All Quiet on the Western Front, American war film, released in 1930 and set during World War I, that is regarded as one of the most effective antiwar movies ever made. It won great praise in the United States but was banned in several other countries, including Germany, because of its pacifist message. The movie, which was based on a novel by Erich Maria Remarque, earned the Academy Award for best picture (then called most outstanding production). The movie begins in a small German town in 1914. As a military parade takes place outside a school, a group of students,