What made the students in the movie enroll for war and what was their experience?
The movie “All Quiet on the Western Front” is a World War I movie,
meant to depict the German viewpoint of the war. This movie showed that both sides of the war
suffered great losses during the war and in the end there were also several philosophical questions
about war addressed. The movie starts out when there were problems between Serbia and
Austria-Hungary over an assassination of an Austria-Hungarian important historical figure by a young
radically nationalist Slavic man. World War broke out. This is the beginning setting of the movie, “All
Quiet on the Western Front.”
In this movie, a young man or a student from then was narrating his and his friends’ experiences before,
during and after the war. It first started out
in the classrooms with their professor giving lectures about their country Germany. The
professor would make them enthusiastic about the war.
Saying things like, “Your nation has served you well, now it is time to serve your nation!”
Students hearing these phrases from their professors inspired them to become soldiers for
their country, Germany.
The professor encouraged them to “do something with their life and protect the land that gave
them life.” And also having known that the war would end in a few months, they could return
back home as heroes. But nevertheless, this is just one of many few reasons on what made the
students enroll for war.
The professor would tell and explain to them how brave and heroic they would be. How
courageous heroes they can be. And so the boys would go daydreaming. They would imagine
themselves as heroes. In example to this is what we watch nowadays in the modern world
such as “Superman”, “Batman”, “Spiderman” or “Justice League.” Oh, and “X-Men”. You
may wonder why. But I have to say it, they were boys and they had no idea about the war and
what it can do...