out for the butterfly over the trench was back when he was home, you could see pictures of butterflies hung up on the wall of his bedroom. Ngl it made me cry.
@@mikoto7693 We like to think that if we see someone doing something that humanizes them or isn't a threat to us, we could never bring ourselves to harm them, or at the very least, we wouldn't kill them. But I think that's kind of the point in that scene. Paul isn't a threat. Both because we know him, but also because what he is doing is completely innocent and explicitly non-threatening because he is unarmed and vulnerable. And yet, the french soldier kills him with not much expression on his face than concentration. Because the french soldier wasn't looking for a threat or a major player in the war. He was looking for a German soldier. Because that's what a sniper is supposed to do: find an enemy soldier and shoot, then move on to looking for another. A bit of a tangent, but I appreciate how the french soldier isn't depicted as having shadows over his face, or any kind of evil delight or glee or even a sense of accomplishment in this scene. But he's not depicted as completely expressionless either, because that was almost be the same thing. As if he were some kind of psychopath. Instead, he just looks like he's focused on taking aim. He's not regretful nor is he excited at taking another man's life, he's just a soldier doing his job. And yet, he's the one that ends the movie and ends the main character that I'm sure hundreds of the original audience thought would survive the war.
So many quotable lines from that book too. the one that stuck with me was "We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces"
I'm very grateful that my World Literature teacher had us read this book. She was an immigrant to the U.S. from Lithuania and escaped WWII. I recall her crying in class as we discussed certain parts of the book.
The very final scene of the movie was him reaching out for peace. But he just couldn't reach the butterfly. Even in those who come back from the front lines alive; many of them suffer that same death. Never escaping that strife. In the literal sense it was a departure from the tale of the author himself. But in a symbolic way, on point.
I like to think when Paul dies, he dies in a thoughtful moment of peace, as he understands the war has run its course, that he had felt the brunt of the anguish of war so others would see the horrors of what had happened and not allow for it again. Perhaps he dies in peace because he knows the ones who knew him would learn just what he had gone through, teaching his people just how big of a mistake they had made by allowing for war. Paul feels he served a duty to the world as he dies, so the future generations don’t have to suffer like they did in this war.
Those that died arguably received a more merciful end to the war, nothing screams anti-war louder than pictures of soldiers with artillery/bullet wounds and are still alive to look at the camera. I read that for some of these men, even their children screamed at the sight of their own fathers and ran.
I agree. That scene made a huge impact on me. I can't imagine enlisting into a war out of reluctance, then being blinded and killed when running the wrong way💔
Another thing about cat i appreciate is how he says "it's happened to better men than you, and it's happened to me" Even more to how good a character he was
Well yeah,, if a guy tells you he DIDN'T either piss his pants or just stood frozen or SOMETHING when an artillery shell lands around you is either lying or completely insane... Like with the soldier general Patton slapped,, it's pointless to have a guy who can't handle artillery at the front so you want them BACK from the front line where he can still do his job...
My great uncle fought in WW1, and smoking ironically saved his life. He was shot in the leg but the bullet pierced the tin cigarette box in his pocket and it slowed the bullet enough to protect his leg from any serious damage. He survived the war and lived to the ripe old age of 90 but when I think of what my grandparents’ generation went through it’s honestly mind boggling. My grandpa was a farmer by the time WW2 broke out and Canada didn’t draft anyone so thankfully he was exempt from service, but both him and my grandma lost so many for next to nothing. So harrowing to think about.
wow! an almost identical thing happened to my great grandfather in WW2. he was shot in the chest right where the pocket he kept his cigarette box in was. knocked him over but he escaped with just a huge bruise. he always talked about how once he was safe all he wanted was a smoke, but the tin was totally melted and his hands were too shaky to hold a cigarette anyway. he ended up dying of lung cancer due to smoking but had he never picked up the habit he wouldn't have even seen 30.
@@Ashley-ub8sj No way, that’s crazy! Now I’m wondering how many soldiers had this same thing happen to them. Thanks for sharing your story and sorry to hear about your great grandfather passing.
Something somewhat similar happened to my great grandpa, when he returned to his home state of kentucky for a short time he was given a knit hat by one of the people living there. In battle he wore the hat under his helmet, he was shot in the head, the bullet went through the helmet and was just barely stopped by the hat.
the way pauls death was depicted is so heartbreaking. that simple act of pure innocence and hope and kindness by a young man caused him to be killed in a place that should never have existed and by a man he never should have met.
For real. And the fact that it happens so suddenly just shows the futility of it. According to the war, he is just more meat for the grinder, instead of a human being
The ending shot haunts me to this very day. The single shot of all the soldiers looking wistfully back at their family overlaid over their inevitable outcome - a mass graveyard littered with crosses over people whose lives were completely shattered so lines on a map could be moved by an inch- is one of the most powerful images in all of cinema.
ew these replies are botted to heck in back I wouldn't call the film the most disturbing (like in the video's title), but it might be one of the most excellent pieces of cinema in history. It's nearly a hundred years old, and still holds up Given it holds up partly because of its age, but still I agree, great shots all over, even today. I can't imagine what it was like for first audiences.
@@xiphactinusaudax1045 Well said. I think another aspect that I hadn’t previously considered but adds a whole new morbid layer is the fact that a lot of the extras were actual veterans of the Great War. Imagine the amount of nightmares revisited as they went about filming😢
@@AbhNormal Yeah, extras being PLAYED by veterans actually felt kind of unnecessary to me. I can understand wanting input on the production, but there had to have been extreme shellshock-related difficulties during the filming process Respect goes out to them for not only experiencing war and its horrors, and coming back, and reliving trauma just so they could spread the message
I imagine for the veterans working on this project it was a way to stop the cycle of war. At the time we know it wasn’t common for people to be taken seriously when they talked about their own experiences. I’d like to think that this was in some was therapeutic to them. Or that is my personal take on why actual ww1 vets may have helped in the project. There have been similar types of projects (people who have actually been in the middle of traumatic events) helping to explain it so that they can be prevented even today. Sorry for a years late comment- it’s my first time seeing the video.
“it’s dirty and painful to die for your country. when it comes to dying for your country it's better not to die at all!” is by far my favorite quote of the movie and makes me think of behn, the first boy to die in the movie. he died blind and screaming and stumbling, in pain and so so scared. he didn’t die heroically or valiantly, he died horribly and with his friends mourning and feeling guilty over his death.
This is more than just haunting. My great grandfather was born in 1901 and volunteered to serve in the Imperial German Army in 1918, when he was just 16-17 years old. Nobody knows what he had experienced throughout the last months of the war. He never told anyone. It had to be of unspeakable terror, for because of it he developed his smoking habit of smoking about 100 cigarettes a day. He suffocated in 1981, while fully conscious, due to complications with lung cancer. It is important to have more people watch these kinds of movies, thus understanding what all those young men had to go through. Never again!
One relative was the Catholic chaplain who served under August von Mackenson and was the last German POW to be released another was gassed by the Germans while serving in the lost battalion. My grandfather’s uncle spent the rest of his life in and out of mental hospitals. My pop has told me about how he would dive for cover whenever he heard my grandfather shoot a cap gun.
“He fell in October 1918, on a day that was so quiet and still on the whole front, that the army report confined itself to the single sentence: All quiet on the Western Front. He had fallen forward and lay on the earth as though sleeping. Turning him over one saw that he could not have suffered long; his face had an expression of calm, as though almost glad the end had come.”
I legit cried when Paul was trying to help the French soldier and i kept thinking about the scene where he gave him water and i would not stop thinking about it for weeks
One of the most impactful scenes from the book for me that I wish they had put in the movie (though I get why they didn’t) was a scene where Paul was charging a French position and beside him another soldier got his head shot off by something and his body kept running for four or five steps before it realized it was dead and crumpled to the ground. Even almost 10 years later it’s one of the most memorable lines I’ve ever read from any book.
Back when I was in 5th grade I read a book called “Stones in water”, which was about the holocaust. That book still lives rent free in my head many years later. So messed up
Agreed. That line was absolutely hollowing. Another line that stuck with me was when Paul watched a Frenchman fall on barbed wire and had his arms shot off, leaving them in a prayer position.
The stories really remind me of my grandfather. He lied about his age to sign up for the navy during WWII, him and his 3 other brothers. When he came home he didn't speak about the war. Or to my mother or his wife later in life, and he got pressures in his head. When I was growing up he began to open up. He wanted to educate me. What always stuck out the most was how he spoke about when he was on an LST at Utah Beach during D-Day. Watching the landing craft open up and his friends being mowed down, the ocean red with the blood of all the bodies. It changed him as an person and I think attributed to his rough and mean demeanor as he became old as well as his alcoholism when my mom was a young girl. Rest in peace grandpa.
My grandfather fought in the battle of Kursk and his brother in the battle of stalingrad of all places, he had a similar experience with my mom where he literally did not speak for years and always looked like he was about to cry, he couldnt look at anything related to military (which was hard as a russian) or he would throw up The only time he started to open up was when me and my siblings started to grow up, but he still was clearly not ok. I guess he at least knew that he had to do it, as what the (Nasssis) where planning to do to any slav was already well know. But still, i cannot imagine what a person would have to go thought to have such traumas.
My grandpa opened up to me after I joined the army as his dementia was developing. He had a similar story with his family, I just wish these men had more support after everything they went through because I could tell he needed, at the very least, an outlet to talk about the things he did and saw.
I remember my high school teacher showing the class this movie, I still remember most of the story and some of the scenes to this day. At first the class mocked our teacher and the film for being old and boring, no special effects, and being black and white; in the end it absolutely silenced everyone.
As a legitimate combat vet myself I’d just like to thank you , the respect you show for men that have suffered threw the brutality of war is appreciated.
And to think that the same things happen this very minute; second even.... is truly terrifying. How the USA, Germany, UK, etc. spend thousands of billionds of Euros on Killing-Machines to send to the Ukraine; only to further prolong a war that has no goal and therefore willingly cause thousands of deaths every week, every day, to continue with no end in sight. We should all be out on the streets, demanding the industry-leaders and those who benefit ti seize any operation immidiately of face the wrath of entire populations. If a government is not willing to step back from war, and therefore WILLINGLY acting against the interest and safety of the population, they should immidiately be liable to loss of power and face public justice. But no. That is further from reality as it has ever been. We, as humans, have learned NOTHING from WW1 and WW2. Education has failed and history WILL repeat itself.... albeit probably even worse. I can only hope that those who made great efforts to glorify War (in the USA after WW2 was over; back when the USA staged multiple attacks on US citizens to finally have the necessary legal grounds for armed combat and even today, with the millitary financing a majority of the yearly Call of Duty development and in return ensure that War is depicted as heroic, fun and suuuuper cool in these games; , will still be alive once It's time and they slowly realize that their actions played a large part in his/her grandchildren and further generations to live in a destroyed world without food or uncontaminated water.
@@beepboppindodobird9148the fact that you thank him for committing this atrocity after praising a movie whose whole message is against that atrocity shows just how brainwashed you are. You didn't understand this movie
@@tilltronje1623you don’t understand what you’re saying. He’s congratulating him going through this hell we call war and you’re diminishing his achievement of surviving.
@@pvzgamer6029 I am diminishing him for joining in the first place. War is hell and any who make it happen should not be praised. And doing so under a video about All Quiet is especially idiotic
I've been able to relate to this movie in terms of hunger. The stealing food is something so many say they would never do. I was a child during hurricane Katrina. We ran out of MRE ration packs. All our other food had gone bad or had been eaten or stolen. I was 11, maybe? The stores were closed, the roads flooded, and we were down to eating cat food and dandelions. We were given deer guts by a family that hit a doe and distributed the pieces to our neighborhood. I did steal to eat during that summer. It's hard to describe a summer as cold. But when you lose so much weight because you're constantly bailing out water from a house with a cracked foundation and the rain won't stop, and no matter where you go, you're drenched, you'll know a freezing summer. No electricity, no dryer, no gasoline or even sun to dry your clothes hanging on the fence... I don't know combat, but cold and infection and hunger, I know. I can't imagine being shot at on top of that.
Sorry to hear that and i hope you have recovered from any and all sickness and injuries, in desperate times, you can't be blamed for trying to survive. If stealing is how you eat because there's no other way you can't be blamed for living.
@@darkerdaemon7794 no use blaming. I lived and it sucks to have gone through, and I get irrationally angry at food waste, but I am alive. Blame doesn't make it better.
@@cathycat4989 Anger and other emotions are good, believe it or not. Despite the tendency for people to equate emotions with weakness nowadays, we all get them and have them whether we like to admit it or not. Even the most stone cold psychopathic killer in the world still gets emotions. In fact I'd say it's that high of feeling something that leads most serial repeat offenders into doing it but I digress... Emotions are only bad if you misuse or don't know how to use them. For a lack of understanding them even, as most refuse to even look at them and their causality, preferring to ignore the thing that triggers them instead of addressing it and understanding it. Doing this is the real tragedy and misuse of them. Usually when we are angry we have a right to be even if we don't realize it yet. Even if our right isn't right, there's always a reason for it. And it's only by looking at these reasons that we can determine whether or not it is misplaced or not. This is what makes the difference between a thing being blame and or warranted factual truth. You lived so it might be alright in your eyes now but it doesn't change the fact your parents put you and your entire families lives in danger for little more than selfish main character syndrome.
I remember in college I read "The Things They Carried" by O' Brien and I did my senior thesis on PTSD and the trauma of war. I have heard about "All Quiet on the Western Front", but never read it and never saw the movie. So this video was great because wow, it's amazing that even in 1930, there were voices saying "War is horrible, why are we doing this to our children?", but the militaries simply silenced them. I do my best to absorb media/books like this because these voices need to be heard and respected: they were there. Ngl, I teared up knowing that they had actual veterans on set and advising on how to make the movie. I hope the Netflix version doesn't shy away from the message.
The book is totally worth reading. It takes a bit to get into it, but once you're invested in the characters it's like watching a train wreck. Just one shitty thing after the other and you sail through the last 2/3rds of the read.
A lot of the returning soldiers were broken men returning to a broken nation. The anti-war sentiment of veterans plus the questions of precisely WHY the war was waged is what ultimately led to radical politics, particularly fascism in Europe. Those guys really went through it.
We do this to our children because it is very profitable to have colonies. For the ruling class, anyway. Ultimately, that was the source of conflict in the world wars (which might have been more accurately named the imperialist wars, since they were fought between capitalist powers.) Even today, just look at America; Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, but they had plenty of nationalized industries that western companies could use to "expand." Our government is also owned by corporations, including weapons manufacturers, which is why we invaded and stayed in Afghanistan, and that is why Republicans pissed and shit themselves over withdrawing.
