2022 version of "All Quiet on the Western Front" stills
stayed up late to finish watching "All Quiet on the Western Front", which should be the best war film this year. Although there are problems such as adaptation controversy and stereotyped narrative, the flaws are not concealed, and the film has received rave reviews.
Calculated, this is the third edition of "All Quiet on the Western Front". The earliest version was born in April 1930, 92 years ago, but the classic is the classic. will be out of date.
1930 version of "All Quiet on the Western Front" stills
It seems that as long as there is war in human society, the anti-war theme will not become a thing of the past.
I won’t say much about the new movies. Let’s go and see for yourself and talk about the stories of old movies – how the first version of “All Quiet on the Western Front” was so popular in China in the 1930s, and how it was banned .
01
In November 1916, the largest battle of the First World War, the Battle of the Somme, ended.
In this battle, the British and French troops suffered 794,000 casualties, and the Germans suffered 538,000 casualties. Both sides paid a huge cost of casualties, and there was an urgent need to recruit new recruits.
In the same month, 18-year-old German Remark volunteered to join the army under the encouragement of his teacher and went to the Western Front. During the war, Remark was injured 5 times and his life was hanging by a thread many times. Fortunately, he was lucky and survived the war.
Nine years after the end of the war, Remark decided to write down the memory and trauma of the war. He used his spare time every night to write and write, and in only 6 weeks, he completed the novel "All Quiet on the Western Front".
Remark
"All Quiet on the Western Front" takes the war experience of the German soldier Paul and his seven comrades as the main line, describing the madness and cruelty of war, as well as the destruction of fanatical idealism and heroism in war, with a distinct anti-war color .
The novel "All Quiet on the Western Front" was officially published in 1929. The sales were surprisingly good, and the response was extremely strong. It triggered a sales frenzy in Germany and even the world, with cumulative sales exceeding 5 million copies.
In April 1930, American Universal invested $1.25 million to put "All Quiet on the Western Front" on the screen. Once the film was released, it instantly swept the world and became the highest-grossing film of the year, winning the Academy Award for Best Picture and the Best Director Award.
In September of the same year, "All Quiet on the Western Front" landed in China and premiered at the Nanjing Grand Theater in Shanghai. By 9am, all day tickets were sold out. Almost the whole place was full, the seats were full, and it was more popular than all other movies.
Since then, "All Quiet on the Western Front" has been screened in other major cities in China, and its popularity is no less than that of Shanghai.
In 1931 "All Quiet on the Western Front" movie advertisement
commented: sells very well every day, and it is still not crowded after ten consecutive days. How this "All Quiet on the Western Front" shook the hearts of the Chinese people.
At the same time, the movie reviews and dramas of "All Quiet on the Western Front" have also become popular, and major journals and newspapers have written articles. Extracurricular reading list.
02
"Why is All Quiet on the Western Front so popular in China? This has to mention the background of the times. When the
movie was released in the United States, it was on the eve of the Central Plains war, and the domestic situation was about to come. When it was released in China, the war in the Central Plains was still not over. The four major warlords fought for several months in the hinterland of China, and the whole country fell into an unprecedented vortex of war.
The Central Plains War is the final battle of the new warlords' melee. Since Zhang Xun restored in 1917, there has been a melee between the Beiyang warlords in Zhiwan and Anhui, the melee between the Beiyang warlords and the Southwest warlords, the Kuomintang and the Beiyang warlords' Northern Expedition. The warlords of Feng, Yan, Li, Tang and Zhang Xin fought each other, and the country went to war every day.
People are war-weary, and people are determined, which makes China have a deep anti-war soil.
1930 version of "All Quiet on the Western Front" stills
"No War on the Western Front" preaches that the First World War is meaningless, war is an Asura field, and soldiers are dead like ants. "The last words of the deceased are not for revenge, but for never to have war again." These non-war thoughts fit the psychology of the Chinese who suffered from war.
