Aimee Walker
A ‘harrowing’ war movie went from being banned in Germany to becoming a Netflix smash hit.
A film is typically banned due to political or moral reasons, and these bans can be enforced from country to country.
For example, The Hunger Games is banned in Vietnam due to it being too violent for children, reports Collider.
While Monty Python’s Life of Brian is banned in Norway due to its jokes being offensive to religious people.
Watch the trailer for the ‘harrowing’ war movie below…
At one point in time, All Quiet on the Western Front was banned in Germany.
The film, which is based on the bestselling 1928 novel by Erich Maria Remarque of the same name, has been dubbed the ‘best anti-war movie’.
It follows a 17-year-old German soldier who is on the Western Front in World War I.
The movie shows a group of soldiers experiencing ‘the initial euphoria of war [as it] turns into desperation and fear as they fight for their lives, and each other, in the trenches’.
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At the moment, the 2022 version of All Quiet on the Western Front is a popular film to stream on Netflix.
However, the original 1930 version was banned in Germany.
When the movie began screening in theatres, Nazi leader Joseph Goebbels led a group of extremists to the building, releasing stink bombs, sneezing powder and white mice.
Goebbels referenced the event in his diary, penning: “Within ten minutes, the cinema resembles a madhouse.
“The police are powerless. The embittered crowd takes out its anger on the J**s.
“The box office outside is under siege. Window panes are broken. Thousands of people enjoy the spectacle.
“The screening is abandoned, as is the next one. We have won.”
As the Nazi party was rising in power at the time, the movie was eventually banned in Germany by the Supreme Board of Censors.
The Nazis reportedly felt that the human vulnerability the German soldiers displayed in the movie wasn’t in line with their beliefs, with them classing the book as unpatriotic and defeatist.
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Allegedly, the party were also concerned that the German author was Jewish.
Remarque is believed to have left Germany just one day after Hitler’s rise to power in January 1933.
However, this didn’t stop the party’s grudge against the writer.
Tragically, the party arrested Remarque’s anti-Nazi sister, Elfriede Scholz, and had her beheaded.
All Quiet on the Western Front is now available to stream on Netflix.
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