The first death was really eye opening for me, he probably had the same juvenile excitement and pride about joining the war effort as the main characters, only to die the minute he stepped off the train
Life is like a game of poker. Some are luckier than others, some are smarter than the other, and sometimes when the cards are drawn, the victors are already decided.
Ive read the book and I never thought you would cover the movie, the part that struck me the most was a soldier that the writer had come across while heading to the medical ward. He was running in desperation holding his intestines in his arms trying to keep his body together. The man’s will to live was scarily well described. He detailed the way he hobbled, the contortion of his face all in desperation for help. Frightening yet terribly interesting.
Man that reminded me of that one soldier in the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan. With soldiers holding body parts and that one kid yelling for his mom while he's holding his intestines in his stomach.
in my senior year of high school, my five student german class read this book together. we had no assignments about it. our only goal was to read and understand it. we students, along with our teacher, all cried at the end. im so happy to see you cover this underrated representation of this beautiful yet horrific story
Seeing Kat die really got me, it just felt like that was his last tie like you said. But knowing that the next scene is him reaching for a butterfly, a creature that symbolizes not only the souls of those who have died but also potential hope just to be gunned down? That is so brutally symbolic and terrifying. That butterfly was his forgotten and fallen friends, and the hope that he might get out of it alive maybe. It was so many things wrapped up in one little bug and then he gets shot. The hopelessness of that scene. You truly have no heart if you don't realize how awful this movie is and how awful war is.
If that got you yah should go watch the 79 adaptation, Kat gets it good there as well and his character is even more lovable in that one due to being played by Ernest Borgnine
@@victorkreig6089 As I said in my comment it's more the symbology after that gutted me but Kat didn't deserve that death, even if it was one of the most peaceful he could have got during war.
Something you didn’t mention is how, when the nazis came to power, the author of the book Erich Maria, fled Germany, so the nazi decided to behead his sister because he was “out of their reach,” I think that is the most tragic part about this story. The author simply expressed and relayed how he felt through literature and his sister was murdered for it.
This is incorrect. Erich actually explained that she was involved in anti-government activities in 1943. Even quite far post-war, many in Germany considered her a traitor while very few thought that way of Erich.
please stop lying, that isn't what happened she was killed after being found out for anti governement activities. God nazis were bad but this insistence on lying about them needs to fucking stop
Never saw the movie, but in high school, we read the book that was the basis for it. Once you mentioned the boots, everything just came back - that part stuck with me because it really hammered home that these boys were seen as less valuable than their gear, both to their commanders & ultimately to each other even if by accident. It was definitely one of the harder reads at that age.
Boots is kinda funny when ya hear about kids killing each other for their shoes. I'd probably be easier to steal some but they saw them right there right now on their side of the street. So they just took them. Two dogs pissing on the same tree scales all the way up to people and nations. We get involved soon as we also think it's our tree.
A reading wich was even harder for me was Private Peaceful. The tone is dark, sure, but I kept putting myself at the place of the character, and what I thought about what I would think or say in the situation was said or thought 3 lines later. I realised "I am Charlie Peaceful. I would have genuinely been in those trenches. I would have been hated like him for lying to my family. I probably would have died like him." It's a special kind of feeling to read a book and then realise that one of the character is you, word for word, thought for thought. All the complexity of your being is accurately portrayed in those pages. This book gave me a true feeling of emptiness after ( spoilers ahead ) Charlie, the character in question is executed for treason. I knew at that moment that I would have died, and I couldn't have had my dying wish of fully singing "I am a poor wayfairing stranger" one last time and refuse the blindfold.
As someone who joined the military for all the reason's listed in that first early scene, after being deployed and seeing combat, this scene brought me to tears the first time seeing it because I knew exactly where that road leads. This film and book needs more coverage, and I thank you for doing just that. Maybe if I had seen it or read the book, I would have made different choices.
I just wanted to respond to your specific comment because it absolutely shatters my heart. I, at one point, wanted to join the military. After three days of very little sleep and a sudden schedule change, i gave up. I only wanted to join so i could be a mindless zombie. I didn’t want to have to think. Some time down the road, i’d spent a study hall period collecting quotes from people who were in, or family members of people in the military. They were horrific, dehumanizing, and wildly depressing. I wanted to thank you for doing something you thought was right. It’s not my place, but i am so sorry that it turned out to be a flaming shit show. I’m sorry you had to find out the hard way. I don’t know how long you were in there, but you were there long enough to understand. That alone is too long. The military is something I have an extreme distaste for, and it destroys me to know how many people get sucked into it and either don’t come back at all, or come back completely different human beings. The mental illness cocktails they give these people fills me with rage i can barely comprehend. I’m just rambling now, but again, thank you. I wish it wasn’t like this.
@ThyPeasantSlayer Сейчас в армии хватает должностей на которых быть на фронте не надо, но так как ты скорее всего из России, я бы не советовал связывать свою жизнь с этим делом. Военный гос комплекс тут ужасный: вне зависимости от чинов и званий, за любую осечку тебя или уволят, или посадят, или все равно кинут на фронт, как пушечное мясо.
This story broke me. I couldn't put the book down and I was horrified reading it throughout. It's one of those stories that after reading it, you just sit back or lie down and just stay still, letting everything that you just read sink in.
One of the first military rifles I bought was a ww1 Gew. 98. It was a cheap purchase from a friend of a friend, I never thought about it much. After I watched All Quiet on the Western Front, I sat down and took apart the Mauser and gave it the cleaning it deserved. Like most of the things I have bought, I will never know the man who used it, but I can hope it took care of him when he needed ot most.
The audio of ben screaming about not being able to see is so fucking haunting and terrifying which one was a bloody well done performance by the actor but also really sets the tone of the movie and the war
Thank you for continuing to attempt to upload everything Wendigoon! I'm sorry that it was so difficult, but we appreciate all of your hard work. Sorry that TH-cam is such a pain with copyright stuff! Shoutouts to hummus and monster for getting you through this.
I will say, the horror of him screaming his eyes, as he is instantly blinded by explosions vs you eating hummus and drinking monster passive aggressively is absolutely hilarious
I learned about the book in German class (which is obviously like English class for native English speakers) and decided to read it. The ending has left its mark on me to this day. The book ends with Paul's death and the sentence 'Im Westen sei nichts Neues zu melden' (nothing new new to report in the west) from a military report, because one soldier dying means nothing to the war, even when it means an entire family will grieve this person for the rest of their lives. Remarque lost his German citizenship under the Nazi regime and the book was part of book burnings due to its horrifying depiction of war and its senselessness. I'm glad to say it's part of most history and/or German class curricula in German speaking countries.
Not only german speaking countries. I'm lithuanian and here we either read Nothing new on the western front or Remarque's Three friends (which is not the right book to explain the effects of war on the psyche of a soldier to 15-16 year olds imo) in our lithuanian class depending on either the professor's opinion on which book is better used in exam essays (as that's how our classes end up being structured sadly) or based on the constant changes in the recommended book curriculum
standard in English speaking countries too - this was 15 years ago but it was part of the curriculum in my high school English honors class in Missouri. we read the book, watched the 1930 movie, and learned a very little bit about the contemporary reactions in both Germany and the US and iirc we had a few assignments that asked us to compare and contrast to modern (or late 2000s, post 9/11 america) antiwar and pro-war media
Never heard anything about the book in my German lessons, or at all as a matter of fact. Was it standard reading lecture before 2010 or is there any other reason why I never heard about it?
I recently watched the movie and I think another reason why people back then were so angry at the movie is because this shows that German Soldiers weren’t just caricatures they were living people who did not want to go through this war and were traumatized. It was easy for people to say “it’s ok what happened because they were the enemy” I know when I watched it I was so uncomfortable because I had that mindset of “it’s just the enemy” when yes they are the enemy they’re also people (if this doesn’t make sense my bad)
That's exactly right and many novels deal with the situation from the British point of view,, Bury Him Among Kings is excellent and includes a conscientious objector who resists military service simply because he's not temperamentally suited to the role and doesn't figure he ought to go and die just to please the people around him... And while the whole thing examines widely differing points of view from the different characters there's the sense that the only people who really wanted the war to go on were people whose political objectives were being satisfied and people too dumb to know any better, which unfortunately included a lot of the soldiers who really couldn't tell you one way or another what any of it was about..
I watched this movie when I was 12! The last scene when he’s reaching for the butterfly is so depressing, especially considering the fact that Paul has a collection of pressed butterflies, (although Wendigoon doesn’t mention it.) Also, the scene when he’s in the classroom with his professor, and the professor is asking him to tell the young men in the classroom about how great the military is, and Paul just rants about how awful the war is.
As a combat-wounded vet... even though MY circumstances were different, this movie is VERY spot-on. Chilling and true-to-life. Thanks for this, Wendigoon. The Soviet film "Come And See"? That may be one of the most disturbing colour movies ever made (absolutely starkly chilling)
Saw it and I must say it is uncomfortable but when I was about 10 I saw the Michael J Fox film Casualties of War and that is just depressing as hell. I didn’t get the gRape scene but I always figured it was just beatings and brutality of a villager. The train tracks scene had scared me for some time. I saw Come and See and yea I can also vividly remember this film but at my age I’ve been desensitized to horrors of war (seen a bunch on the internet) the cow didn’t need to die by gun fire. Waste of good food. :(
I read this and the sequel “The Road Back” a few years after I got out of the Army. What struck me the most was even though there was almost 100yrs between me and the characters in the book how similar things were. The way they talk to eachother, the morbid humor, that feeling of alienation when you’re on leave or finally come home for good. It was creepy
"These are the vermin who make their fortunes through war. I have no reason to wage war for material considerations. For us, it is but a sad enterprise: it robs us, the German Volk and the whole community, of so much time and man power. I do not possess any stocks in the armament industry. I do not earn anything in this fight.
"They got white bread over there" this phrase shows you how tough war at the front lines really is, what we have nowadays which can be obtained from mindlessly walking to the fridge, people in the frontline during ww1, wish, if not envy just a single bite.
By the end of WWI, the Germans had nothing. No food, no clothing, absolutely nothing. When they saw what the Allies were supplied with, they knew they had lost. There are accounts of soldiers saying exactly that.
My dad was born in 1930. He talked about this movie a lot. I had watched a couple of WWII movies (The Longest Day, Midway) and he said I needed to watch All Quiet on the Western Front. It is an awesome movie. Thank you for your presentation. Oh, my dad is going to be 92 on Oct 29th.
@@margeebechyne8642 Nice! Reminds me of my grandad, actually. He's in his 80's or 90's too, but he's still doing reasonable well and still living in his own house.
The man that lost his hands... It's weird to think about how he's been immortalized in a way. Not for the person he actually was, not for the things he said or did, not even for the things he sacrificed; no, he's now only known by his hands. Funny how war rips away a person's humanity like that.
Every time WWI is brought up I think of J.R.R Tolkien who served during the war. He chose to finish school before joining in time for the battle of Somme where he caught trench foot and was removed from the war. Naturally after the war he would go on to write the Lord of the Rings. It is debated how much of the war inspired from his experience he himself was also unsure either. There are at least two obvious exceptions to this however. The dead marshes which was an ancient battlefield haunted by the dead, and the most famous quote from the book and arguably cinematography. "You shall not pass" spoken by gandalf to the Balrog as the fellowship flee Moria. It is believed Tolkien heard this quote from French soldiers whom he fought with in the trenches. "ils ne passeront pas!" They shall not pass. Despite the trauma he most of had during and after the war he still wrote a fantastic story about seeking a simple life, and hope no matter how dark the world gets. This why he's one of my greatest heroes and why any soldier Should be viewed as such even if they don't believe it themselves
The idea that anybody thought fighting in a war would be “fun” is terrifying. Those boys were lied to and tricked into thinking they’d be glorious heroes.. and they lost their lives... It’s so terrible..
Ummmm yea like EVERY WAR SINCE TIME BEGAN. Christ you …..can’t think it’s ONLY this one? nowadays they can’t hide it like that BUT somehow IT STILL HAPPENED in the 1st AND 2nd desert storm! So……
It keeps happening. Look at all those big Hollywood movies using actual army equipment and soldiers as extras. Top Gun remake is a good example of it. Making it look all romanticized, fun, heroic and badass
I had chosen to read this book for my senior year and write an essay on it and I gotta say the book was easily one of my favorite I've ever read. Such a depressing book, and watching Paul break down slowly throughout the book was heartbreaking. I highly recommend everyone to read the book.
The end of Paul just reaching out to the butterfly, this symbol of change, hope, immortality, joy, transformation, spirits, angels, and many other things, got me crying in the club. Like the imagery and the symbol of the change in his life, the change in his viewpoints, only to try and see the little glimmer of something hopeful is already horrible enough. But the idea that the butterfly could have been any one of his dead brothers in arms calling out to him, either letting him know they're always there or coaxing him to come and join them to end his own misery, is gut-wrenching to me. And maybe I'm thinking about this too much but the idea of Paul reaching out at a chance to/for change or, one of his friends, or hell, even him reaching out to the last semblance of a life long gone from him, only to be taken away breaks my heart.
My AP Modern US history teacher was a Marine who fought in Fallujah and some other major battle in the second Iraq war. Before he showed us this he warned that he may need to step out for a few minutes because the scenes of Paul coming home and sitting in a foxhole with the dead soldier hit close to home for him. After the movie was over he told us about his experiences and that once he came home from his last tour he joined a group called Veterans for Peace and at the time was still active in protesting against involvement in the Middle East. I’ve been graduated from high school for 10 year now, moved across the country. But when I come home and I see Mr. Gardner I thank him for telling his story and keeping me and the others in that class from signing ourselves up to continue the pointless bloodshed and pain.
That's really powerful that your AP history teacher showed your class this film even though it was extremely painful for him to do so. What an amazing teacher!
My best friend growing up was a child refugee from Iraq. From the stories she had told me, and what I had seen with my own eyes in her and her family. I am glad there are Americans out there that spread the truth about the crimes that happened in the middle east. You had a good teacher
One of my US history teachers was a veteran as well... We were his first class after being discharged. I'll never forget him, he made sure our rose colored glasses were ripped off and he taught us history that wasn't in our textbooks. It was hard for the students who were like "U.S.A!! U.S.A!!" but by the end we were all profoundly impacted by his class.
@@kittygoesdowntherabbithole4799 It's so cool to hate on the US, isn't it? The thought would give you a big ol' chubby if ya had a d*ck to start with. And every other country is just innocent pwecious wittle babies who never do anything wrong, right? Do you know what happens to women in the middle east? Or gays? Or is that conveniently left out of your new progressive history books?