Of course, more Chinese people are attracted by the war scenes in the film than the anti-war thoughts.
Wenqing is a minority after all, most of them are lay people, lay people like to watch fights and kills, in the words of the filmmakers at the time: "I like to be lively, as long as you play for a while, no matter everything else, ordinary people will come out to welcome you. Yes."
"All Quiet on the Western Front" is a magnificent scene, rich and detailed, and reproduces the World War I trench warfare with realistic details. In order to restore the history as much as possible, the production company made a lot of money. They obtained the German military uniforms, field guns, binoculars, and also found German veterans living in the United States to provide guidance on the German military uniforms and equipment that appeared in the film.
1930 version of "All Quiet on the Western Front" stills
Hollywood 's advanced light and shadow technology, coupled with sophisticated props, created an immersive battlefield effect that was comparable to domestic movies at that time?
It doesn't matter if the content is not deep, it doesn't matter if it's deep or not, it just needs to be exciting and satisfying to the senses. Some commentators pointed out that many people went to see this movie just for the battle scene, "About nine out of ten people said they played really well" .
03
In January 1931, All Quiet on the Western Front was scheduled to be released in Harbin.
At this time, the German consulate in Harbin intervened. They wrote to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kuomintang government, saying that the film "deliberately scorns German armaments and extremely damages the honor of Germany's participation in the world war. The whole film always plays German officers with one-sided falsehoods." And the detachment and despicable actions of the soldiers are the main purpose, and this kind of purpose and its effect really hurt the national prestige of Germany.”
is very confusing. The core meaning is that there is a problem with the position of this film. It has ulterior motives, smears the German army, and degrades the image of Germany. Taking into account the friendly relationship between China and Germany, I hope China will ban it from the release of the film in the North Manchuria and regions to maintain the prestige of Germany.
In Germany at this time, although Hitler has not yet come to power, the Nazi Party has risen.
Hitler
The Nazis think "All Quiet on the Western Front" is a poisonous weed,Promote the negative image of Germany, hand knives to foreign countries, and besiege Remark himself and his works.
When "All Quiet on the Western Front" premiered in Berlin in 1930, Goebbels personally led the Nazis to the theater to make trouble, forcing the film to stop. In 1931, Remarque moved to Switzerland with his life threatened. In 1933 Hitler ordered the burning of the works of Remarck and other anti-war writers, and since then stripped Remarck of his German citizenship.
In the 1930s, Sino-German relations were very good. Germany needed China's mineral resources, and China needed German technology and equipment, especially in the military field. China relied on Germany to help modernize its military, and the two sides cooperated extensively.
The National Government attaches great importance to the request of the German government, and immediately transferred the order to the Northeast authorities: Once the film is released in Harbin, please pay attention to the inspection and verification office.
In May 1931, the Harbin Songjiang Film Company applied to the Northeast Authority Electric Commission for the release of "All Quiet on the Western Front". The National Government Film Commission (referred to as the Electric Inspection Commission) has reviewed and approved the film, and the film has been screened in major cities in the customs.
1930 version of "All Quiet on the Western Front" stills
Indeed, when "All Quiet on the Western Front" landed in China in 1930, the National Government Electric Inspection Commission had already reviewed and approved it and could be released.
The central government has allowed it. There is no reason for the northeast to pass. Although the northeast is the site of Zhang Xueliang, but nominally it has to listen to the National Government. There is no need to confront this trivial matter.
The Northeast authorities believe that after the electric review of the film, this film is about Germany's war in Europe. It is an ordinary war film, not propaganda, and the central government has issued a license. In principle, it can be released.
Considering Germany's glass heart, in order to avoid diplomatic disputes, the Electric Tribunal decided to delete plots such as insulting senior officers and satirizing the German emperor. Therefore, "All Quiet on the Western Front" finally released in Harbin is a shortened version. After
dealt with in this way, Germany no longer expressed any dissent, and the disturbance subsided.
