You can go out without asking anyone.
You can even play piano if you want to.
Oh-- Oh, but, Franz, you must try to sleep now.
O God,
this is Franz Kemmerick,
only 19 years old.
He doesn't want to die.
Please don't let him die.
Paul.
- Paul. - Franz.
Take my boots home for Mueller.
Oh, no, Franz, no.
And if... Paul...
you find my watch, send it home.
Franz!
Doctor. Doctor!
Doctor!
Where's the doctor?
Why isn't there a doctor here?
- Doctor, come quick. Franz Kemmerick is dying! - Which one is that?
- Amputated leg. - I've amputated a dozen legs today.
- Bed 26, sir. - You see to it. I'm due in the operating room.
One operation after another since 5:00 this morning.
Sixteen dead today, and yours is the 17th.
There'll probably be 20 by the morning.
You're lookin' good. Very good today.
What's your hurry? Hey! I'll bet he stole those boots!
- I got it, Kat. - Hmm?
Listen: "The sum of an arithmetic series...
is S = A + L x N over 2."
- lnteresting, isn't it? - What do you wanna learn that stuff for?
One day you'll stop a bullet and it'll all be worthless.
- I get a lot of fun out of it. - Aah!
My boots!
Mueller.
I saw him die.
I didn't know what it was like to die before.
And then-- then I came outside...
and it felt--
it felt so good to be alive that I started in to walk fast.
I began to think of the strangest things,
like being out in the fields.
Things like that.
You know-- girls.
And it felt as if there were...
something electric running from the ground up through me.
And I started. I began to run hard.
I passed soldiers and I heard voices calling to me.
I ran and I ran.
I felt as if I couldn't breathe enough air into me.
And-- And now I'm hungry.
I don't mind the war now. Be a pleasure to go to the front in boots like these.
It's a good invention just the same.
If you crack each separate louse, think of all the energy you use up. Watch.
Burned to death.
- How was patrol? Bad? - Must've been terrible if they had time to gather the harvest.
We passed a cherry tree and when he saw it, he went crazy. I could hardly drag him away.
It was... beautiful.
I have a big orchard with cherry trees at home.
When they're in full blossom,
from the hayloft it looks like one single sheet.
So white.
- Perhaps you can get leave soon. - You may even be sent back as a farmer.
A woman can't run a farm alone. That's no good, you know?
No matter how hard she works.
Harvest coming on again.
What's the matter with him?
Got a letter yesterday from his wife. He wants to get back to his farm.
We'd all like to get back home.
I wonder what we'd do if it were suddenly peacetime again?
Get drunk and look for women!
I'd go looking for a Cinderella...
that could wear this for a garter.
And when I'd found her, nobody'd see me for two weeks.
I'll go back to the peat fields...
and those pleasant hours in the beer gardens.
And there's worse things than cobbling too.
Look. My family.
I oughta give you a kick in the backside for startin' all this.
It's all right for all you to talk. You've got something to go back to:
wives, children, jobs.
But what about us? What have we got to go back to?
- School? - Why not? You know everything already.
A man can't take all that rubbish they teach you seriously...
after three years of shells and bombs.
- You can't peel that off easily. - They never taught us anything really useful,
like how to light a cigarette in the wind or make a fire out of wet wood...
or bayonet a man in the belly instead of the ribs where it gets jammed.
What can happen to us afterwards?
I'll tell ya. Take our class.
Out of 20, three are officers,
nine dead,
Mueller and three others wounded...
and one in the madhouse.
We'll all be dead someday, so let's forget it.
Hurry up! Get in there! Hurry up!
Himmelstoss!
What's up?
- What are you, crazy? - It's Himmelstoss!
Himmelstoss? There is justice in the army!
Well, well. So, we are all here, huh?
-A bit longer than you, Himmie. -Since when have we become so familiar?
Stand up and click your heels together! All of you!
- Take a running jump at yourself! - Who's your friend?
Would somebody get General Ludendorff a nice, comfortable chair?
I command you as your superior officer!
- Do you want to be court-martialed? - I do!