I'm Iraqi, and my dad who lived through all wars from 1981 up until now, he said that once he went to the gas station and all he heard was sounds of bazookas, he ran home and while a tank was inches behind him, the tank was spraying everywhere, and it hit a guy in the dead center of his head and the bullet ricochet off the pole behind him, but in the mean time he was running away from the tank, he saw a little girl who went out of her home while crying because she can't find her parents, my dad tried to grab her hand while running but failed to do so, he managed to get home safely, but when he peaked out his out of his homes gate, he saw the little girl body, without a head, squashed on the ground, i can't forgive any US soldier in the war against my country, but i respect those who tried to help calm the communities in there.
War Graveyards are not uncommon in Europe and its the saddest part of any town. I live in a small town in Greece near the Albanian/North Macedonia borders. In a hill there are two cemeteries divided by a wall. On the left its the local cemetery, big white Graves one on top of another, with lit candles, flowers, personal photos and ingraved with information. On the right side it's just row after row of white crosses, it's the British soldier cemetery. Soldiers that lost their lives in ww2 in a foreign country, their bodies forever away from their loved ones, behind a locked gate in a graveyard no one ever visits. I think of those soldiers every time I pass by the cemeteries.
The new Netflix adaptation of this film is extremely well done. It follows the original very closely and the acting is incredible. The scene where Paul kills a French soldier in hand to hand combat with a knife and is so traumatized that he starts to apologize to the dead body after finding a picture of the dead soldiers wife and daughter in his jacket is extremely sobering and sad...
In my opinion, it is not. Watched the Netflix adaptation after watching this video and I could barely tell what was going on throughout the movie. No character development, no introspection, and every character felt the same and nothing made them stand out from each other. Sure, the movie looks pretty and it covered some themes like the hubris of "honor", the corruption of leadership, and the horrors of war, but the movie says almost nothing about the bigger picture the source material is trying to convey. Only one short scene at the start about the facade of "honor and patriotism" the media props up to quell the populace during the war. None of the discrimination that the main character endures when they come back a "coward" (other than a throwaway line from one of the German commanders). There's no proper setup for "civilian life" until we're thrown into the trenches literally before the first 20 minutes into the movie. That movie should not have been titled "All Quiet on the Western Front", because it is a poor adaptation of the source material.
The character development was intentionally made like that so Paul represents the everyday kid who got swept up by the propaganda and goes to war for the country
@@keilanl1784 I also have to dissagree, The main characters development was amazing.. A regular gun hoe innocent kid all hyped for war gets a grim reality check. By the end of the movie he's just a shell of his former self.
@@bebus6884 you can't just say his opinion is outright wrong like it is opinion. Also try to add why you don't agree with him instead you are wrong because i say so.
Wow, it's so sad to see another TH-camr spiral down such a dark path... I hope wendigoon can get the help he needs for his magic spoon addiction. You're in our thoughts and prayers Wendi!
I wish I could cry more (often) during sad parts. I’m jealous of my big brother in that respect. He cries at easier parts in films that I don’t find so sad yet.
@@rockino2562 I don‘t need to cry more than he does, I just want to have more tears than I do now. That way the sad parts are more satisfying to experience.
I'm so glad you covered this movie, because it's a story that doesn't get the recognition it deserves in my opinion. My entire sophmore class read the book while studying WW1, and it was such a surreal experience for all of us. We all went into it with the same naivety as the characters in the movie going off to war, expecting to read this glorified story about an incredible war hero fighting for his country, until one by one we would reach the end and find the devestating reality of Paul's death. We were all horrified by the idea that he didn't die as a hero; he died as a boy whose spirit had been broken by the tradgedies he'd experienced. It put the idea of war into perspective for us so clearly, and it's an idea that's really stuck with me since then.
It's crazy to believe this movie is nearly 100, There are a lot of great lines and the acting is phenomenal. It's really eye opening about the consequences of war.
@Ishbikes the Nazis actively suppressed the movie because they were exactly what the movie was criticizing. The ones who glorify war. And so they tried again, and failed again to gain glory to their country. All they achieved was a butchery on a scale that dwarfed even the war that was supposed to end all wars.
As a german with an italian mother, most of the people in earlier generstions of my family had to fight in WW2. For example my great-grand uncle was one of the few soldiers to actually survive Stalingrad, and I can still remember my father saying a long time ago "when he came back, even his mother didn't recognise him" just made me realise how unimaginable the torment of War must have truly been, as even much later when he was home, he never talked about the war. Another one of my family members was a pilot in Africa, he sank an enemy ship by dropping a bomb onto it. What shook me is that I was told that to the end of his life (he died a couple years ago at an age of 90+), he still had nightmares of seeing the sailors on the ship jumping overboard in a futile attempt to save themselves. Many stories out there are left untold to this day, as the people who would be able to tell them would be over 100 years old now. We are at the end of an era where the great war becomes only a memory of a time long behind us, with nobody left to tell new stories.
"We are at the end of an era where the great war becomes only a memory of a time long behind us, with nobody left to tell new stories" A tragedy in and of itself. This is why humanity continues to make these same mistakes and always will.
@@moosesues8887 as scary a thought as tik tok dancing being what potentially stops any future wars is, I'd much rather that than the genocides that war always brings.
As an American soldier who is just shy of his 8 year anniversary this really spoke to me. When I enlisted as an Infantryman all those years ago, I was 18 years old. I was swept up in propaganda and the ideals of being a hero, or for service of the greater good. While I don’t regret the career path that I have chosen sometimes I do wish I could go back and talk to my younger self about the naïveté I was caught up in. War is not a glorious endeavor. War is a glorified endeavor.
I went to military school otherwise I might have joined up. I was a senior during nine eleven. My best friend joined up. When he got back six years later we weren't friends anymore. We tried. We still pretend. He just can't anymore. Instead he sees the world through the bottom of a bottle.
I was 17 when I became an Airman I never wanted nor cared about the glory and glamour I just wanted to do my part like the rest of my family going back to the American Civil War and get on with my life.
It’s so weird looking back at how young the shoulders were. They were just children. Hell my heart aches for my own grandfather who was 17 when he signed up for Korea. He was just a baby back then wanting to serve like his father did. It’s so jarring actually having to confront how young the “men” were that were sent to die
It’s shameful of you to deny what these young men did. You can’t even call them men after what they experienced. These people are men. Don’t deny them that.
@@tdoran616 they were boys. Minors. Children made to fight. Calling them such isn’t disrespectful, it’s pointing out the cruelty of war and how many nations sent children off to die before they could fully grasp what that meant. These weren’t grown men, they were children fed lies and propaganda.
@@serena841 War has different effects on everyone. Assigning absolutes to it won't work for anyone, except for maybe the fact that it sucks for everyone involved lol.
Wow, that scene talking about how home isn’t home anymore kinda hit me. I’ve never been to war but I’ve been in the army for a while now. I remember that right after my training I was sent overseas for a year. I couldn’t wait to come home and go on leave again but it was so underwhelming. The entire time I was on leave all I wanted to was to go back with all the people that became my new family over those 12 months.
Goodness, that butterfly scene was perfect from every symbolic angle. Let’s see: -Monarchs are poisonous. Poison is activated as self-defense but only when you are actively being eaten, evoking that no victory comes without your own costs. -The fact that it’s a monarch specifically adds a layer of wordplay: because of the monarch, this man died in war. Be that a monarch or Kaiser, the point still stands. -Butterflies acquire their wings after spending most of their life preparing for this adult form, although this stage is short-lived and their main goal is to simply find a mate. These children spent their whole childhoods growing up to accomplish long-dormant dreams, and by spreading their wings upon the battlefield their adulthood was short-lived. I think the thing that struck me the most was the whole premise of him being able to stop and enjoy something beautiful… only for that to drop his guard and seal his fate. I think that one moment of witnessing a beautiful creature, that of which he probably saw back at home where the grass was vibrant and the sun was warm… I think that it was impossible for him to resist being distracted by the monarch. For the war itself had distracted him from everybody and everything back at home, and his brain needed a final familiar taste of those times no matter the price.
I love your description of the hidden meaning of that penultimate scene, but I can't help but feel that Paul knew what would happen when he peeked out of safety for so long, but simply had become disillusioned with life after losing everyone he had held dear, and learning that his home would offer no solace or sympathy if he returned
I once met a WW2 veteran who fought in Italy, his name was Bob. He talked often about the men he lost and the women he courted. He was 17 when he enlisted. I don’t have much else to say about him, but it’s nice to remember him.
My grandpa was 10 during WW2. He saw the Japanese occupy his home island. He never really talked a whole lot about what it was like other than the fact that they killed his brother.
I remember reading this book in middle school. I don't remember much. Paul's talk with the dying Frenchman and Paul carrying the "wounded" Kat without realizing he was dead. Those scenes haunt me to this day
The Odyssey quote at the beginning is so fitting when you examine the source material, also the Iliad. Odysseus, the titular “hero” (though the meaning was different then) returns a broken shell of a man with PTSD. The story itself can be interpreted as war only causes suffering. It’s not to be aspired to, it’s to be avoided at all costs. It breaks all men and their families, no matter who wins. I truly believe Homer meant it to be anti-war.
I'm very glad you had that perspective too, once I read the Odyssey for my self and how it's about all the horrors he and his comrades face coming BACK from war it made so much sense about it being a metaphor for PTSD.
I saw this in a Theater in Germany and it was one of the most impactful plays I've seen so far. When Paul is on leave and goes home, he climbs into the audience and stands on an empty seat, looking around. he comes from a stage covered in red and brown sludge and there is no helping the powerful realisation that he comes home almost from a "different world" and truly interacting with each other on even terms is seemingly impossible. To add to that, the first rows are even given plastic coats at the beginning of the play, to shield them from all that is thrown around on stage.... it was horrific while at the same time so beautifully made, using any and all tools of theater to show this traumatic mess
I was not prepared for nor was I expecting to attend a masterclass on a war story I never watched or cared about and be moved to tears by a passive aggressively hummus munching TH-camr but here I am, deeply moved and completely invested hanging on your every word, professor.
I took a World War One history course at university this last year and we analyzed a number of films and how they interpreted the meaning (or lack thereof) of the War. This movie was definitely one of the more haunting and brutal ones to watch. I recommend watching A Very Long Engagement for anyone that found this film moving.
I read a Japanese manga series on world history as a child. The WWI chapters featured a young German soldier as sort of a POV character. One day he crawled out of the trench to pick a flower for his girlfriend back home, and got killed by a sniper. Many years later I watched All Quiet and realized what that part of the manga was based on.
Charley's War, a famous WW1 comic strip from the 70's has a similar scene too. A soldier collects flowers for his daughter and he died after being sniped trying to retrieve a single poppy from No Man's Land
I'm in my sixties and my father was the youngest of ten children, so the age divide between me and my grandfather was vast. He died when I was 15 at a good old age. This is incredible because he volunteered in 1914 at sixteen years of age to go and fight for Britain on the Western front, and despite twice being wounded (he ended up with a permanent limp), he somehow survived 4 years of trench warfare. Needless to say, he was in a very small minority. I can still remember all the stories he told me about his experiences, and when I eventually saw this movie it really hit home. This was more or less how he described it. The big difference was that although the British soldiers were given basic rations, they were never in danger of starving. Apart from that however, it was hell on earth.
Have you ever been out playing paintball or lasertag with friends? How long did it take you to get hit the first time? That's approximately how long it would take for you to die on the front line during a war. Just always gives me chills when I think about that
We used to play airsoft and paintball until a couple of the friends in our group enlisted. They're all out now, but we don't play anymore cuz they're too uncomfortable with shooting us, and we've agreed they'd run our asses into the ground now that they have tactical training. Really saps the enjoyment out when you think about it.
I get what you mean (going up against a well hidden sniper is terrifying in airsoft for example) but i don't think that this is a good comparison because these "war games" are made to be fun and not realistic. The combat is limited to infantrymen only, communication in between teams is entirely optional, the possibility of respawning actively encourages high risk high reward maneuvers no one would make with their lives at stake, most people just play solo anyways, the arena is made to have lots of cover and alternative routes... I have seen hardcore milsim footage which definitely compares better to footage of low-tech wars, butthe combat also slows down so significantly that no one is willing to take risks and dying is much rarer. What made WW1 so deadly in my opinion is that technology advanced so rapidly while the average soldiers kit and medical technology couldn't keep up anymore. Fortunately the average soldier today has much better equipment and casualties have been reduced significantly thanks to that. I am by no means pro war by the way, i just wanted to point it out.
Oh yes! I learned at a young age via paintball that combat is not something that anyone should desire to experience. Yeah not completely accurate in variety of ways, but a good basic experience. "Patrolling" through the woods and hear shots ring out.. learned to hit the deck at sound of anything as well as move from cover to cover as a matter of survival.
Also learned that people don't get to take these perfect, aimed shots.. learned purpose and what suppressing fire is all about! One literally shoots to allow for maneuvering, etc
I think it's absolutely awesome how heavily involved German veterans were in the making of the film. It's also great how far the director was willing to push the established norms at the time for the film. I think it's even more impactful in hindsight seeing as how WW2 was right around the corner and more young boys had to go through the same thing. I bet even veterans that advised on this movie had to go back as well.
Indeed they would have, veterans of ww1 in Germany and Austria were often brought back into the military for ww2 as commissioned officers due to the sudden expansion of Germany’s army in the 1930’s from around 100,000 to several millions. My grandfather, for example, fought in the First World War as a volunteer and was drafted in September of 1939 as a captain in the Wehrmacht.
@@Ivan_Powrosnik Isnt it crazy? How so much people lived through 2 world wars in one life time, aurciced the trenches in the 1st one just to be killed in the 2nd?
One thing this movie really highlights is how much the Hays code set the industry back. Movies like this were really pushing the envelope and then the hammer came down for decades. Definitely a movie worth watching.
yes! i was just reading about the code today and came upon wendigoon again (love his vids but i take breaks and binge watch) and i was like “hey! i’m learning about this in class!”
22:20 Great breakdown Wendigoon. So well done man. My mother in laws dad went to WWI and suffered from shell shock after. He was never the same. The ripples of war still felt to this day.
2:47 The way he says "It's because I'm at my limit." is so calm yet so firm, and being said by this peaceful and wholesome dude, that it honestly scared me somewhere deep down my soul.
I was about 15 to 16 when I bought this movie. I was really getting into classic movies but my reasons for watching this one was just to watch a classic war movie, not realizing how depressing it was. It left a grave impression on me and the fact that I was watching it at the same age as the characters game me an even more dour perspective.
Wendigoon and my fellow goonies. I'm a spry 72 years old and since I was 12 I wanted to know all the best the world had to offer. Lit, food, art, etc etc. I would haunt the Art Cinemas in NYC, mostly Bleeker St and Carnegie Hall. I probably first saw this great film in the 1970s. I enjoyed your commentary and especially the Owen Wilson Poem at the end. I hope you know Benjamin Britten's War Requiem from 1963 which takes the Roman Catholic mass for the dead and intersperses Wilson Poems. (There are many you tube videos of this). Wishing you every success ...Jim Mexico retired
Use this link to save $5 at Magic Spoon today! magicspoon.com/wendigoon
Thank you to Magic Spoon for sponsoring the video!
