In the World War I film "All Quiet on the Western Front," German volunteer Paul Bäumer stabs a French soldier in the chest with a knife after he charges into a trench. The French soldier, played by the aphasic Raymond Griffith, died in mute agony, unable to speak. Paul Boehmer found a notebook in the pocket of a French soldier. The soldier's name was Gerard Duval, and he was carrying a photograph of his wife and daughter. In 1930, the American black-and-white film "Western Front" won the third Academy Award for Best Picture. Director Lewis Milestone won the award for best director. The film starred Liu Ayers as the protagonist, Paul Boehmer, a volunteer soldier in the German army.
In the film, Paul Boehmer was adapted to stretch out his hand from the trench to the chow and expire when an enemy Allied soldier shot him with a rifle and killed him. around May 1918, Paul Boehmer was shot dead and fell forward prostrate, lying on the ground as if asleep. When the body was turned over, there were no signs of long suffering. His face had a somber expression, as if he was content and ready to meet his end. Regardless of the death of Paul Boehmer, the complaint was reported to the headquarters: "Nothing unusual on the Western Front, nothing to report.
The original author, Erich Maria Remarque, was born in Germany and was a novelist who was drafted into the German army during World War I. Throughout the dangerous years of the war, he experienced many battlefields. After the war, he worked as a school teacher, theater critic, race car driver, and sports magazine editor. His first novel, Western Front Unusual, was published in Germany in January 1929. It sold over 2.5 million copies and was his first of many literary triumphs. When Nazi Germany came to power, Remarque left Germany and fled to Switzerland. He refused to return to Germany, lost his German citizenship, had his novels burned in book burnings, and his films banned (see photo). He came to the U.S. in 1938, became a U.S. citizen in 1947, and died in September 1970.