There's going to be a big attack tonight and I'd just love to get out of it.
Will you obey my orders?
Kiss my butt!
It isn't customary to ask for salutes here. But I'll tell you what we'll do.
We're going to attack a town that we tried to take once before.
Many killed and many wounded. It was great fun.
This time you're going with us.
If any of us stops a bullet, before we die...
we're going to come to you, click our heels together and ask stiffly,
- "Please, Sergeant Himmelstoss, may we go?" - You'll--
You'll pay for this, you--
There it is.
Right on time. Better get ready, boys.
I'm wounded! I'm wounded!
It's just a scratch, you yellow rat! Up! Get out with the others!
- Up! - No! No! No!
You yellow rat!
Stinking yellow rat! Let the others do it, eh?
Get up! Get up!
- Aa-aah! - Get up! Forward!
- Get out here! - Command... was forward.
Command was forward!
Forward!
Forward! Forward!
Forward!
Counterattack.
I want to help you.
Stop that! Stop it, stop it.
I can bear the rest of it. I can't listen to that!
Why do you take so long dying? You're going to die anyway!
Oh, no.
You won't die.
Oh, no. You won't die. They're only little wounds.
You'll get home. You'll be all right.
You'll get home long before I will.
You know I can't run away. That's why you accuse me.
I tell you, I didn't want to kill you. I tried to keep you alive.
If you jumped in here again, I wouldn't do it.
When you jumped in here you were my enemy, and I was afraid of you.
But you're just a man like me, and I killed you.
Forgive me, comrade.
Say that for me. Say you forgive me.
Oh, no. You're dead.
You're better off than I am. You're through.
They can't do any more to you now.
Oh, God, why did they do this to us?
We only wanted to live, you and l.
Why should they send us out to fight each other?
If we threw away these rifles and these uniforms,
you could be my brother just like Kat and Albert.
You'll have to forgive me, comrade. I'll do all I can.
I'll write to your parents. I'll write to--
I'll write to your wife. I'll write to her.
I promise she'll not want for anything.
I'll help her and your parents too.
Only forgive me. Forgive me!
Forgive me. Forgive me.
Forgive me.
Terrible thing happened yesterday.
I stabbed a man. With my own hands, stabbed him.
I know how it is. Your first time.
Never mind. The stretcher-bearers will find him.
- He's dead. I watched him die. - You couldn't do anything about it.
We have to kill. We can't help it.
That's what we are here for. Uh-- Look there, for instance.
Hah! That got him.
You should've seen how he leaped in the air.
That fellow had to shoot with us for today with three hits.
If he keeps it up, he'll have a decoration for his buttonhole this evening.
Don't you lose any more sleep over this business.
Maybe it was 'cause I was out there with him so long, huh?
Sure, that's it.
After all, war is war.
March! Forward!
Forward, march!
Quick there! Forward!
Company... halt!
Dismissed!
Uncommissioned officers, enlisted men,
dismiss!
Hooray! Come on! Let's get outta here!
- Give me your best sausage. - Two.
Give me a beer.
One, two, three!
Hey, come on. A beer.
Hey, get out of here!
Come on. Give me a beer.
Oh, ho ho!
A beer. One b--
Here's hoping we get falling-down drunk tonight.
Here's how it started.
I'd forgotten there were girls like that.
There aren't.
Just look at those thin, little shoes.
She couldn't march many miles in those.
Paul! Don't speak about marching. You're boring the young lady.
A thousand pardons.
- How old do you think she is? - Oh, about 22.
No, that'd make her older than us.
She's... 17.
A girl like that.
That'd be good, eh, Albert?
We wouldn't have much of a chance with him around.
- We could take a bath, wash our clothes-- - All right.
and I might even go so far as to get deloused.
Wait a minute! She's a long way from here now.
Look at the date. May, 1917.
- Four months ago. - That's true.
Well, here's to her anyway.
Here's to 'em all, everywhere.
Albert,
- we might as well wash up anyway. - All right.
Personally, I like 'em bigger around.
This conversation was on a high moral plane up to now.