Cool seeing you in the internet historian video
Burger
Do Threads next plz!!!
dad please make a video that involves aliens in some way again 🫦
The Version of this movie that was made in '79 was played in front of my class by our history Teacher.
It feels weird that my libertarian arse already knows Something about this topic...
When i watched your Video about Waco i went into it with zero previous knowledge.
The screaming when Behm is blinded genuinely frightened me. This whole film is insane, especially for the time.
@here is the full clip Nope.
Freaked me tf out
@Nemuri Kayama - Midnight it say its almost more horrifying
It's the best piece of anti-war literature ever written and the movie is an above average adaptation of the source, between it, Paths of Glory, and Breaker Morant it's really hard to justify what we do to one another, as all are heavily rooted in real events (though BM is depressingly viewed as in favour of the defendants who were guilty).
The novel was actually banned nationally here in Australia because of it being "pacifistic".
it actually distressed me too, like there was no blood, but it was brutal
“One death is a tragedy, six million is a statistic.” I feel like that quote really speaks to how we as a people tend to look back on wars.
yea, like we think serial killers are scarier because we simply cant comprehend the killing of 6 million people
Stalin quote
Some don't like to admit it but people only have so much empathy to go around. All the people around the world dying in wars right now will never mean as much to you as the loss of a good friend or family member.
It’s always sad to see millions die for no reason but it will never feel the same as a close friend or family member dying ( My original comment had some harsh words that I didn’t mean so i remade it)
@@Tsunami5062this is such a sad and scary way to view another person’s death
Having WWI veterans basically recreate something traumatizing from their past was probably really weird. My great great grandfather faught in the trenches and whenever my grandfather asked him about anything related to WWI and the trenches, he’d get scary PTSD attacks and start hyperventilating. If someone’s trauma was triggered by even mentioning, I can’t imagine filming a movie about it.
The ways that help individual people cope with their trauma are very different and so was their way of handling trauma in general. I can imagine that the soldiers working on this movie had at least to some capacity managed to work through the worst of it and found it helpful for their own peace of mind to put this horrible knowledge to good use.
But it certainly wasn't easy. The film itself was known to give veterans flashbacks precisely because it was so true to detail in so many aspects.
Watch Goodbye Uncle Tom. That’s so bad.
I think for some people, reliving their trauma could help them process and deal with the impact that it had on them. but im not educated on thd topic so i could be wrong
Some people ain't a bitch
maybe they were in the trenches but didn't see the worst of it or heavy combat at all?
The fact that a nearly 100 year old movie has copyright issues is insane to me
You can thank Disney for that.
@@vinyldash2333Man got so mad that one of his IPs was stolen, that it would never happen again…guess what, it wouldn’t. For the detriment of the world, it wouldn’t.
@theorangeoof926 I dont even think it was stolen. Mickey was supposed to go into the public domain for free use. He was never stolen. Just disney didn't want to lose their cash cow.
@@TheWolfie234so according to Time Magazine: the version of Mickey with his iconic red design, so the one we see today, is still copyrighted but all the versions BEFORE that design are copyright free in most countries
@@vinyldash2333The House of the Rat remember. A loathsome bunch, Disney.
The thought of stabbing someone then spending hours with that person while he dies is so haunting and sad. I couldn't imagine anything more horrific or sad.
id just put them out of it at that point, or at least id like to think i would. i dont think id wanna be in the face of someone dying, you either gotta be alive or dead, i wouldnt want to see the halfway stage
That scene has a parallel in a later Australian film, The Lighthorsemen, there's a Turkish soldier who is lung shot. Neither are the worst deaths I've seen but it definitely helps show the reasons why Paul and Dave turned against war.
Never enlist
What's even worse is that Paul had no idea the guy was naturally mute. It's bad enough to stab someone and then spend 10 hours apologizing for it to them. Let alone to think that they've chosen to die while giving you the silent treatment!
@@rumpled4skin271 that, I think was very key to the scene, actually. We can see how totally green Paul is to war and death and combat. It's hard to imagine a seasoned soldier doing anything but quickly and humanely ending the French soldier so he doesn't suffer needlessly. But Paul was essentially still a boy until he came out the other side of this experience.
The part of the book that always stuck out to me is when Paul’s squad faces artillery fire while in a graveyard. Not only dirt was kicked up by the explosions, but pieces of wooden caskets and human remains rained down on them too
Yeah this book has so so many harrowing and memorable moments. Like one where someome told paul not to eat too much because when you get stabbed by bayonet it's harder to treat the wound. That scene stuck with me.
very accurate, ww1 studyer here
They actually blew up a real actual cemetery for that scene!!!! Back in the 1930's , they had no laws against killing animals or desecrating bodies in those days plus they used real actual live ammo in certain films that they shot at the actual actors with especially any James Cagney gangster film back then because blank bullets & squibs weren't even invented yet then so being a actor & doing stunts was extremely dangerous & most actors had to do all the dangerous stunts by themselves!!!!!
Imagine being in that situation and a Human skull comes flying at you
@@Man_Aslume facts , shit was real in cinema back in those days even for Charlie Chaplin 💯🪦❤️
Watching a blinded soldier scream in absolute fear of death while Wendigoon chows down on hummus is the most bizarre thing I've seen all week. Great video
Time stamp?
@@rootsOfMadness15 18:16
Surrealism at it's finest
I noticed that too, I was like damn.. he looks like he's stoned and that hummus dip was the best thing ever. Chugging down a monster too. I'm surprised how much commentary he came up with when he had his eyes closed the whole time lmao
If TH-cam copyright is good for anything it's for creating that scene
the fact that Wendigoon was basically forced to be a reaction youtuber just to put this video out shows how much TH-cam caters to reaction channels
1 hour long video essay: not transformative :/
eating hummus in the corner: yippies :D
@@undertowlil basically
I was hoping for the passive-aggressive consumption of Magic Spoon instead of hummus. Glad the vid got uploaded.
@@Revikra same
Well yea it’s TH-cam
The absolute irony that the audience from so many countries all universally reacted to this film , in the same exact manner that the people in Paul’s town (teachers, students, etc) reacted to him saying “war is not what it’s been made out to be guys.” That in itself is satirical
If they reacted the way the message intended then it'd put a major dent in recruiting for future wars.
Hide the horror to keep it profitable.
Never a foot was placed on German soil. War is hell
The film covers those types with the teacher. No matter what they hear, they will denie it and attack and shun the people who speak the truth. It's not all that Ironic because the film specifically calls those people out.
@@goosefootjones7196 You know I see this sometimes from people who really like the Kaiserreich. Perhaps a little too much, though don't take that as a personal attack on you. I've always wondered how much that really mattered when a generation of young Germans were massacred in the war. And how much this would fuel one of the worst regimes in human history.
I refer people harping on excitedly about war or "frenchies waving the white flag" to this movie. A thing I noticed is, the closer you get to those former battlefields, the less you tend to encounter those types. And even a simple visit can sometimes make the person "click". Places like Ypres, Verdun, the beaches of Normandy, the death camps of ww2... They carry something. And the people around there, often descendents of those who suffered, have something to them as well. The effects of war, a a certain sense of disillusionment, follows them accross generations.
I like how Wendigoon says "he's so funny" and "this is highly entertaining" with a huge smile and in the clip he just continues to casually munch on hummus with no sight of entertainment on his face
This is literally a vibe .
bros HUNGY
Literally embodies the people who type "lol" or "lmao". Who are usually deadpan.
I think its so it can pass as critisism when he shows the film with audio. Critisism as its so boring he just eats with a bored expression.
I’m assuming that he wasn’t even watching the clips being shown since he had to edit the face-cam in afterwards
Paul has a childhood collection of butterflies and him reaching for the butterfly at the end is really him reaching for the life he had before the horror of war. Really can’t recommend the film or book enough. Thank you for this, Wendigoon.
I saw this video and said to myself: "Well I have some time spare so why not see it", the film was great, after watching it I can see the inspiration from the 1917 film, like I watched the ancestor of 1917.
This comment has 1.2K likes yet only one comment below it?! Someone's using "comment likes" bot farms lol.
Thank you for the additional insight about the butterflies. Appreciate it! : )
@@truthhurts2879 you keep appearing under peoples comments saying this same thing. Wendigoons channel has a lot of people who just like comments and don’t comment. It’s just a quirk of his channel.
Yeah, I was bored and thought ‘you know I haven’t watched anything of Wendigoon’s for a bit. Let’s see what he’s got’ and I got traumatized. Fun.
49:57 The fact that Paul’s death is offscreen and we only have his hand to show he died is soooo so much better than showing Paul die onscreen. To that sniper, Paul was just another German enemy to take care of. And on top of that, that hand could belong to any soldier (although we know it’s Paul), making him just another faceless casualty in a war he didn’t want. And that applies for all the soldiers; they’re just another casualty, another note to send to another family, another grave to dig, another hospital bed to empty and fill, another tick mark added to the death toll. 😭
BRO THE FUCKING EMOJI RUINED IT FOR ME 😂😂
@@Redd7206 IM SORRY 😂😅
I loved the new All Quiet on the Western Front movie overall, but I agree. Paul's death in that one and the last attack thing were my only two problems with it.
The whole comment: well-read and explained, transformative and additive to the video
Also the whole comment: *gets made a joke by an emoji*
bro the emoji lmao
This left out one of the most horrifying scenes from the book. A ton of horses get hit with artillery and just sit there screaming as they start kicking, getting wrapped in their own intestines, tying themselves in their own guts. That scene in the book has stuck with me for many years
One detail of that is one of the soldiers had/has horses on his farm back home, and the contrast of his horses being safe and happy and the horses being killed causes him stress. They also ended up putting the horses down after the bombardment ended.
Stress is an understatement, but I hope you see the point that his personal connection to horses added another layer to his pain over that situation.
@@bassingaminandshootin5 I do, and the fact that they had to sit and listen to the horses scream for fear that shooting them would give them away added even more. He loved horses and had to sit there and listen to that for I can’t remember how long until someone finally shot them. The book truly is the most horrifying piece of literature I’ve ever read
That point is so strong because the amount of horses that were killed during that war just boggles the mind. Let's not forget that horses were still a common sight in the streets during that time too. It's just another notion of how unsparing WW1 (and war in general) is.
Yeah, and they couldn't put the horses down for several minutes because they were taking cover from a bombardment. They had to sit there and listen to their agonizing screams and pray they didn't get bombs dropped on them. My imagination conjured up a very terrible scene in my mind. But the fact that this probably actually happened? That is the true horror.
"If it weren't for these uniforms we could have been friends you and I"...dude I'm actually starting to cry. What a powerful line. That whole scene makes me sick to my stomach
I cried twice watching this to be honest. First was during that scene, and second time was at the end with Paul's death. This whole movie is so powerful and I wish every person could see it and understand its message.
@@mishy. I had to stop watching at the first dudes death, my goodness it was gruesome even by my standards and I watch happy tree friends (one of the characters in one episode of happy tree friends got their face shoved into a grill)
Sad thing is, its probably truth. Most of the soldiers fighting at WW1 didnt really feel any hatred against the opposing soldiers, they all just wanted to get home.
The christmas truce where all of them played soccer and genuinely had a nice time together is so sad to me, because it really shows you that they were just fighting because nonsense, and that they really couldve been friends.
@@AnimaDwellerthis is kinda untrue I mean the Christmas truce only happened in the first year of the war and they only joined in festivities together in the British and German parts of the western front, the Belgians and French who were ya know occupied weren’t as happy to be nice to the Germans, it was stopped by the generals the next year yeah but additionally by the second year they had been exposed to poisonous gas and London had been bombed with zeppelins etc etc. But yeah no one really wanted the war although the Christmas truce is a bad example.
reminds me a lot of the poem The Man He Killed
The scene where he is asking forgiveness to a corpse is something that struck me in the soul, it is very sad as he begs something that can't answer. Truly a tragedy.
This scene is also in the new Netflix adaptation of the film and its very sobering and moving. The new adaptation as a whole is extremely good.
@@lazy_lefty yeah, it's a lot more directly gory, but they really made it a horror movie, especially with how it's shot and the soundtrack. But yeah it's one of the few remakes that I have seen recently that managed to keep the original message and is pretty good
this scene also shows up as an opener in the Ukranian metal band 1914s "100 Days Offensive." If you want to hear a musical attempt to describe the horror of WW1, try them out. I also recommend their songs "...and a cross now marks his grave" , "A7V" , and their covers of "Something in the way" and "the green fields of France"
And the mute actor really puts an underlying message to it
There was one account from a French soldier, running up some stairs up a bridge to meet advancing Germans. Met the lead man of thr group who raised his rifle to fire, just a boy, like the French man telling the story at the time. They had an identical expression, excitement and thrill of combat.
The french soldier noted that the German soldier looked like he could've been a friend of his from college.
The German soldier would never get to fire his gun, as the French soldier impaled him clean through the chest with his bayonet. Twist it, and kick him to the ground, dead. The rest of the column of German soldiers would be decimated by rifle fire.
But the French soldier said that seeing the whole line of Germans gunned down was nothing in comparison to that young boy, he was within an arms reach, and their eyes met eachother as he killed him. He said he watched as the boy's expression turned from one of excitement to one of terror as the bayonet peirced his chest, the immense pain and grimace as he twisted it, and finally sadness and anguish, the tears that fell from his eyes, he said it probably hit him at that moment he'd never see his family again as the French soldier tore his life away. He saw vividly all these emotions go through this boy his own age in this 7 second exchange that haunted him the most
the fact that, when i was watching, i was interrupted by an army recruitment ad is... a cosmic level of situational irony. lord have mercy.
That is the most Dr. Strangelove thing I’ve heard
Not only do we get a new video, we also get to see how slowly wendigoon is building a mansion out of magic spoon boxes
All hail the magic spoon boxes🙌
@griffy bot
@Newcious bot
He goes crazy and starts building a giant man creature made out of magic spoon boxes, makes a national park inside of it, and then when the park goes under hide it by building a national monument over it.
@@critespranberry8872 brother, if that’s crazy, I don’t want to be sane.
The scene when Paul comes home broke me.
He peruses his old books and drawings, and the things that once brought him joy and wonder don't anymore, and he breaks down into tears.
I've heard of many soldiers experience this. It's one of the things that makes the transition back into civilian life really hard.
@@MrFredstt why did you use that emoji?
@@savary5050 I have no idea. I made my comment on PC and didn't use an emoji but I'll edit it
It's true. I still like the things from before deployment, but doing those things seems trivial\worthless\childish.
