"They left for war as boys never to return as men."
Director: Lewis Milestone
Cast: Louis Wolheim, Lew Ayres, John Wray, Arnold Lucy, Ben Alexander
All Quiet on the Western Front — Movie Quotes
Memorable Quotes
We live in the trenches out there. We fight. We try not to be killed. Sometimes we are. That's all.
Context
Paul returns to his old school while on leave and confronts the teacher who is still feeding the same lies to a new generation of students.
Meaning
Paul rejects the Professor's request to speak of "heroism" to the new class, summarizing the grim, unheroic reality of their existence.
It is dirty and painful to die for your country. When it comes to dying for your country, it's better not to die at all.
Context
Spoken during a moment of reflection, countering the patriotic slogans he was fed.
Meaning
A direct deconstruction of the "Dulce et Decorum Est" myth. Paul realizes that the glory promised in classrooms is a lie when faced with the physical reality of death.
And our bodies are earth. And our thoughts are clay. And we sleep and eat with death.
Context
Voiceover or internal monologue reflecting on the transformative nature of the front line experience.
Meaning
A poetic expression of how the soldiers have merged with the landscape of the trenches, losing their human identity to become part of the mud and death.
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