Now we do need a bath.
- A bath? - For what?
Hm. You wouldn't understand.
This water is freezing. This romantic business has gone too far.
- Ahh, but think of her beautiful eyes! - Oh!
Oh, and her hair.
- Here we are! - We're not gonna miss a thing!
- What are you doing here? - Bathing!
They tell me there's some people in this world takes a bath every week!
Women!
Mademoiselle, you want to swim?
Mademoiselle!
Aw, baby!
Aw, no, girls! Don't go away!
Aw, mama!
- Please don't go! - Don't go away!
Whoo-hoo! Whoo-hoo!
Food! Food! Whoo-hoo!
Halt! You know you're forbidden to cross.
You fellows stay on this side or you'll get yourselves in a lot of trouble.
- What are they jabberin' about? - They want us to swing over tonight. They're expecting us.
- That's fine! - That blonde's crazy about me.
- But there's four of us and only three of them. - I was the one that stopped 'em!
That blonde piece of work is mine. You three fight for what's left.
Fight's the word. All's fair in love and war.
Huh? What do you mean? What're you gonna do?
You'll find out. Au revoir!
- C'est moi, blondie! - Bon ami! Bon ami!
Vos camarades! Vos camarades!
Ooh!
She means the door.
Not only modest, but dashing! A perfect fit.
It might've been made for me. An officer's coat. We're calling distinguished company.
Ha ha! Ha ha ha!
Merci.
Have another little drink, comrade.
Is this your birthday or mine?
Why?
You've been buying me drink after drink for two hours.
What I'm tryin' to figure out is why.
Why?
Oh! Ha-ha!
Oh. I-It's just that the boys...
told me to amuse you for a little while.
Oh, nice boys.
Yeah!
They-They said you'd understand.
Ehh... heh. Huh?
I've been betrayed!
Yeah, you certainly have.
Take that for a minute!
I'll give you more!
Ahh.
It's too loud.
Suzanne. And I wouldn't even know you if I did.
And yet, I'll remember you always.
Toujours.
Oh, if you could only know how different this is from the women we soldiers meet.
You. That's what I'm talking about. Vous.
It seems as though all war and terror and grossness...
had fallen away from me...
like a miracle.
Like something I never believed.
Pauvre garcon. Pauvre garcon.
Frau Paul.
We're going, Paul.
Have a look. Nice, new coffins. Huh! For us.
I must say, that's a very cheerful preparation for this offensive.
That's very considerate of them. But I don't see any long enough for our comrade Tjaden.
Mind you, I'm not speaking to you, you traitors.
- But no coffin's gonna get me. - I should say not, heartbreaker.
You'll be thankful if they slip a waterproof sheet...
- around that Aunt Sally of a carcass of yours.
Oh-Oh, my side!
My side.
Catholic hospital, Albert.
They say you always get good food and good treatment.
- We're lucky. - After that rainy dressing station...
and 24 hours on the train, we deserve to have some luck.
I'm Hamacher.
Yeah, that's my name.
I got a crack in the head and they gave me a certificate stating,
"Josef Hamacher is periodically...
not responsible for his actions."
And ever since then, Hamacher has been having a grand time.
I hope you boys are not too badly wounded.
The others die off so quickly we don't have time to get acquainted.
You'll get to know us... very well.
Thank you. You too.
I'm sorry, my dear. It's time to go now.
Yes, sister.
Watch.
If they take his clothes away, you've seen the last of him.
- See? They're taking him to the dying room. - Dying room?
When you're ready to kick the bucket, they get you out of the way so they can use the bed.
In the corner of the building there's a little room...
right next to the morgue!
It's so convenient. It saves a lot of trouble.
But suppose he gets well?
I've seen a lot of 'em go in that dying room,
but nobody ever comes back.
Sister.
Sister. Sister.
- Is that you ringing, Paul? - Yes.
- Is something going on? - I think I have a hemorrhage.
The bandage is all wet. I've been ringing forever and nobody comes.
- I think I'm bleeding. - Sister, get me a sterile dressing and an ice pack.