Man thats cruel
I remember a MASH quote about War being worse than Hell because "There are no innocent bystanders in Hell. War is chock full of them - little kids, cripples, old ladies. In fact, except for some of the brass, almost everybody involved is an innocent bystander."
One of my favorite quotes from MASH
Wars do not determine who is right, only who is left.
@@kagekun1198 Fallout 3 reference
That's always been my opinion.
Its worse than hell (if it even exists), because there are no innocent people in hell....
@@TheSkyGuy77
Depending on the perception of God and how He lets people into hell, there may very much be innocent people in Hell.
Reminds me of the time in grade 12 where a woman came to speak to us about joining the military as a means to afford university education. Her daughter was a soldier that died (I don't remember where she died, what war etc). But I was absolutely disgusted by how this woman spoke so highly of war and the military, when it was what took away her daughter. So when we were leaving the auditorium, and other kids asked about signing up, I told her that I was so sorry for her loss. She legitamently looked at me like I had two heads.
That happens in every war and there's usually nothing overtly said,, just vague ideas about duty to the country and blah blah blah... I recommend the novel "bury him among kings," which deals with World War I and the insidious nature of the politics and propaganda behind wars even on the home front...... At one point the main character,, a junior officer in the British army remarks on seeing a poster in the streets of london, one of those War posters where there was a woman depicted standing on the shore of Britain, sending her son off to France with the exhortation, go lad, it's your duty.... And the character thinks, THIS was the poster the troops hated the worst, the one they never brought back from leave back to the front as a joke because how many mothers were there like this in reality? One would be too many, and another main character who is a professional and accomplished soldier comes to hate the backslapping at home,, his reason being that he was doing what he was ordered and he wasn't there for medals and none of them would be back slapping if they knew what he was doing in the trenches, up to his elbows in death...
This is the reality of some active duty soldiers. Their parents/spouses would glorify their deaths. My mom would have absolutely done that to me and it makes me sick to my stomach to think about.
I feel like it's a coping mechanism to think your child died for a higher purpose as opposed to dying for nothing or for another person's profits. Just easier to deal with it.
@@shrimpy6519that's one thing another thing is actively trying to take a part into other children facing the same fate your daughter did
Meanwhile my us history teacher brought war vets to talk about the horrors of war, much like paul, only with pictures. There was also the known fact (at least in our circles) that green cards were offered to undocumented parents if their children served, only to be deported once their kids died in battle, so most were already weary to military propaganda. As ive gotten older, the cruel saying of "the only good soldier is a dead soldier" just seems more and more blatant, even when people are trying to glorify war while ignoring the trauma and damage done to those that serve. Its so sad...
So sad to see that this is the last footage of Wendigoon before he got trapped in Sand Cave for 15 days straight, Internet Historian just talked about this tragedy
Some say he's still trapped in that cave, sitting in total darkness while spitefully eating hummus on a face cam...
hasanabi covered this last night, wendigoon made it :’)
😂😂😂😂 couldn’t finish the video. Terrified me.
Wait im so sorry if im just slow but what do you mean by “he got trapped in a sand cave for 15 days straight”?????? Is that like something at the end of the video?
@@wigglewiggle4201 Look up Internet Historian.
I am German and in 11th grade in school we watched this movie. I still remember that there were often some students quietly talking throughout the movie, as students tend to do. But then, during the scene of the French charge with the oppressive sound ocean and the visuals, the entire class was silent all the way throughout. Then, when the Atrillery obliterated the one French soldier and only left him with his hands hanging, there was a gasp from many students in our class and even I remember feeling my heart somewhat sinking in that moment. I really love that you talked about how impactful this one moment is in the movie, because it is certainly the scene I first think of when thinking about this movie.
as someone who has hundred hours studying ww1 accurate
its terrible terrible terrible
In war too many good sons, fathers, and husband's never come home 😔
I swear I have a friend that would be laughing through that and I’m starting to think he is a psychopath 😂
@@GeorgeWockington01 what the fuck
@@GeorgeWockington01 my entire history class laughed at the D-day scene in Saving Private Ryan. Specifically when one soldier was holding his guts in and screaming "MOMMA!"
Don't worry, everyone is a little psychotic lol
The fact that WW1 veterans appear in the 1930 movie makes it even more incredible.
Truly a masterpiece ahead of it's time.
A good 100 years ahead of it’s time.
Actually it’s timeless, war never changes this film will always be important :(
Anything halfway good is beyond its time, according to any web dweller.
The term ‘War never changes’ is wrong. The horrors of war though, does not.
Most halfway good films set trend and are then ahead of their time so yes you are absolutely right
@@rogue_2k374 indeed, tactics and weapons change every day, but the horror doesn't
An absolutely heartbreaking detail I noticed during the scene where Paul reaches out for the butterfly over the trench was back when he was home, you could see pictures of butterflies hung up on the wall of his bedroom. Ngl it made me cry.
I found myself questioning the French sniper, for killing a man reaching for a butterfly.
@mikoto7693 he was clearly threatening him with a bazooka.
@@mikoto7693 me too, but he probably wasnt paying much attention to what paul was doing and was more focusing on getting the shot
@@mikoto7693 We like to think that if we see someone doing something that humanizes them or isn't a threat to us, we could never bring ourselves to harm them, or at the very least, we wouldn't kill them. But I think that's kind of the point in that scene. Paul isn't a threat. Both because we know him, but also because what he is doing is completely innocent and explicitly non-threatening because he is unarmed and vulnerable. And yet, the french soldier kills him with not much expression on his face than concentration.
Because the french soldier wasn't looking for a threat or a major player in the war. He was looking for a German soldier. Because that's what a sniper is supposed to do: find an enemy soldier and shoot, then move on to looking for another.
A bit of a tangent, but I appreciate how the french soldier isn't depicted as having shadows over his face, or any kind of evil delight or glee or even a sense of accomplishment in this scene. But he's not depicted as completely expressionless either, because that was almost be the same thing. As if he were some kind of psychopath. Instead, he just looks like he's focused on taking aim. He's not regretful nor is he excited at taking another man's life, he's just a soldier doing his job. And yet, he's the one that ends the movie and ends the main character that I'm sure hundreds of the original audience thought would survive the war.
So many quotable lines from that book too. the one that stuck with me was "We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces"
I'm very grateful that my World Literature teacher had us read this book. She was an immigrant to the U.S. from Lithuania and escaped WWII. I recall her crying in class as we discussed certain parts of the book.
Reading a book for its quotable lines is exactly like not seeing the forest for the trees.
@@private755 how do you infer his motivation was to quote memorable lines?
@@private755 he never said he read the book just for quotes, he didn’t imply it either
The very final scene of the movie was him reaching out for peace. But he just couldn't reach the butterfly. Even in those who come back from the front lines alive; many of them suffer that same death. Never escaping that strife. In the literal sense it was a departure from the tale of the author himself. But in a symbolic way, on point.
What do you even mean by they suffer the same death
@@coachman1532 The death of their chance for tranqulity in life. They can't catch the butterfly.
I like to think when Paul dies, he dies in a thoughtful moment of peace, as he understands the war has run its course, that he had felt the brunt of the anguish of war so others would see the horrors of what had happened and not allow for it again. Perhaps he dies in peace because he knows the ones who knew him would learn just what he had gone through, teaching his people just how big of a mistake they had made by allowing for war. Paul feels he served a duty to the world as he dies, so the future generations don’t have to suffer like they did in this war.
Those that died arguably received a more merciful end to the war, nothing screams anti-war louder than pictures of soldiers with artillery/bullet wounds and are still alive to look at the camera. I read that for some of these men, even their children screamed at the sight of their own fathers and ran.
that scene with Ben genuinely scared me. just hearing his anguished cries about how he cant see, its so haunting.
@complete video here you people annoy me
I agree. That scene made a huge impact on me. I can't imagine enlisting into a war out of reluctance, then being blinded and killed when running the wrong way💔
The gutting feeling it gave me lingered throughout the rest of the video
Another thing about cat i appreciate is how he says "it's happened to better men than you, and it's happened to me" Even more to how good a character he was
Well yeah,, if a guy tells you he DIDN'T either piss his pants or just stood frozen or SOMETHING when an artillery shell lands around you is either lying or completely insane... Like with the soldier general Patton slapped,, it's pointless to have a guy who can't handle artillery at the front so you want them BACK from the front line where he can still do his job...
My great uncle fought in WW1, and smoking ironically saved his life. He was shot in the leg but the bullet pierced the tin cigarette box in his pocket and it slowed the bullet enough to protect his leg from any serious damage. He survived the war and lived to the ripe old age of 90 but when I think of what my grandparents’ generation went through it’s honestly mind boggling. My grandpa was a farmer by the time WW2 broke out and Canada didn’t draft anyone so thankfully he was exempt from service, but both him and my grandma lost so many for next to nothing. So harrowing to think about.
wow! an almost identical thing happened to my great grandfather in WW2. he was shot in the chest right where the pocket he kept his cigarette box in was. knocked him over but he escaped with just a huge bruise. he always talked about how once he was safe all he wanted was a smoke, but the tin was totally melted and his hands were too shaky to hold a cigarette anyway. he ended up dying of lung cancer due to smoking but had he never picked up the habit he wouldn't have even seen 30.
@@Ashley-ub8sj No way, that’s crazy! Now I’m wondering how many soldiers had this same thing happen to them. Thanks for sharing your story and sorry to hear about your great grandfather passing.
Something somewhat similar happened to my great grandpa, when he returned to his home state of kentucky for a short time he was given a knit hat by one of the people living there. In battle he wore the hat under his helmet, he was shot in the head, the bullet went through the helmet and was just barely stopped by the hat.
I had a friend in the Australian Army who was behind an M-113 which was driven poorly, went off the road and flipped- driver decapitated.
@@matthewn557 The person who gave your great grandpa the hat was a real MVP.
the way pauls death was depicted is so heartbreaking. that simple act of pure innocence and hope and kindness by a young man caused him to be killed in a place that should never have existed and by a man he never should have met.
For real. And the fact that it happens so suddenly just shows the futility of it. According to the war, he is just more meat for the grinder, instead of a human being
The ending shot haunts me to this very day. The single shot of all the soldiers looking wistfully back at their family overlaid over their inevitable outcome - a mass graveyard littered with crosses over people whose lives were completely shattered so lines on a map could be moved by an inch- is one of the most powerful images in all of cinema.
ew these replies are botted to heck in back
I wouldn't call the film the most disturbing (like in the video's title), but it might be one of the most excellent pieces of cinema in history. It's nearly a hundred years old, and still holds up
Given it holds up partly because of its age, but still
I agree, great shots all over, even today. I can't imagine what it was like for first audiences.
@@xiphactinusaudax1045 Well said. I think another aspect that I hadn’t previously considered but adds a whole new morbid layer is the fact that a lot of the extras were actual veterans of the Great War. Imagine the amount of nightmares revisited as they went about filming😢
@@AbhNormal Yeah, extras being PLAYED by veterans actually felt kind of unnecessary to me. I can understand wanting input on the production, but there had to have been extreme shellshock-related difficulties during the filming process
Respect goes out to them for not only experiencing war and its horrors, and coming back, and reliving trauma just so they could spread the message
I know this is completely off-topic but is that a Half-Life fan I can see?
I imagine for the veterans working on this project it was a way to stop the cycle of war. At the time we know it wasn’t common for people to be taken seriously when they talked about their own experiences.
I’d like to think that this was in some was therapeutic to them.
Or that is my personal take on why actual ww1 vets may have helped in the project. There have been similar types of projects (people who have actually been in the middle of traumatic events) helping to explain it so that they can be prevented even today.
Sorry for a years late comment- it’s my first time seeing the video.
“it’s dirty and painful to die for your country. when it comes to dying for your country it's better not to die at all!” is by far my favorite quote of the movie and makes me think of behn, the first boy to die in the movie. he died blind and screaming and stumbling, in pain and so so scared. he didn’t die heroically or valiantly, he died horribly and with his friends mourning and feeling guilty over his death.
The dead don't feel honor
They don't feel that brave
They don't feel avenged
They're lucky if they got graves-jesse welles
thank you fluttershy for the insight
Soldier: *having a mental breakdown*
Wendigoon: ☕️🗿
Wendigoon had to do that, because if he didn't, the TH-cam copyright authorities would kick him off again.
@melodie-allynbenezra8956 I'm sure he watched the video lol.
Even with the context though, it's funny as hell!
no emotion whatsoever
@@melodie-allynbenezra8956 its still funny asf lmfao
This is more than just haunting. My great grandfather was born in 1901 and volunteered to serve in the Imperial German Army in 1918, when he was just 16-17 years old. Nobody knows what he had experienced throughout the last months of the war. He never told anyone. It had to be of unspeakable terror, for because of it he developed his smoking habit of smoking about 100 cigarettes a day. He suffocated in 1981, while fully conscious, due to complications with lung cancer. It is important to have more people watch these kinds of movies, thus understanding what all those young men had to go through. Never again!
What. The. Fuck
Thats tuff
Yeah my great grandad got a big smoking habit after ypres
* *Young men.*
One relative was the Catholic chaplain who served under August von Mackenson and was the last German POW to be released another was gassed by the Germans while serving in the lost battalion. My grandfather’s uncle spent the rest of his life in and out of mental hospitals. My pop has told me about how he would dive for cover whenever he heard my grandfather shoot a cap gun.
I love the ending of this movie, it's so sudden and anticlimactic and makes the whole thing feel so futile and pointless
Kat died tho :(
“He fell in October 1918, on a day that was so quiet and still on the whole front, that the army report confined itself to the single sentence: All quiet on the Western Front. He had fallen forward and lay on the earth as though sleeping. Turning him over one saw that he could not have suffered long; his face had an expression of calm, as though almost glad the end had come.”
just like war
Why do i recognize your name?
@@wayacrazy. idk, are you an mcr fan? It has nothing to do with my name, but they have the true lives of the fabulous killjoys album
I legit cried when Paul was trying to help the French soldier and i kept thinking about the scene where he gave him water and i would not stop thinking about it for weeks
One of the most impactful scenes from the book for me that I wish they had put in the movie (though I get why they didn’t) was a scene where Paul was charging a French position and beside him another soldier got his head shot off by something and his body kept running for four or five steps before it realized it was dead and crumpled to the ground. Even almost 10 years later it’s one of the most memorable lines I’ve ever read from any book.
Jesus that's probably gonna be in the remake
Back when I was in 5th grade I read a book called “Stones in water”, which was about the holocaust. That book still lives rent free in my head many years later. So messed up
Agreed. That line was absolutely hollowing. Another line that stuck with me was when Paul watched a Frenchman fall on barbed wire and had his arms shot off, leaving them in a prayer position.
