Smithsonian Magazine | Smithsonian Magazine

On April 21, 1930, the film "All Quiet on the Western Front" based on the novel by Erich Maria Remarque, directed by Lewis Milestone, and starring Louis Wolheim and Lew Ayres, premiered in Los Angeles. It was awarded the Academy Award for Outstanding Production in 1930. It is probably the greatest anti-war film and book ever. Many of the film techniques were influential in Stephen Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan. The book and film were equally hated by the Nazis. This book and film were heavily censored. The book was one of the first burned in Nazi book burnings, and the film was banned throughout Nazi Germany.