- Why didn't someone call me? - He's been ringing.
Nobody can walk, Sister.
- Sister, is it bad? - No. No, we'll be all right.
We've got it in time.
What's the matter? What are you doing?
We must rearrange your bandages.
Wh-- Where are you taking me?
To the bandaging ward.
- No, no! I'm not going! I'm staying here! - Paul! Paul!
- Now, now! - I'm not going to the dying room!
- We're going to the bandaging ward. - Why are you taking my clothes?
You're lying to me! But I'll come back. I won't die!
I'll come back! I won't die!
I'm not going to die! I'll come back!
Sister Libertine, how is he?
Poor boy. They had to amputate his leg.
Paul. Paul.
Paul.
Oh, he is...
gone.
Gone.
Hello. Welcome home, Albert!
- How do you feel, kid? - All right.
But I've got such an awful pain.
My foot hur --
Hamacher. Did they cut my leg off?
Of course not! How many did you have? Two?
You still got 'em! One, two!
Don't play the fool, Hamacher. Tell me truthfully.
Of course not. And you look fine.
Look. See?
- I won't be a cripple. - Now, now.
- I won't live like that! - Be calm.
- I'll kill myself the first chance I get! - Albert!
- I won't live! I won't live! - Yes, you will.
Albert! Albert!
Albert, I've come back!
I told you I'd come back. Look, everybody! I've come back!
- Paul! Paul! - That's not where I'm going. I live over there.
Paul, I'm so happy.
Hamacher, I've come back from the dead!
- It's most irregular. Never happened before. - Albert, get well quickly...
so we can go home soon.
- Everything will be all right now. - Yes, Paul.
Everything will be all right... now.
Oh! Paul! Paul!
Paul.
- What's the matter, Paul? - Nothing.
Nothing.
Paul.
Give me your handkerchief.
- Mother? - Here I am, Paul. Here I am.
Mother's ill.
- Are you wounded? - No, Mother. I got leave.
Here I am cryin' instead of being glad.
Anna, get down the jar of blackberries.
You still like them, don't you?
Yes, Mother. I haven't had any for a long time.
We might almost have known you were coming.
- I'm making potato cakes. - Don't let them burn.
Paul... sit down...
beside me.
My Paul.
My baby.
I almost forgot, Mother. I've got some little presents for you.
Look, Mother. Bread, sausage and rice.
- Paul, you've been starving yourself. - Hmm-mm.
Hadn't I better go and tell Father Paul's home?
- Paul could watch the things on the stove. - No, I'm getting up.
Oh, Paul, you're a soldier now, aren't you?
But somehow, I don't seem to know you.
I'll take these off, Mother.
I'll get your suit. It's in the wardrobe, just where you left it.
Are you really here, Paul?
You won't--
You won't disappear, will you?
No. I'm here.
Your things are ready for you, Paul.
- I remember when you caught that one. - Yes.
And you took it away from me, didn't you?
Yes, I did.
We're behind the lines, but we know how to honor the soldier...
who goes on in spite of blood and death.
Gentlemen, my son.
- Prosit. - Cheers.
I'm glad to know you, young man, I am glad to know you.
How are things out there? Terrible, eh? Terrible.
But we must carry on.
After all, you do at least get decent food out there.
Naturally, it's worse here. Naturally.
But the best for our soldiers all the time. That's our motto.
The best for our soldiers.
But...
- you must give the Frenchies a good licking!
And, if you boys want to come home, ehh,
Iet me show you what you must do before you can come home.
Give us a hand there, men.
Now, then, there's the line.
Runs so, in a "V".
Here is St. Quentin. You can see for yourself.
You're almost through now. All right?
Shove ahead out there and don't stick to that everlasting French warfare!
Smash through the johnnies! And then you will have peace.
When you get in it... the war isn't the way it looks back here.
Oh! You don't know anything about it.
Of course, you know about the details,
but this relates to the whole!
You can't judge that.
Of course, you do your duty and you risk your life.
But for that, you receive the highest honor.
I said that every man in the war ought to have the lron Cross.