The brain is gone but the signals still going
I think there was a moment like that told in Toni Morrison's Sula
The stories really remind me of my grandfather. He lied about his age to sign up for the navy during WWII, him and his 3 other brothers. When he came home he didn't speak about the war. Or to my mother or his wife later in life, and he got pressures in his head. When I was growing up he began to open up. He wanted to educate me. What always stuck out the most was how he spoke about when he was on an LST at Utah Beach during D-Day. Watching the landing craft open up and his friends being mowed down, the ocean red with the blood of all the bodies. It changed him as an person and I think attributed to his rough and mean demeanor as he became old as well as his alcoholism when my mom was a young girl. Rest in peace grandpa.
poor man , sounds like my grandfathers story but from vietnam. good man. horrible trauma reshaped him. he’s at peace too
My grandfather fought in the battle of Kursk and his brother in the battle of stalingrad of all places, he had a similar experience with my mom where he literally did not speak for years and always looked like he was about to cry, he couldnt look at anything related to military (which was hard as a russian) or he would throw up
The only time he started to open up was when me and my siblings started to grow up, but he still was clearly not ok.
I guess he at least knew that he had to do it, as what the (Nasssis) where planning to do to any slav was already well know. But still, i cannot imagine what a person would have to go thought to have such traumas.
All these grizzled old men we see, were young kids who played games and came running in to dinner when mom called. At one time.
My grandpa opened up to me after I joined the army as his dementia was developing. He had a similar story with his family, I just wish these men had more support after everything they went through because I could tell he needed, at the very least, an outlet to talk about the things he did and saw.
He was young enough that he had to lie about his age, but he was already married? Did he marry at 17?
I remember my high school teacher showing the class this movie, I still remember most of the story and some of the scenes to this day. At first the class mocked our teacher and the film for being old and boring, no special effects, and being black and white; in the end it absolutely silenced everyone.
It even silenced Paul!
same, watched it in our social studies class. absolutely disturbed
@@theblackswordsman5039 too soon 😭💀
As a legitimate combat vet myself I’d just like to thank you , the respect you show for men that have suffered threw the brutality of war is appreciated.
thank u for your service brother this movie is so heartbreaking i cannot begin believe what thats like
And to think that the same things happen this very minute; second even.... is truly terrifying.
How the USA, Germany, UK, etc. spend thousands of billionds of Euros on Killing-Machines to send to the Ukraine; only to further prolong a war that has no goal and therefore willingly cause thousands of deaths every week, every day, to continue with no end in sight.
We should all be out on the streets, demanding the industry-leaders and those who benefit ti seize any operation immidiately of face the wrath of entire populations. If a government is not willing to step back from war, and therefore WILLINGLY acting against the interest and safety of the population, they should immidiately be liable to loss of power and face public justice.
But no. That is further from reality as it has ever been.
We, as humans, have learned NOTHING from WW1 and WW2. Education has failed and history WILL repeat itself.... albeit probably even worse.
I can only hope that those who made great efforts to glorify War (in the USA after WW2 was over; back when the USA staged multiple attacks on US citizens to finally have the necessary legal grounds for armed combat and even today, with the millitary financing a majority of the yearly Call of Duty development and in return ensure that War is depicted as heroic, fun and suuuuper cool in these games; , will still be alive once It's time and they slowly realize that their actions played a large part in his/her grandchildren and further generations to live in a destroyed world without food or uncontaminated water.
@@beepboppindodobird9148the fact that you thank him for committing this atrocity after praising a movie whose whole message is against that atrocity shows just how brainwashed you are. You didn't understand this movie
@@tilltronje1623you don’t understand what you’re saying. He’s congratulating him going through this hell we call war and you’re diminishing his achievement of surviving.
@@pvzgamer6029 I am diminishing him for joining in the first place. War is hell and any who make it happen should not be praised. And doing so under a video about All Quiet is especially idiotic
I've been able to relate to this movie in terms of hunger. The stealing food is something so many say they would never do. I was a child during hurricane Katrina. We ran out of MRE ration packs. All our other food had gone bad or had been eaten or stolen. I was 11, maybe? The stores were closed, the roads flooded, and we were down to eating cat food and dandelions. We were given deer guts by a family that hit a doe and distributed the pieces to our neighborhood. I did steal to eat during that summer. It's hard to describe a summer as cold. But when you lose so much weight because you're constantly bailing out water from a house with a cracked foundation and the rain won't stop, and no matter where you go, you're drenched, you'll know a freezing summer. No electricity, no dryer, no gasoline or even sun to dry your clothes hanging on the fence... I don't know combat, but cold and infection and hunger, I know. I can't imagine being shot at on top of that.
I'm so sorry for what you went through. Thank you for sharing your experience.
Sorry to hear that and i hope you have recovered from any and all sickness and injuries, in desperate times, you can't be blamed for trying to survive. If stealing is how you eat because there's no other way you can't be blamed for living.
Blame your parents. You should've evacuated.
@@darkerdaemon7794 no use blaming. I lived and it sucks to have gone through, and I get irrationally angry at food waste, but I am alive. Blame doesn't make it better.
@@cathycat4989 Anger and other emotions are good, believe it or not. Despite the tendency for people to equate emotions with weakness nowadays, we all get them and have them whether we like to admit it or not. Even the most stone cold psychopathic killer in the world still gets emotions. In fact I'd say it's that high of feeling something that leads most serial repeat offenders into doing it but I digress...
Emotions are only bad if you misuse or don't know how to use them. For a lack of understanding them even, as most refuse to even look at them and their causality, preferring to ignore the thing that triggers them instead of addressing it and understanding it. Doing this is the real tragedy and misuse of them.
Usually when we are angry we have a right to be even if we don't realize it yet. Even if our right isn't right, there's always a reason for it. And it's only by looking at these reasons that we can determine whether or not it is misplaced or not.
This is what makes the difference between a thing being blame and or warranted factual truth. You lived so it might be alright in your eyes now but it doesn't change the fact your parents put you and your entire families lives in danger for little more than selfish main character syndrome.
I remember in college I read "The Things They Carried" by O' Brien and I did my senior thesis on PTSD and the trauma of war. I have heard about "All Quiet on the Western Front", but never read it and never saw the movie. So this video was great because wow, it's amazing that even in 1930, there were voices saying "War is horrible, why are we doing this to our children?", but the militaries simply silenced them. I do my best to absorb media/books like this because these voices need to be heard and respected: they were there. Ngl, I teared up knowing that they had actual veterans on set and advising on how to make the movie. I hope the Netflix version doesn't shy away from the message.
The book is totally worth reading. It takes a bit to get into it, but once you're invested in the characters it's like watching a train wreck. Just one shitty thing after the other and you sail through the last 2/3rds of the read.
It's a true classic.... I hope you get to read it!!!
A lot of the returning soldiers were broken men returning to a broken nation. The anti-war sentiment of veterans plus the questions of precisely WHY the war was waged is what ultimately led to radical politics, particularly fascism in Europe. Those guys really went through it.
read Storm of Steel
We do this to our children because it is very profitable to have colonies. For the ruling class, anyway. Ultimately, that was the source of conflict in the world wars (which might have been more accurately named the imperialist wars, since they were fought between capitalist powers.) Even today, just look at America; Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, but they had plenty of nationalized industries that western companies could use to "expand." Our government is also owned by corporations, including weapons manufacturers, which is why we invaded and stayed in Afghanistan, and that is why Republicans pissed and shit themselves over withdrawing.
The first death was really eye opening for me, he probably had the same juvenile excitement and pride about joining the war effort as the main characters, only to die the minute he stepped off the train
Exactly
Life is like a game of poker. Some are luckier than others, some are smarter than the other, and sometimes when the cards are drawn, the victors are already decided.
Something about old movies being all sunshine and daisies makes each scream and cry in this movie so much more terrifying
Ive read the book and I never thought you would cover the movie, the part that struck me the most was a soldier that the writer had come across while heading to the medical ward. He was running in desperation holding his intestines in his arms trying to keep his body together. The man’s will to live was scarily well described. He detailed the way he hobbled, the contortion of his face all in desperation for help. Frightening yet terribly interesting.
that sounds nauseating to even imagine
Man that reminded me of that one soldier in the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan. With soldiers holding body parts and that one kid yelling for his mom while he's holding his intestines in his stomach.
28:08
in my senior year of high school, my five student german class read this book together. we had no assignments about it. our only goal was to read and understand it. we students, along with our teacher, all cried at the end. im so happy to see you cover this underrated representation of this beautiful yet horrific story
wow, a school that assigned reading and DIDNT make like a million other assignments to go with it? insane
@@mrplague456 to be fair our german teacher was the only german teacher so he made the german curriculum lol.
@@raccoonwithamullet The best way to make the curriculum.
That's what more of school should be about, maan
Seeing Kat die really got me, it just felt like that was his last tie like you said. But knowing that the next scene is him reaching for a butterfly, a creature that symbolizes not only the souls of those who have died but also potential hope just to be gunned down? That is so brutally symbolic and terrifying. That butterfly was his forgotten and fallen friends, and the hope that he might get out of it alive maybe. It was so many things wrapped up in one little bug and then he gets shot. The hopelessness of that scene. You truly have no heart if you don't realize how awful this movie is and how awful war is.
If that got you yah should go watch the 79 adaptation, Kat gets it good there as well and his character is even more lovable in that one due to being played by Ernest Borgnine
@@victorkreig6089 As I said in my comment it's more the symbology after that gutted me but Kat didn't deserve that death, even if it was one of the most peaceful he could have got during war.
Something you didn’t mention is how, when the nazis came to power, the author of the book Erich Maria, fled Germany, so the nazi decided to behead his sister because he was “out of their reach,” I think that is the most tragic part about this story. The author simply expressed and relayed how he felt through literature and his sister was murdered for it.
Still do that in north korea.
They imprison like 3 generations of your family
That's horrible..
This is incorrect. Erich actually explained that she was involved in anti-government activities in 1943. Even quite far post-war, many in Germany considered her a traitor while very few thought that way of Erich.
please stop lying, that isn't what happened she was killed after being found out for anti governement activities. God nazis were bad but this insistence on lying about them needs to fucking stop
@@FaithRoxhow the f do people think of someone standing up to the Nazis as a traitor
Never saw the movie, but in high school, we read the book that was the basis for it. Once you mentioned the boots, everything just came back - that part stuck with me because it really hammered home that these boys were seen as less valuable than their gear, both to their commanders & ultimately to each other even if by accident. It was definitely one of the harder reads at that age.
I also read the book and that was one of the things that struck to me the most. And the horses.
Boots is kinda funny when ya hear about kids killing each other for their shoes. I'd probably be easier to steal some but they saw them right there right now on their side of the street. So they just took them.
Two dogs pissing on the same tree scales all the way up to people and nations. We get involved soon as we also think it's our tree.
@@jayeisenhardt1337 damn was that also in the book?
A reading wich was even harder for me was Private Peaceful. The tone is dark, sure, but I kept putting myself at the place of the character, and what I thought about what I would think or say in the situation was said or thought 3 lines later. I realised "I am Charlie Peaceful. I would have genuinely been in those trenches. I would have been hated like him for lying to my family. I probably would have died like him."
It's a special kind of feeling to read a book and then realise that one of the character is you, word for word, thought for thought. All the complexity of your being is accurately portrayed in those pages. This book gave me a true feeling of emptiness after ( spoilers ahead ) Charlie, the character in question is executed for treason. I knew at that moment that I would have died, and I couldn't have had my dying wish of fully singing "I am a poor wayfairing stranger" one last time and refuse the blindfold.
What's the book called?
As someone who joined the military for all the reason's listed in that first early scene, after being deployed and seeing combat, this scene brought me to tears the first time seeing it because I knew exactly where that road leads. This film and book needs more coverage, and I thank you for doing just that. Maybe if I had seen it or read the book, I would have made different choices.
@Emotional Damage what horrible fucking people/bots
I just wanted to respond to your specific comment because it absolutely shatters my heart. I, at one point, wanted to join the military. After three days of very little sleep and a sudden schedule change, i gave up. I only wanted to join so i could be a mindless zombie. I didn’t want to have to think. Some time down the road, i’d spent a study hall period collecting quotes from people who were in, or family members of people in the military. They were horrific, dehumanizing, and wildly depressing. I wanted to thank you for doing something you thought was right. It’s not my place, but i am so sorry that it turned out to be a flaming shit show. I’m sorry you had to find out the hard way. I don’t know how long you were in there, but you were there long enough to understand. That alone is too long. The military is something I have an extreme distaste for, and it destroys me to know how many people get sucked into it and either don’t come back at all, or come back completely different human beings. The mental illness cocktails they give these people fills me with rage i can barely comprehend. I’m just rambling now, but again, thank you. I wish it wasn’t like this.
@Jerry May mostly same i was a 0311 2008 to 12. Semper fi brother.
imagine joining the military not knowing that you're going to kill innocent civilians. lmao you deserved it
@ThyPeasantSlayer Сейчас в армии хватает должностей на которых быть на фронте не надо, но так как ты скорее всего из России, я бы не советовал связывать свою жизнь с этим делом. Военный гос комплекс тут ужасный: вне зависимости от чинов и званий, за любую осечку тебя или уволят, или посадят, или все равно кинут на фронт, как пушечное мясо.
This story broke me. I couldn't put the book down and I was horrified reading it throughout. It's one of those stories that after reading it, you just sit back or lie down and just stay still, letting everything that you just read sink in.
One of the first military rifles I bought was a ww1 Gew. 98. It was a cheap purchase from a friend of a friend, I never thought about it much.
After I watched All Quiet on the Western Front, I sat down and took apart the Mauser and gave it the cleaning it deserved. Like most of the things I have bought, I will never know the man who used it, but I can hope it took care of him when he needed ot most.
The worst part is, not enough people comprehend it, it will happen again.
A book that did that for me was Lucifer principle by Howard Bloom.
Almost every chapter makes you want to do that.
End of Evangelion’s one of those.
How old were you when you read it? Because my class had to read through it in 7th grade, needless to say it left quite the impression.
The audio of ben screaming about not being able to see is so fucking haunting and terrifying which one was a bloody well done performance by the actor but also really sets the tone of the movie and the war
Thank you for continuing to attempt to upload everything Wendigoon! I'm sorry that it was so difficult, but we appreciate all of your hard work. Sorry that TH-cam is such a pain with copyright stuff! Shoutouts to hummus and monster for getting you through this.
couldn't say it better fam!
I will say, the horror of him screaming his eyes, as he is instantly blinded by explosions vs you eating hummus and drinking monster passive aggressively is absolutely hilarious
this is why wendigoon is hype, man talks about horrors of humanity but in such a real, often juxtaposingly hilarious with the joys of small life.
