ANTI-TIMES, ANTI-’PLATOON,’ ANTI-WAR, ANTI-JANE
“Platoon” will rank with some of the great anti-war movies of the past. Notably, “The Big Parade” made in 1925 and “What Price Glory” made in 1926.
But the greatest anti-war movie of all time was “All Quiet on the Western Front” made in 1930, based on Erich Maria Remarque’s experiences as a German infantryman in World War 1.
Remarque wrote about the gore, horrors and perpetrators of war. He spoke for all nations and all generations, not on the glorification of war, but on the futility of war.
One of Remarque’s characters was an infantryman named Cpl. Katczinsky, played by actor Louis Wolheim who had this to say to his squad: “Whenever there’s a big war coming on, they should rope off a big field and sell tickets, and take all the presidents, dictators, kings and their cabinets, and all the diplomats, politicians, generals and munition makers from each country, put them in the center of the ring dressed in their underpants and let them fight it out with clubs. May the best country win.”
So, if you’re concerned about the threat of a nuclear holocaust and a nuclear winter, this is the solution to the lunatic arms race.
ELMER ANDERSON
Los Angeles
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