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I remember watching this movie when it first was broadcast in 1979. In my estimation it is one of the best TV-movies ever done and one of the few worthy of a theatrical release, which the movie did have in Europe.
Other reviewers get on Richard Thomas playing the lead of Paul Baumer. I thought that Thomas was excellent in the role. Of course you cannot separate him from his signature role of "John-Boy Walton" but Paul Baumer is simply a German version of the sensitive Virginian that Thomas played. Baumer's struggle to survive and maintain his humanity in the midst of perhaps the most horrific warfare that has ever taken place, is heart-rending.
The movie has a very authentic look. I believe it was filmed in Czechoslovakia and it is obvious that a tremendous amount of detail was spent in getting the uniforms, weapons, vehicles and other props and backgrounds correct. Ernest Borgnine was excellent as the veteran soldier who mentors Baumer but I thought that Borgnine was also too old for the role and certainly too heavy. While his character "Kat" was supposed to be a scrounger non pareliel, I doubt that he would've maintained Borgnine's girth after several years in the trenches.
That being said, this movie clearly had an influence on war movies that were to come such as "Saving Private Ryan" and "Enemy at the Gates." "All Quiet" being a TV movie couldn't go to the authentic, brutal extremes those movies did but it went as far as it could given the limitations of the time. Lastly, I have always had an interest in World War I history and this movie is probably the best one made about this war since "Paths to Glory," the tremendous Stanley Kubrick WWI film.
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Originally Posted by Kelly