I learned about the book in German class (which is obviously like English class for native English speakers) and decided to read it. The ending has left its mark on me to this day. The book ends with Paul's death and the sentence 'Im Westen sei nichts Neues zu melden' (nothing new new to report in the west) from a military report, because one soldier dying means nothing to the war, even when it means an entire family will grieve this person for the rest of their lives.
Remarque lost his German citizenship under the Nazi regime and the book was part of book burnings due to its horrifying depiction of war and its senselessness. I'm glad to say it's part of most history and/or German class curricula in German speaking countries.
Not only german speaking countries. I'm lithuanian and here we either read Nothing new on the western front or Remarque's Three friends (which is not the right book to explain the effects of war on the psyche of a soldier to 15-16 year olds imo) in our lithuanian class depending on either the professor's opinion on which book is better used in exam essays (as that's how our classes end up being structured sadly) or based on the constant changes in the recommended book curriculum
@@miglek9613 Really interesting! Thanks for sharing
standard in English speaking countries too - this was 15 years ago but it was part of the curriculum in my high school English honors class in Missouri. we read the book, watched the 1930 movie, and learned a very little bit about the contemporary reactions in both Germany and the US and iirc we had a few assignments that asked us to compare and contrast to modern (or late 2000s, post 9/11 america) antiwar and pro-war media
German class was when I first read it and the book stayed with me. Years later I read it again and the impact was the same.
Never heard anything about the book in my German lessons, or at all as a matter of fact. Was it standard reading lecture before 2010 or is there any other reason why I never heard about it?
I recently watched the movie and I think another reason why people back then were so angry at the movie is because this shows that German Soldiers weren’t just caricatures they were living people who did not want to go through this war and were traumatized. It was easy for people to say “it’s ok what happened because they were the enemy” I know when I watched it I was so uncomfortable because I had that mindset of “it’s just the enemy” when yes they are the enemy they’re also people (if this doesn’t make sense my bad)
Makes perfect sense and I agree. It’s always been ”germany bad” when most of these people actually going to war are just as innocent as everyone else
The typical us versus them shit people still believe in.
That's exactly right and many novels deal with the situation from the British point of view,, Bury Him Among Kings is excellent and includes a conscientious objector who resists military service simply because he's not temperamentally suited to the role and doesn't figure he ought to go and die just to please the people around him... And while the whole thing examines widely differing points of view from the different characters there's the sense that the only people who really wanted the war to go on were people whose political objectives were being satisfied and people too dumb to know any better, which unfortunately included a lot of the soldiers who really couldn't tell you one way or another what any of it was about..
Most people mad at it at the time were other Germans.
I watched this movie when I was 12! The last scene when he’s reaching for the butterfly is so depressing, especially considering the fact that Paul has a collection of pressed butterflies, (although Wendigoon doesn’t mention it.) Also, the scene when he’s in the classroom with his professor, and the professor is asking him to tell the young men in the classroom about how great the military is, and Paul just rants about how awful the war is.
As a combat-wounded vet... even though MY circumstances were different, this movie is VERY spot-on. Chilling and true-to-life. Thanks for this, Wendigoon. The Soviet film "Come And See"? That may be one of the most disturbing colour movies ever made (absolutely starkly chilling)
dear lord, that movie......
That movie was absolutely horrifying, i did not need to be reminded of it again
Saw it and I must say it is uncomfortable but when I was about 10 I saw the Michael J Fox film Casualties of War and that is just depressing as hell. I didn’t get the gRape scene but I always figured it was just beatings and brutality of a villager. The train tracks scene had scared me for some time. I saw Come and See and yea I can also vividly remember this film but at my age I’ve been desensitized to horrors of war (seen a bunch on the internet) the cow didn’t need to die by gun fire. Waste of good food.
:(
Come and see is just propaganda. Soviets did just as much evil acts
@@z0mbie.bl00d people tend to forget
I read this and the sequel “The Road Back” a few years after I got out of the Army. What struck me the most was even though there was almost 100yrs between me and the characters in the book how similar things were. The way they talk to eachother, the morbid humor, that feeling of alienation when you’re on leave or finally come home for good. It was creepy
As much as it looks like it does, war never changes
@@eoghanmaloney9561 technology always changes. The horrors, however, do not
Watch "The Greatest Story Never Told!" It tells the truth.
"These are the vermin who make their fortunes through war. I have no reason to wage war for material considerations. For us, it is but a sad enterprise: it robs us, the German Volk and the whole community, of so much time and man power. I do not possess any stocks in the armament industry. I do not earn anything in this fight.
@@CMTechnica they're many ways to skin a cat ... but none of them plesant...
"They got white bread over there" this phrase shows you how tough war at the front lines really is, what we have nowadays which can be obtained from mindlessly walking to the fridge, people in the frontline during ww1, wish, if not envy just a single bite.
By the end of WWI, the Germans had nothing. No food, no clothing, absolutely nothing. When they saw what the Allies were supplied with, they knew they had lost. There are accounts of soldiers saying exactly that.
Happy to see you finally got past all those copyright claims!
I think they still get all the money but at least the video gets posted
@Emotional Damage he has been trying to post the video for the past 6 hours
@@SirEggo2412 it's a bot genius
@@SirEggo2412 I wish down votes on comments still worked.
@Emotional Damage of course there are bots
My dad was born in 1930. He talked about this movie a lot. I had watched a couple of WWII movies (The Longest Day, Midway) and he said I needed to watch All Quiet on the Western Front. It is an awesome movie. Thank you for your presentation. Oh, my dad is going to be 92 on Oct 29th.
Tell him I said happy early birthday!
@@XwX1001 Thank you! He'll appreciate that. He is still living on his own, no nursing home etc needed.
@@margeebechyne8642 Nice! Reminds me of my grandad, actually. He's in his 80's or 90's too, but he's still doing reasonable well and still living in his own house.
@@XwX1001 Awesome!
He must have so many stories to tell at that age, I wish both you and him many good moments together!
The man that lost his hands... It's weird to think about how he's been immortalized in a way. Not for the person he actually was, not for the things he said or did, not even for the things he sacrificed; no, he's now only known by his hands. Funny how war rips away a person's humanity like that.
Every time WWI is brought up I think of J.R.R Tolkien who served during the war. He chose to finish school before joining in time for the battle of Somme where he caught trench foot and was removed from the war. Naturally after the war he would go on to write the Lord of the Rings. It is debated how much of the war inspired from his experience he himself was also unsure either. There are at least two obvious exceptions to this however. The dead marshes which was an ancient battlefield haunted by the dead, and the most famous quote from the book and arguably cinematography. "You shall not pass" spoken by gandalf to the Balrog as the fellowship flee Moria. It is believed Tolkien heard this quote from French soldiers whom he fought with in the trenches. "ils ne passeront pas!" They shall not pass. Despite the trauma he most of had during and after the war he still wrote a fantastic story about seeking a simple life, and hope no matter how dark the world gets. This why he's one of my greatest heroes and why any soldier Should be viewed as such even if they don't believe it themselves
Same honestly
I think that when people scream in old films, it’s much more meaningful. When they scream, it is piercingly loud and truly shows the brutality of war
The idea that anybody thought fighting in a war would be “fun” is terrifying. Those boys were lied to and tricked into thinking they’d be glorious heroes.. and they lost their lives...
It’s so terrible..
"it will be fun they said"
Ummmm yea like EVERY WAR SINCE TIME BEGAN. Christ you …..can’t think it’s ONLY this one? nowadays they can’t hide it like that BUT somehow IT STILL HAPPENED in the 1st AND 2nd desert storm! So……
Propaganda is a hell of a drug, man…
It keeps happening. Look at all those big Hollywood movies using actual army equipment and soldiers as extras. Top Gun remake is a good example of it. Making it look all romanticized, fun, heroic and badass
Reminds me of what niko bellic says in gta 4: "war is where the young and stupid are tricked by the old and bitter into killing each other"
I had chosen to read this book for my senior year and write an essay on it and I gotta say the book was easily one of my favorite I've ever read. Such a depressing book, and watching Paul break down slowly throughout the book was heartbreaking.
I highly recommend everyone to read the book.
The end of Paul just reaching out to the butterfly, this symbol of change, hope, immortality, joy, transformation, spirits, angels, and many other things, got me crying in the club. Like the imagery and the symbol of the change in his life, the change in his viewpoints, only to try and see the little glimmer of something hopeful is already horrible enough. But the idea that the butterfly could have been any one of his dead brothers in arms calling out to him, either letting him know they're always there or coaxing him to come and join them to end his own misery, is gut-wrenching to me. And maybe I'm thinking about this too much but the idea of Paul reaching out at a chance to/for change or, one of his friends, or hell, even him reaching out to the last semblance of a life long gone from him, only to be taken away breaks my heart.
My AP Modern US history teacher was a Marine who fought in Fallujah and some other major battle in the second Iraq war. Before he showed us this he warned that he may need to step out for a few minutes because the scenes of Paul coming home and sitting in a foxhole with the dead soldier hit close to home for him. After the movie was over he told us about his experiences and that once he came home from his last tour he joined a group called Veterans for Peace and at the time was still active in protesting against involvement in the Middle East. I’ve been graduated from high school for 10 year now, moved across the country. But when I come home and I see Mr. Gardner I thank him for telling his story and keeping me and the others in that class from signing ourselves up to continue the pointless bloodshed and pain.
That's really powerful that your AP history teacher showed your class this film even though it was extremely painful for him to do so. What an amazing teacher!
My best friend growing up was a child refugee from Iraq. From the stories she had told me, and what I had seen with my own eyes in her and her family. I am glad there are Americans out there that spread the truth about the crimes that happened in the middle east. You had a good teacher
One of my US history teachers was a veteran as well... We were his first class after being discharged. I'll never forget him, he made sure our rose colored glasses were ripped off and he taught us history that wasn't in our textbooks. It was hard for the students who were like "U.S.A!! U.S.A!!" but by the end we were all profoundly impacted by his class.
@@kittygoesdowntherabbithole4799 It's so cool to hate on the US, isn't it?
The thought would give you a big ol' chubby if ya had a d*ck to start with.
And every other country is just innocent pwecious wittle babies who never do anything wrong, right?
Do you know what happens to women in the middle east?
Or gays?
Or is that conveniently left out of your new progressive history books?
I'm Iraqi, and my dad who lived through all wars from 1981 up until now, he said that once he went to the gas station and all he heard was sounds of bazookas, he ran home and while a tank was inches behind him, the tank was spraying everywhere, and it hit a guy in the dead center of his head and the bullet ricochet off the pole behind him, but in the mean time he was running away from the tank, he saw a little girl who went out of her home while crying because she can't find her parents, my dad tried to grab her hand while running but failed to do so, he managed to get home safely, but when he peaked out his out of his homes gate, he saw the little girl body, without a head, squashed on the ground, i can't forgive any US soldier in the war against my country, but i respect those who tried to help calm the communities in there.
War Graveyards are not uncommon in Europe and its the saddest part of any town. I live in a small town in Greece near the Albanian/North Macedonia borders. In a hill there are two cemeteries divided by a wall. On the left its the local cemetery, big white Graves one on top of another, with lit candles, flowers, personal photos and ingraved with information. On the right side it's just row after row of white crosses, it's the British soldier cemetery. Soldiers that lost their lives in ww2 in a foreign country, their bodies forever away from their loved ones, behind a locked gate in a graveyard no one ever visits. I think of those soldiers every time I pass by the cemeteries.
I'm from mavroneri filiates
The new Netflix adaptation of this film is extremely well done. It follows the original very closely and the acting is incredible. The scene where Paul kills a French soldier in hand to hand combat with a knife and is so traumatized that he starts to apologize to the dead body after finding a picture of the dead soldiers wife and daughter in his jacket is extremely sobering and sad...
In my opinion, it is not. Watched the Netflix adaptation after watching this video and I could barely tell what was going on throughout the movie. No character development, no introspection, and every character felt the same and nothing made them stand out from each other. Sure, the movie looks pretty and it covered some themes like the hubris of "honor", the corruption of leadership, and the horrors of war, but the movie says almost nothing about the bigger picture the source material is trying to convey.
Only one short scene at the start about the facade of "honor and patriotism" the media props up to quell the populace during the war. None of the discrimination that the main character endures when they come back a "coward" (other than a throwaway line from one of the German commanders). There's no proper setup for "civilian life" until we're thrown into the trenches literally before the first 20 minutes into the movie.
That movie should not have been titled "All Quiet on the Western Front", because it is a poor adaptation of the source material.
The character development was intentionally made like that so Paul represents the everyday kid who got swept up by the propaganda and goes to war for the country
@@keilanl1784 Im sorry but you are incorrect
@@keilanl1784 I also have to dissagree, The main characters development was amazing.. A regular gun hoe innocent kid all hyped for war gets a grim reality check. By the end of the movie he's just a shell of his former self.
@@bebus6884 you can't just say his opinion is outright wrong like it is opinion. Also try to add why you don't agree with him instead you are wrong because i say so.
I live in Germany and we had a unit on the novel. One thing it taught me is that a love for Kat is almost universal.
Wow, it's so sad to see another TH-camr spiral down such a dark path... I hope wendigoon can get the help he needs for his magic spoon addiction. You're in our thoughts and prayers Wendi!
Every time I was close to crying, I'd look in the corner. Surprisingly effective to look at a man eating hummus to pause a cry
wendigoon enjoying his hummus seemingly nonchalant was really the only thing that stopped me from brawling out a few times
I wish I could cry more (often) during sad parts. I’m jealous of my big brother in that respect. He cries at easier parts in films that I don’t find so sad yet.
@@FlubberFrosch I didn’t know crying was a competition lol
@@rockino2562 I don‘t need to cry more than he does, I just want to have more tears than I do now. That way the sad parts are more satisfying to experience.
@@FlubberFroschI know exactly what you mean. Having a good cry and being able to cry is therapeutic in a way haha
I'm so glad you covered this movie, because it's a story that doesn't get the recognition it deserves in my opinion. My entire sophmore class read the book while studying WW1, and it was such a surreal experience for all of us. We all went into it with the same naivety as the characters in the movie going off to war, expecting to read this glorified story about an incredible war hero fighting for his country, until one by one we would reach the end and find the devestating reality of Paul's death. We were all horrified by the idea that he didn't die as a hero; he died as a boy whose spirit had been broken by the tradgedies he'd experienced. It put the idea of war into perspective for us so clearly, and it's an idea that's really stuck with me since then.
Arent they making a modern adaption now?
@@DaSwissy I believe so. And I know there was already another adaptation made in 2018, but still so few people know about it.
Clearly you haven't spent time in a British borstal...
Joke btw
In my high school, we didn't just read the book, we also watched the film. I'm surprised it's being called the most disturbing black and white movie.
