We enter into a new decade: the 1930s. It doesn’t start off with a bang as we head into a financial depression, the Dust Bowl is starting, and people were becoming homeless very quickly. But, on the positive side, movies were cheap to go to. Yes, even as the decade starts off as a dud, people still flock to the movies to escape reality. But the films nominated this year, with some exceptions, did not shy away from the real world. Some of these movies were violent, depressing, and pretty soul crushingly real. While other movies were optimistic, fun, and an escape from the world. This was a weird year for the Oscars and their picks for Best Picture.
1. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930):
This won the top prize for best picture of the year and deservedly so. It’s not only one of the best anti-war films of all time, but I think it’s one of the best films ever made. It’s set in Germany during WWI and several young men decide to join the army after their teacher tells them about how great it would be to fight for their country. That backfires on them as they are hit with the harsh realities of war. It’s a disturbing look into the hell that is war including brutal battle scenes, moments of mental breakdowns from soldiers, and the horrible sound of machine guns killing men where they stand. I did a whole review on this film if you want more detail, but needless to say I think it’s one of the best war films ever made.
2.The Big House (1930):
This is a pretty good prison movie. Set in an over-cramped prison, three prisoners try to rebel by rioting, escaping, and even holding hostages in order to break out. It’s a solid enough premise for a Pre-Code film. There are a lot of surly men killing and beating people up in prison, not to mention the climax is pretty exciting. But the middle is kind of boring, with one of the convicts escaping and falling in love with his friends sister. It brings the movie to a halt for this romance that I don’t find very convincing. But, if you can get past that and get to the more shocking and violent moments, then this is a pretty good watch for a prison movie.
3.The Love Parade (1929):
This musical/comedy has its moments of fun, while also being really dull at the same time. Maurice Chevalier plays a military attaché to a made-up country in Paris. He has a thing for the Queen of this country and the rest of the story is a romantic/comedy with music. The direction in some parts is pretty good, while other parts of it are lifeless and stilted. This has more to due with the fact that making a musical was hard in the beginning of the talking film era. So the stilted acting and musical numbers suffer from having to stand in one place so the microphones can pick up the sound. The story itself is a lot of nothing as you can figure out that the two leads are going to end up together very quickly. If you’ve seen one rom-com, you’ve seen them all. And this movie is no exception. It’s not terrible, but you can do a lot better.
4.Disraeli (1929):
This movie is boring. It’s about a statesman named Disraeli who wants to take control of India by buying the Suez Canal. What follows is a spy thriller where the spies of both Russia and England watch over Disraeli to see what he does. It’s a boring historical film with lifeless direction and ok acting. The love story happens too much and is not important to the main plot. The idea of spies racing each other to take control of the Suez Canal could have been interesting. But the story plays it very straight, dry, and not thrilling as its premise suggests. Outside of the lead actors performance, there is nothing to this movie.
5.The Divorcee (1930):
I honestly don’t even remember what happens in this film. If I had to strain my memory, it’s about a group of people and their marital problems. That’s it as far as plot goes. People get married, divorced, then remarried. It might have been scandalous at the time, since no movies dealt with divorce, but today it’s really tame. The characters are boring, the acting isn’t much to watch, the writing is dull, the direction is stiff, and I could not care about the main plot. I know it’s a character study, but I don’t find the characters interesting so I lost interest pretty early on. Plus the ending is unrealistic and just feels like a slapped on happy ending. I don’t think there are any fans of this movie, so I don’t mind telling you to skip it if you decide to also watch all the Best Picture nominees. Though what idiot would do that, right?
Movies for 20 Somethings 