From Silent to Sound: All Quiet on the Western Front

Abstract

To investigate the cinematographic style of the early thirties, it is necessary to begin at the transition from the silent film to the sound film. By the mid-twenties the silent film in Hollywood had reached a complexity of style and expression not always appreciated today when for many people silent film is synonymous with comedy. Such films as The Crowd, The Big Parade, The Wind, Flesh and the Devil, Sunrise, The Iron Horse and The Salvation Hunters show a confidence in style and narration which was quickly lost as the transition to sound began. In order to set a market for later developments, All Quiet on the Western Front will serve as an indicator of this transition, as a film which is poised between the style of the late silent film and that of the early sound film. The detailed analysis of its cinematographic style and its relation to ideological forces should be an effective prologue to the changes which were to come.