All Quiet On The Western Front - 1930

HIS -

Phew! I never knew two hours and thirteen minutes could last so long. Not having seen either version of this anti-war flick, I wasn't certain what to expect. This must have been something back in 1930, but we've come a long way baby!

With the audio quality such as it was, some scenes were hard to understand not knowing what the characters were saying, and some acting was so bad Lisa and I kept looking at each other and rolling our eyes. Still, we persevered and made it through to the end trying to keep in mind that it was probably hot stuff back then.

My favorite character was Kat, the enterprising soldier with a heart and gruff exterior. After that, it was a rather poignant commentary about how war isn't all grand and glorious and those back home don't really get how horrible it is when you're in the thick of it.

I'm not at all throwing my hat in the pacifist ring as it is my belief that there will always be really bad people that have to be stopped at different times in history. The movie does make it's point though that all is not fair in love and war and usually isn't. Through this movie and several others, I do come away with that perspective, but I still am deeply grateful for those who have served to protect our country and my right to do just this...make my opinion known.

HERS -

Well, our first movie is finally over. I feel like we watched that movie all afternoon and it was just over two hours long! I understand that the making of that movie must have been a really big deal at the time. There were tons of extras and special effects which I am sure was a huge accomplishment for movie making at the time. But, it seemed to really drag out. There were a couple of good lines (although I can’t remember them anymore) but overall, I had a hard time identifying with the characters. Kat was a pretty cool guy but most everyone else kind of blurred together. I would have thought that Andy would appreciate the movie as he usually likes action and war themes but he seemed to be just about as bored as I was. Well...at least we got three loads of laundry done while we were watching it! I am looking forward to seeing what else the 20’s are going to bring us!

The Plan...continued

Her -

To make this completely objective, we have decided to write our own blogs without reading the other one's blog. After we publish, we will read the other's blog and may respond if we choose. We think it will be more fun that way!

The Plan

Her -

Andy and I have decided to watch every Academy Award winning Picture of the Year (an idea given to us by my best friend Alysia which was inspired by Julie & Julia). We thought it would be fun to blog about the movies from a his/her perspective.

I think this may be a little harder for me than it will be for Andy. First of all, I have never been a big fan of watching old movies. Secondly, I also have never been a big fan of war movies and westerns and, due to the nature of "Picture of the Year", there are a lot of these types of movies.

However, I have decided that I need to stretch myself a little and get out of my romantic comedy rut so I am looking forward to this challenge!

We are going to try to watch one movie a week. This is a reasonable goal due to our hectic schedule. We will be ordering most of the movies from Netflix. I just went onto Netflix to get the first few ordered and found that the very first Picture of the Year (Wings in 1929) is not available right now...great start! We will try as much as possible to watch them in order but, if we get stuck we may have to skip around a little!

His -

Okay, what's wrong with old movies?! There's some great ones such as The Quiet Man as one superb and fun example of a romantic comedy. Besides that, some of our favorite movies were "new" 20 years or more ago. This will be an interesting project and I'll love doing it with Lisa - my most favorite person in this life and world.

I think that having the ability to download and watch some of the movies instantly from Netflix is a wonderful development in the movie rental business and it will make it a bit more flexible and do-able because we don't have to wait for some of the DVDs to arrive in the mail.

Now on to our first movie...

Lisa & Andy