1929: The Broadway Melody / 1930: All Quiet on the Western Front

Welcome back, dear readers, to the third installment of our blog. Oh, what's that? This is our second blog post? We didn't make a post for the trainwreck the Academy blindly voted for in 1930? That's alright, we'll catch you up. (All spoilers are fair game. Vader is Luke's father.)

The Broadway Melody is a love triangle gone wrong. Two young sisters, herein named Allie and Ellie, who believe they can sing, move to the nebulous Big City for their shot at stardom. Allie is engaged to a producer, who promptly decides he loves Ellie more than her. Allie's response? Saying mazel tov to the happy couple and waltzing into the next poorly shot black and white scene. While this movie was not particularly enjoyable, Allie's lackluster passion was infuriating. Why is she not going after her man? Joyously encouraging his infidelity with someone who shares a childhood and, statistically, half her DNA with her? Unfathomable. 

In the end, the girls' act gets sidelined by a younger, prettier, and more melodic performer. Furthermore, Ellie and the cheating bastard break up, and Ellie's new partner in showbiz is the aforementioned glamorous diva. One shining moment in this movie was a line I (Jake) quite enjoyed. The girls are looking at a menu at their first meal in Big City, and Allie goes, "Did they run out of everything but dollar signs on this thing?" Gave me a chuckle. 

Anyway, we were really tired when we watched this movie, and it was also like four months ago at this point. To be honest, I (Kate) fell asleep during some of the end and I'm not sure Jake noticed, but let's just say it's a good thing he was the one mainlining that plot summary. 

We rate The Broadway Melody 3.5/10.

Some quick life updates since our last post: Kate is applying for jobs and grad school, joined crochet club, and chopped half her hair off a few months ago. (Kate wants to clarify that this was a uniform cut length wise, not a mohawk or some other type of shenanigans.) Jake is preparing for a stellar performance as Demetrius in A Midsummer Night's Dream, applying to summer internships, and is due for a haircut. 

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for: our soon to be Pulitzer-winning review of All Quiet on the Western Front.

Bleak does not begin to describe the world in which the viewer is immersed from the very first scene of this movie, an adaptation of the 1928 novel written by Erich Maria Remarque. (Interestingly, this novel was also turned into a movie in 1979 and then once more in 2022, when it was again nominated for Best Picture.) The plot follows a group of German boys who enlist in the army during World War I. It is a candid and horrifying descent into the madness of war. From the boys' professor eagerly encouraging them to join the fight for the Fatherland, to a teenage boy moaning from the phantom pains in his amputated foot while his friends fight for his boots, the movie is a constant bombardment of images that depict the fragility of humanity in the inhumanity of war. 

Here come a few of those images now. 

A soldier returning from the infirmary, carrying his dead friend's leather boots: "I saw him die. I didn't know what it was like to die before." 

Another soldier, taking the boots off him: "I don't mind the war now. Be a pleasure to go to the front in boots like these."

A soldier, cowering in a ditch, watching an enemy soldier he stabbed slowly bleed out: "We only wanted to live, you and I. Why should they send us out to fight each other? If we threw away these rifles and these uniforms, you could be my brother."

The soldier's mother, on seeing him return home: "Oh, Paul, you're a soldier now, aren't you? But somehow, I don't seem to know you."

That same Paul, addressing a fresh crop of wannabe soldiers: "Up at the front you're alive or you're dead, and that's all. You can't fool anybody about that very long. And up there we know we're lost and done for, whether we're dead or alive. Three years we've had of it... Four years. And every day a year, and every night a century. And our bodies are earth, and our thoughts are clay, and we sleep and eat with death."

Ok, enough with the images. I think they speak for themselves.

This movie was also compelling from a historical perspective. This raw account showcases the way the world was still reeling after a war that had ended a mere decade prior to the movie's release. However, less than ten years later, the world would plunge into yet another conflict of massive proportions with an even higher death toll: 20 million people died in World War I, succeeded by a whopping 53 million in World War II. This movie's representation of war resonated with critics and viewers enough to achieve one of the highest honors in the film industry, but could not stop a repeat of its tragic events. 

Final thoughts time: This war on the ground movie blew 1928's war in the air movie out of the third war location, the water. It was a dark, harrowing experience where any light moment was swiftly guillotined by another named character dying, and yet - we both really enjoyed the Academy's third choice. Hopefully during our next viewing All will not be so Quiet in the Living Room. Thanks for reading, and maybe we'll see you back here in less than a semester. 

We rate All Quiet on the Western Front 8/10. 

Y'all come back now, ya hear?