04
It's not over yet. When
"All Quiet on the Western Front" was released, although the National Government Electric Inspection Commission approved it, it did not mean that there were no objections.
In fact, the Kuomintang did not approve the release of "All Quiet on the Western Front" in China from the very beginning, on the grounds that such anti-war films would shake the morale of the Chinese military and civilians to fight against Japan and would be detrimental to the war.
1930 version of "All Quiet on the Western Front" stills
Not only the Kuomintang, but many people and soldiers also hold the same view, they think: "All Quiet on the Western Front" advocates anti-war and calls for peace, and should not be banned in principle, but from time to time From the perspective of space and space, it is necessary to ban the screening in China.
What is "from the perspective of time and space"? To put it bluntly, the national conditions are different, and China is facing Japanese aggression.
The September 18th Incident has not yet happened, but the deteriorating relations between China and Japan are obvious to all. Since the Jinan Massacre in 1928, the Kuomintang and the Chinese people's hatred of Japan has been increasing day by day. consensus.
At a time like this, if every day propaganda that war is cruel, that war is meaningless, that soldiers are cannon fodder, and that anti-war ideas are allowed to spread throughout the country, it will definitely affect the determination and courage of the Chinese people to resist the Japanese.
The melee of the warlords is meaningless, but it cannot be said that the war of resistance is meaningless.
In response to these comments, the DJI replied: The film script is based on the European war in which the imperialists fought against each other, and denounced the war of aggression as meaningless and inhumane. Light tyrants are the same... After seeing the Chinese people, they can understand the brutality and brutality of imperialism. Not only will it not shake the spirit of resistance to Japan, but it will strengthen their determination to resist Japan and humiliate.
1930 version of "All Quiet on the Western Front" stills
One year after the release of "No War on the Western Front", the September 18th Incident broke out, the New Year's January 28th Incident broke out, and the Songhu Anti-Japanese War started.
Japan is pressing step by step, and the local war between China and Japan continues. There are more and more petitions calling for the ban of "All Quiet on the Western Front", and the voices are getting louder and louder.
Someone wrote to the executive committee of the Kuomintang (the highest party affairs agency), saying that there have been a lot of anti-war movies released in Shanghai recently. These movies depict the tragic injuries of officers and soldiers, the boredom of generals and schools after the war, the pitiful deplorability of disabled soldiers, and the desolation of the graves of fallen soldiers. All kinds of tragic events made moviegoers feel terrified by the war, which seriously affected China's anti-Japanese revenge plan.
The National Government decided to interfere. In November 1933, the Electric Inspection Commission ordered all film companies to prohibit the production, import and screening of any anti-war films, so as not to anesthetize the people and dispel the morale of the people against the enemy and humiliation.
"All Quiet on the Western Front" became a banned film, and excerpts from "All Quiet on the Western Front" in Chinese textbooks were also requested to be removed.
1930 "All Quiet on the Western Front" stills Responding to Japanese aggression with war is contradictory and is prohibited.
Since then, Sino-Japanese relations have become more tense, anti-Japanese sentiment has continued to rise, and the living space of anti-war literary and artistic works such as "All Quiet on the Western Front" has become increasingly narrow. battle.
In 1938, the Nationalist government issued a decree demanding that "ban all films that are not beneficial to the enemy, romantically corrupt or have a traitor consciousness, shake the war of resistance, and destroy the unity of the film" .
During this period, some people said that Du Fu 's works such as " Soldiers and Chariots " and " Stone Trench Officials " were anti-war propaganda and negative energy, and demanded the government to ban them.
The Kuomintang authorities explained: Although these poems are anti-war in nature, they have been circulated in China for a long time, and they describe wars in the feudal period, which cannot be confused with today's wars of resisting aggression and saving the survival of the nation, so they are not banned.
It seems that Du Fu's deduction is not only in recent years, there are assholes in any era.
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