In contemporary culture, many of the classic stories have been promoted as motion pictures and became major celebrations of literature, including Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front. Using advanced technology, the globe can see Paul Bäumer’s story being vividly retold. However, there are both strength and weakness about the film adaptation of the novel. For All Quiet on the Western Front, even though both novel and movie portray the main idea, the movie version lacks effective emotions and descriptive details as the novel abounds in them.
Using the main universal truth of dehumanization of war, Remarque presents to us the compelling story of Paul Baumer, who goes through the most traumatic experience in life as he loses all his dearest friends and becomes estranged to his past. Both the novel and movie successfully bring out the theme of the terrible brutality of war, just in different ways. Using figurative language skill, Remarque in the novel illustrates the psychological damage on soldiers while the movie, using visual effects, shows the physical damage. As a result, they both send an eloquent message about the horror of war. Also, Paul’s character is appropriately developed in both novel and the movie. In the novel, readers can go into Paul’s mind and comprehend his thoughts; in the movie, audience can see Paul’s facial expression and straightforward reaction towards various events. It is hard to judge which version of the story is better because both the novel and the movie achieve the goal of revealing the truth of war.
The Term Paper on Older Generation War Remarque Paul
A War With Different Enemies War novels previous to All Quiet On The Western Front, tend to romanticize the real conditions of the war, and the troubles faced by the soldiers. However, All Quiet On The Western Front, not only does not romanticize the terrible experiences of World War I, it also provides the reader with accurate and detailed portrayal of the horrors of the War. The author, Erich ...
The film version of All Quiet on the Western Front should be greatly credited because it moves the audience with thrilling scenes while the words in the novel are simply black and white. The novel requires the readers to have unconstrained imagination in order to step into Paul’s world. Through the aid of visualization, the movie version demonstrates some additional emotional details. For example, the movie shows Paul’s high school teacher, Kantorek talking about patriotism and the inevitable duty to protect the fatherland. In the novel Paul makes light of Kantorek convincing the boys to enlist through brief and sparse memories. While readers might remember this as more of a fact, the audience is able to draw into the theme of the institutionalization of war easier because the concrete scene is provided on a logical and chronological timeline.
While the novel skillfully digs into readers’ hearts, the movie seems to lose a bit of emotional effect. The movie, however, enables the readers to see the virtual world similar to what it is like in the novel, including battle scenes with poisonous gas and gunshots. When reading the novel, readers heed to Paul’s questions and thoughts while the audience focus more on the visual images. The movie certainly creates emotional responses through visualization, but the writing in the novel is more effective because readers tend to picture things when they read which tends to stay in minds longer. In other words, people tend to take what is shown in a movie for superficial value rather than visualizing and understanding the deep meaning of something.
Visualization, therefore, is less effective in symbolism. For instance, though the part where Paul and his comrades find themselves in a graveyard during a bombardment can be stunning on the screen, the audience might miss the symbolic irony that stems from the novel’s account of the event. The novel is able to slowly unravel the event, thus producing an extremely detailed account of not only the physical events, but also the emotional events that take place; we are able to see the irony in the fact that the living soldiers hide from the shells in coffins, while the dead are being flung around the very place they are laid to rest. Since the novel is able to take us inside Paul’s head with greater ease than the film, it succeeds in showing Paul’s difficulty to remain sane, as well as his inner conflict as he searches drastically for the right thing to do.
The Essay on Australia And War Wars World Soldiers
Name: Frank Trimboli Teacher: Ms Meyers Date: 23/3/98 Should Australia involve itself in wars which do not directly affect its security? Australia has involved itself in four wars where it has suffered substantial life loss and casualty. Those wars included World War 1, World War 2, the Korean War and Vietnam. Did Australia have to involve itself in these wars? Did the lives of these young ...
Even though the movie version of All Quiet on the Western Front lacks effective emotions and descriptive details, it portrays the main idea just as well as the novel does. Unfortunately, Paul and his schoolmates all die at the end of the story and they become, literally, a lost generation. Thus, a powerful statement about World War I is revealed; war has a devastating effect on the generation of young man who are forced to fight it. Indubitably, it is an anti-war film, not just for World War I, but all wars throughout history. Paul Bäumer’s story, depicted in the novel and the movie, conveys the horror of war, serves as a warning to the world, and remains just as powerful as it was first written.
