Such a frustrating disappointment

Dreadfully Boring

It is not only a funny movie, but it allows a great amount of joy for anyone who watches it.

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

"Westfront 1918: Vier von der Infanterie" or "Comrades of 1918" is a German black-and-white sound movie from 1930, so this one was made shortly before the Nazis came into power. The director is Georg Wilhelm Pabst again, one of the most successful filmmakers of his generation. I don't know any of the cast, but writer Ladislaus Cajda, who adapted the novel here for the film, worked with Pabst on several occasions and has his name attached also to a couple big films from that era. "Westfront 1918" runs for slightly under 90 minutes, at least in the version i saw. i see other runtimes here on IMDb and these may either include lost segments or just fewer frames per second.The movie is about a group of German soldiers during the days of World War I. War is depicted here as something gruesome, something that needs to be avoided at all costs because of the pain and casualties it brings. You can imagines that Hitler and his gang did not like this approach at all as they identified with war as something heroic, something inevitable in order to bring Germany to glory. From that perspective, it is certainly an interesting watch, even if Pabst obviously couldn't know yet what would happen in the next 15 years. Being banned by the NSDAP is quality an attribute that makes a film worth seeing, but sadly it is just the approach that is right and interesting. I cannot say I cared for the story here or for any of the characters in particular. Overall, just not a good watch. Thumbs down.

This movie has an awful lot in common with another film that also debuted in 1930. Both this film and ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT are terrific World War I films that give an awful and realistic view of the war from the perspectives of ordinary German soldiers. As a result, both are also profoundly anti-war films that were later banned by the Nazi government that took power just a few years later. Of the two, ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT is a slightly better film because it has an excellent back story (in other words, setting up the characters and giving them some depth). Instead, WESTFRONT 1918 is more like a hidden camera that just shows parts of the war--only towards the very end of WWI. Also, unlike ALL QUIET, this film only once follows one soldier home and shows life outside the battlefield. Mostly, the film is just one battle scene after another after another. Despite seeming a tiny bit out of context because of this, it is still a super effective and moving piece of film. A truly well-made and exceptional film with ultra-gritty realism. It is occasionally tough to watch, as there are corpses everywhere and the action is often up close and very personal.As I said, this film isn't quite as perfect and profound as ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT, though it actually is better than the exceptional French film, J'Accuse or THE EAGLE AND THE HAWK--two other terrific WWI films that emphasize the futility and waste of this stupid war.

First off, I am not a film student and was not forced to watch this for a class. I'm a regular Joe (a combat veteran as well), who may have a different take on this film from the other reviewers I have read here (probably a lot cruder as well than the other posts). I watched this on TCM USA and was glad I did. Westfront 1918 is clearly a pioneering war film and would have received a 10 from me except that films of it's contemporary are so superior (All Quiet On The Western Front which in my opinion is in the top 100 films of all time). I enjoyed it more from the technical aspects than so much the war film aspect. I couldn't help comparing it to AQOTWF, which is probably a disservice to Westfront but I have seen the former so many times that I couldn't help it. On the plus side, it was great to watch a pre Nazi war film from Germany, it's amazing the changes that occurred to that nation in a short 5 years isn't it? The use of tanks at the end surprised me as I was thinking to myself that up to that point there had been no tanks (as in all of AQOTWF), and I was thinking that was shortcoming of both films but to it's credit it does have some tanks in it (though no aircraft or observation balloons). I also liked the story overall with the home-front and all the drama involved, although I don't think many in real life would have been as cold as Karl had been for so long to take that bitterness with him back to the front. The show that was put on for the troops was actually entertaining to watch even though it seemed excessively long. This film also would have been edited heavily by the censors for profanity and adult situations which for any movie made in 1930 I give credit to. So take those positive comments of mine and enjoy the film or if you want my whole opinion read on. Westfront to me seemed very crude, done on way too big a scale to be effective as a truly great film. I'll start with the captions on the version I saw. The captions were incomplete, this movie had a lot of singing in it both by the soldiers and in a long show put on for them. There are no captions for these moments so you have about 10-15 minutes of scenes that are not captioned, that seemed like a drawback to me. I started to get more into the technical aspects of the film because the battle scenes seemed totally disjointed and unrealistic. There are dozens and dozens of grenades tossed around in this film, that alone is to me unrealistic as those weigh a good bit and soldiers can only carry a few with them, but than when they are thrown they don't explode. The scenes also drone on forever, this film needed a better editor. Will I watch this film again (a mark of a film I truly enjoyed), probably not. After being pampered to the excellently made All Quiet On The Western Front, as I have, you may reach the same opinion of Westfront 1918; but I am happy I watched this little shown early pioneering war film. Recommended 7 of 10.

My husband and I just finished seeing this movie. We hadn't heard of it before. We were quite impressed. It's an old movie. It was made just at that time when overacted stage conventions were being abandoned for the more subtle gestures of film. Taking that into account, this movie for us packed quite a wallop.This is a movie about people attempting to fight a war as a group of small-towners who get to know each other and build a society as they go. Although they don't like the war, they are willing to go and do their part. But can these deep relationships endure in the face of an impersonal war machine? And whose fault is it if they can't? Who is responsible for the situation?There's a fairly slow start, during which the movie establishes relationships, etc. Then there is a decisive battle. Somehow there isn't another trench warfare movie I can think of which really gets the nuances and habits of the people who were in the trenches in World War I, on either side. We don't have anything like it now. And yet it's not gruesome, so don't be worried about that. I'd definitely recommend this movie, especially in mid-2006 in the U.S. This movie asks all the right questions, subtly but effectively.