Additionally, thanks for retrying so many times on this to bring us a really important topic.
It's crazy to believe this movie is nearly 100, There are a lot of great lines and the acting is phenomenal. It's really eye opening about the consequences of war.
Didn’t learn though, was in another war within a decade of the movie.
@Ishbikes the Nazis actively suppressed the movie because they were exactly what the movie was criticizing. The ones who glorify war. And so they tried again, and failed again to gain glory to their country. All they achieved was a butchery on a scale that dwarfed even the war that was supposed to end all wars.
As a german with an italian mother, most of the people in earlier generstions of my family had to fight in WW2. For example my great-grand uncle was one of the few soldiers to actually survive Stalingrad, and I can still remember my father saying a long time ago "when he came back, even his mother didn't recognise him" just made me realise how unimaginable the torment of War must have truly been, as even much later when he was home, he never talked about the war.
Another one of my family members was a pilot in Africa, he sank an enemy ship by dropping a bomb onto it.
What shook me is that I was told that to the end of his life (he died a couple years ago at an age of 90+), he still had nightmares of seeing the sailors on the ship jumping overboard in a futile attempt to save themselves.
Many stories out there are left untold to this day, as the people who would be able to tell them would be over 100 years old now.
We are at the end of an era where the great war becomes only a memory of a time long behind us, with nobody left to tell new stories.
"We are at the end of an era where the great war becomes only a memory of a time long behind us, with nobody left to tell new stories"
A tragedy in and of itself. This is why humanity continues to make these same mistakes and always will.
@@harley4230 I don’t think we even have the motivation to fight we too busy tik tok dancing
@@moosesues8887 as scary a thought as tik tok dancing being what potentially stops any future wars is, I'd much rather that than the genocides that war always brings.
@@SpectralLumo new gen finna be so soft and I ain’t complaining cus we ain’t getting a ww3 anytime soon
Surviving Stalingrad must've been probably the worst times a human being could experience id imagine
As an American soldier who is just shy of his 8 year anniversary this really spoke to me. When I enlisted as an Infantryman all those years ago, I was 18 years old. I was swept up in propaganda and the ideals of being a hero, or for service of the greater good. While I don’t regret the career path that I have chosen sometimes I do wish I could go back and talk to my younger self about the naïveté I was caught up in. War is not a glorious endeavor. War is a glorified endeavor.
Can I ask you questions about being a soldier for the US in modern age?
I went to military school otherwise I might have joined up. I was a senior during nine eleven. My best friend joined up. When he got back six years later we weren't friends anymore. We tried. We still pretend. He just can't anymore. Instead he sees the world through the bottom of a bottle.
I was 17 when I became an Airman I never wanted nor cared about the glory and glamour I just wanted to do my part like the rest of my family going back to the American Civil War and get on with my life.
@@gilly_axolotl absolutely. Fire away.
That's why we quit, got the honorable and never looked back. Not worth it.
It’s so weird looking back at how young the shoulders were. They were just children. Hell my heart aches for my own grandfather who was 17 when he signed up for Korea. He was just a baby back then wanting to serve like his father did. It’s so jarring actually having to confront how young the “men” were that were sent to die
It’s shameful of you to deny what these young men did. You can’t even call them men after what they experienced. These people are men. Don’t deny them that.
@@tdoran616 they were boys. Minors. Children made to fight. Calling them such isn’t disrespectful, it’s pointing out the cruelty of war and how many nations sent children off to die before they could fully grasp what that meant. These weren’t grown men, they were children fed lies and propaganda.
@@tdoran616
War does not transform children into men.
They either come home as traumatized children or die as traumatized children
@@serena841 War has different effects on everyone. Assigning absolutes to it won't work for anyone, except for maybe the fact that it sucks for everyone involved lol.
@@tdoran616 Wtf are u talking about? A 17 year old boy in a war is still a child wether you like it or not. It's not disrespectful, is a fact.
Wow, that scene talking about how home isn’t home anymore kinda hit me. I’ve never been to war but I’ve been in the army for a while now. I remember that right after my training I was sent overseas for a year. I couldn’t wait to come home and go on leave again but it was so underwhelming. The entire time I was on leave all I wanted to was to go back with all the people that became my new family over those 12 months.
Goodness, that butterfly scene was perfect from every symbolic angle. Let’s see:
-Monarchs are poisonous. Poison is activated as self-defense but only when you are actively being eaten, evoking that no victory comes without your own costs.
-The fact that it’s a monarch specifically adds a layer of wordplay: because of the monarch, this man died in war. Be that a monarch or Kaiser, the point still stands.
-Butterflies acquire their wings after spending most of their life preparing for this adult form, although this stage is short-lived and their main goal is to simply find a mate. These children spent their whole childhoods growing up to accomplish long-dormant dreams, and by spreading their wings upon the battlefield their adulthood was short-lived.
I think the thing that struck me the most was the whole premise of him being able to stop and enjoy something beautiful… only for that to drop his guard and seal his fate. I think that one moment of witnessing a beautiful creature, that of which he probably saw back at home where the grass was vibrant and the sun was warm… I think that it was impossible for him to resist being distracted by the monarch. For the war itself had distracted him from everybody and everything back at home, and his brain needed a final familiar taste of those times no matter the price.
your comment is beautiful 🥲 ty for this
I love your description of the hidden meaning of that penultimate scene, but I can't help but feel that Paul knew what would happen when he peeked out of safety for so long, but simply had become disillusioned with life after losing everyone he had held dear, and learning that his home would offer no solace or sympathy if he returned
Monarchs are also among the few species, that can convey "live experience" by genetics.
In my mind he knew if he tried to grab it he would probably die but just figured fuck it I'm okay with this
I once met a WW2 veteran who fought in Italy, his name was Bob. He talked often about the men he lost and the women he courted. He was 17 when he enlisted. I don’t have much else to say about him, but it’s nice to remember him.
My grandpa was 10 during WW2. He saw the Japanese occupy his home island. He never really talked a whole lot about what it was like other than the fact that they killed his brother.
I remember reading this book in middle school. I don't remember much. Paul's talk with the dying Frenchman and Paul carrying the "wounded" Kat without realizing he was dead. Those scenes haunt me to this day
The Odyssey quote at the beginning is so fitting when you examine the source material, also the Iliad. Odysseus, the titular “hero” (though the meaning was different then) returns a broken shell of a man with PTSD. The story itself can be interpreted as war only causes suffering. It’s not to be aspired to, it’s to be avoided at all costs. It breaks all men and their families, no matter who wins. I truly believe Homer meant it to be anti-war.
I'm very glad you had that perspective too, once I read the Odyssey for my self and how it's about all the horrors he and his comrades face coming BACK from war it made so much sense about it being a metaphor for PTSD.
But the greatest irony of all is that anti-war sentiments acted upon leave a nation most vulnerable to war. And thus the cycle repeats.
I saw this in a Theater in Germany and it was one of the most impactful plays I've seen so far. When Paul is on leave and goes home, he climbs into the audience and stands on an empty seat, looking around. he comes from a stage covered in red and brown sludge and there is no helping the powerful realisation that he comes home almost from a "different world" and truly interacting with each other on even terms is seemingly impossible. To add to that, the first rows are even given plastic coats at the beginning of the play, to shield them from all that is thrown around on stage.... it was horrific while at the same time so beautifully made, using any and all tools of theater to show this traumatic mess
I was not prepared for nor was I expecting to attend a masterclass on a war story I never watched or cared about and be moved to tears by a passive aggressively hummus munching TH-camr but here I am, deeply moved and completely invested hanging on your every word, professor.
I like whenever he shows the scenes of him watching he’s like “I was so moved” and he’s just munching away in the next clip lol
Hahaha
“passively aggressive hummus munching TH-camr” lmaooo 😂
@@invaderzim6904 lol ikr
@Sky L exactly
"His scream gets me everytime!" 😂
13:05 - literally emotionless in the corner
I took a World War One history course at university this last year and we analyzed a number of films and how they interpreted the meaning (or lack thereof) of the War. This movie was definitely one of the more haunting and brutal ones to watch. I recommend watching A Very Long Engagement for anyone that found this film moving.
Actually a LOT of people sign up when a war breaks out TO kill people. That's just how it works, but there aren't a lot of wars like that
After seeing the very long engagement as a late teen I never wanted to hear someone call the french cowards again
Okay but did y’all watch paths of glory
This story is over a century old and there's still so much we can learn from it even today.
wow brilliant observation, any more insightful thoughts? like "war bad" or "bullets hurt"
@@beepbeeplettuce5890 why are you so pressed lmao
@@beepbeeplettuce5890 yeah, grass green and sky blue. I have more too if you wanna keep being pretentious.
OMG hayley williams im your biggest fan
@@beepbeeplettuce5890 28:08
I read a Japanese manga series on world history as a child. The WWI chapters featured a young German soldier as sort of a POV character. One day he crawled out of the trench to pick a flower for his girlfriend back home, and got killed by a sniper. Many years later I watched All Quiet and realized what that part of the manga was based on.
What’s the series called?
@@themanwhowouldbebrick It's just World History. Published by Shueisha Inc in the mid 80s.
@@inlpwetrust ok thanks
Charley's War, a famous WW1 comic strip from the 70's has a similar scene too. A soldier collects flowers for his daughter and he died after being sniped trying to retrieve a single poppy from No Man's Land
@@alexthibodeau979 what a fucking idiot, everybody knows that a poppy starts falling apart as soon as you pluck it from the ground
I'm in my sixties and my father was the youngest of ten children, so the age divide between me and my grandfather was vast. He died when I was 15 at a good old age. This is incredible because he volunteered in 1914 at sixteen years of age to go and fight for Britain on the Western front, and despite twice being wounded (he ended up with a permanent limp), he somehow survived 4 years of trench warfare. Needless to say, he was in a very small minority.
I can still remember all the stories he told me about his experiences, and when I eventually saw this movie it really hit home. This was more or less how he described it. The big difference was that although the British soldiers were given basic rations, they were never in danger of starving. Apart from that however, it was hell on earth.
Have you ever been out playing paintball or lasertag with friends?
How long did it take you to get hit the first time?
That's approximately how long it would take for you to die on the front line during a war.
Just always gives me chills when I think about that
damn. i used to do airsoft a lot but i never really thought abt it like that. insane.
We used to play airsoft and paintball until a couple of the friends in our group enlisted. They're all out now, but we don't play anymore cuz they're too uncomfortable with shooting us, and we've agreed they'd run our asses into the ground now that they have tactical training.
Really saps the enjoyment out when you think about it.
I get what you mean (going up against a well hidden sniper is terrifying in airsoft for example) but i don't think that this is a good comparison because these "war games" are made to be fun and not realistic. The combat is limited to infantrymen only, communication in between teams is entirely optional, the possibility of respawning actively encourages high risk high reward maneuvers no one would make with their lives at stake, most people just play solo anyways, the arena is made to have lots of cover and alternative routes...
I have seen hardcore milsim footage which definitely compares better to footage of low-tech wars, butthe combat also slows down so significantly that no one is willing to take risks and dying is much rarer.
What made WW1 so deadly in my opinion is that technology advanced so rapidly while the average soldiers kit and medical technology couldn't keep up anymore. Fortunately the average soldier today has much better equipment and casualties have been reduced significantly thanks to that. I am by no means pro war by the way, i just wanted to point it out.
Oh yes! I learned at a young age via paintball that combat is not something that anyone should desire to experience.
Yeah not completely accurate in variety of ways, but a good basic experience. "Patrolling" through the woods and hear shots ring out.. learned to hit the deck at sound of anything as well as move from cover to cover as a matter of survival.
Also learned that people don't get to take these perfect, aimed shots.. learned purpose and what suppressing fire is all about! One literally shoots to allow for maneuvering, etc
I think it's absolutely awesome how heavily involved German veterans were in the making of the film. It's also great how far the director was willing to push the established norms at the time for the film.
I think it's even more impactful in hindsight seeing as how WW2 was right around the corner and more young boys had to go through the same thing. I bet even veterans that advised on this movie had to go back as well.
World War 2 was so massive I am sure much of the people in this mlvie served and died.
Indeed they would have, veterans of ww1 in Germany and Austria were often brought back into the military for ww2 as commissioned officers due to the sudden expansion of Germany’s army in the 1930’s from around 100,000 to several millions. My grandfather, for example, fought in the First World War as a volunteer and was drafted in September of 1939 as a captain in the Wehrmacht.
@@Ivan_Powrosnik Isnt it crazy? How so much people lived through 2 world wars in one life time, aurciced the trenches in the 1st one just to be killed in the 2nd?
One thing this movie really highlights is how much the Hays code set the industry back. Movies like this were really pushing the envelope and then the hammer came down for decades. Definitely a movie worth watching.
yes! i was just reading about the code today and came upon wendigoon again (love his vids but i take breaks and binge watch) and i was like “hey! i’m learning about this in class!”
Dangerous History Podcast just did an episode on the Hays Code. Be sure to check it out.
@@doodlebees nice, that must be a nice class. I've never heard of it. Or how is ur class?
@@snex000 thanks for the tip
@@doodlebees where's ur pfp from btw?
22:20 Great breakdown Wendigoon. So well done man. My mother in laws dad went to WWI and suffered from shell shock after. He was never the same. The ripples of war still felt to this day.
2:47 The way he says "It's because I'm at my limit." is so calm yet so firm, and being said by this peaceful and wholesome dude, that it honestly scared me somewhere deep down my soul.
For real, brain went to the joker for a sec
Sometimes reasonable men must do unreasonable things
I was about 15 to 16 when I bought this movie. I was really getting into classic movies but my reasons for watching this one was just to watch a classic war movie, not realizing how depressing it was. It left a grave impression on me and the fact that I was watching it at the same age as the characters game me an even more dour perspective.
I watched it recently (btw I’m 13)
With my mom
Since we’ve been watching like movies about ww1 recently
And DEAR GOD THE ENDING IS SO SAD
Leper pog
The fact that a movie from 1930 is still under copyright is very disturbing.
I don't know how is it copyrighted because I watched it on the internet archive.
it was in the public domain for a while, but i think they renewed copyright on it because of the new netflix remake
Why lmao
Wendigoon and my fellow goonies. I'm a spry 72 years old and since I was 12 I wanted to know all the best the world had to offer. Lit, food, art, etc etc. I would haunt the Art Cinemas in NYC, mostly Bleeker St and Carnegie Hall. I probably first saw this great film in the 1970s. I enjoyed your commentary and especially the Owen Wilson Poem at the end. I hope you know Benjamin Britten's War Requiem from 1963 which takes the Roman Catholic mass for the dead and intersperses Wilson Poems. (There are many you tube videos of this). Wishing you every success ...Jim Mexico retired