All Quiet on the Western Front

All Quiet on the Western Front is a television film produced by ITC Entertainment. It was released on November 14, 1979. Based on the 1929 book of the same name by Erich Maria Remarque, it stars Richard Thomas and Ernest Borgnine. Directed by Delbert Mann, this film is a joint British and American production for which most of the filming took place in Czechoslovakia. Plot In 1915, 18-year-old Paul Bäumer enlists in the German army with five of his high school friends (Behm, Kropp, Muller, Kemmerich and Leer), after being indoctrinated by Kantorek, their teacher, as to the glory and superiority of German culture. After surviving training camp under the brutal Corporal Himmelstoss, the young men board a troop train bound for the front line. Ominously, at the same moment, they notice another train arriving in town loaded with returning wounded soldiers, who are carried off on stretchers. Once at the front line, they are placed in a squad, along with soldiers Tjaden, Westhus, Detering and others, under the supervision of Stanislaus "Kat" Katzinsky. Kat teaches them how to take cover, how to find extra food, and other survival skills. When Paul and his squad return to a French town for a rest week, they see the new recruits have grown younger and younger. To their delight, the leader of these new recruits is their recently demoted training NCO, Himmelstoss. When Himmelstoss tries to make them obey him, they stand up to him. Later in the trenches, while the Germans are launching an attack, Paul sees another squad cowering in a crater, which includes Himmelstoss. Paul forces Himmelstoss to keep on the offensive.