First, the enemy lines must be broken through in Flanders.
- On to Paris! Push on to Paris! - Right.
No, not in Flanders. I'll tell you just where the break should come.
- Here. - The enemy has too many reserves there.
- I insist upon Flanders! - Why should they do that...
when they're halfway through St. Quentin already?
Because Flanders is a flat country!
- No mountains, no obstructions! - There's too many rivers there!
From the farms they have gone;
from the schools, from the factories.
They have gone bravely, nobly, ever forward,
realizing there is no other duty now but to save the fatherland.
Paul! How are you, Paul?
Glad to see you, Professor.
You've come at the right moment, Baumer! Just at the right moment.
And as if to prove all I have said, here is one of the first to go.
A lad who sat before me on these very benches...
who gave up all to serve in the first year of the war;
one of the iron youth who have made Germany invincible in the field.
Look at him-- sturdy and bronze and clear -eyed.
The kind of soldier every one of you should envy.
Oh, lad, you must speak to them.
You must tell them what it means to serve your fatherland.
- No, I can't tell them anything. - You must, Paul.
Just a word. Just tell them how much they're needed out there.
Tell them why you went and what it meant to you.
I can't say anything.
You can remember some deed of heroism, some touch of nobility.
Tell about it.
I can't tell you anything you don't know.
We live in the trenches out there. We fight.
We try not to be killed; sometimes we are.
That's all.
No. No, Paul.
I've been there! I know what it's like.
That's not what one dwells on, Paul.
I heard you in here reciting that same old stuff,
making more iron men, more young heroes.
You still think it's beautiful and sweet to die for your country, don't you?
We used to think you knew.
The first bombardment taught us better.
It's dirty and painful to die for your country.
When it comes to dying for your country, it's better not to die at all!
There are millions out there dying for their countries, and what good is it?
You asked me to tell them how much they're needed out there.
He tells you, "Go out and die."
Oh, but if you'll pardon me, it's easier to say "Go out and die" than it is to do it.
- Coward! - And it's easier to say it than to watch it happen.
No! No! Boys, boys!
- I'm sorry, Baumer, but I must say-- - It's no use talking like this.
You won't know what I mean.
Only, it's been a long while since we enlisted out of this classroom.
So long I thought maybe the whole world had learned by this time.
Only now they're sending babies, and they won't last a week!
I shouldn't have come on leave.
Up at the front you're alive or you're dead, and that's all!
You can't fool anybody about that very long.
Up there we know we're lost and done for whether we're dead or alive.
Three years we've had of it-- four years.
Every day a year and every night a century.
Our bodies are earth and our thoughts are clay,
and we sleep and eat with death.
We're done for because you can't live that way and keep anything inside you!
I shouldn't have come on leave. I'll go back tomorrow.
I've got four days more, but I can't stand it here! I'll go back tomorrow!
Sorry.
Mother, you'll catch cold here. You must go to sleep.
There'll be plenty of time to sleep...
when you're gone.
Must you go tomorrow, Paul? Must you?
Yes, Mother. Orders were changed.
Are you very much afraid, Paul?
No, Mother.
There's something I want to say to you, Paul.
It's--
Just be on your guard against the women out there.
They're no good.
Where we are, there aren't any women, Mother.
Be very careful at the front, Paul.
Yes, Mother, I will.
I'll pray for you every day.
And if you could, get a job that's not quite so dangerous.
Yes, Mother. I'll try and get in the cookhouse.
- That can easily be done. - You do it then, and if the others say anything--
That won't worry me, Mother.
Now, you must go to bed and you must get well quickly before I come back.
I put two sets of underwear -- new ones-- in your pack.
They'll keep you nice and warm.
They're all wool.
That's sweet of you.
Good night... my son.
Good night, Mother.
Oh, Mother, Mother.
You still think I'm a child.
Why can't I put my head in your lap and cry?
- Is this the 2nd Company? - Yes, sir.
- Is this all of it? - Yes, sir.
We had 150 men, but this is all that came back yesterday.
But now they're going to give us enough to make 150 again.
How old are you?
Sixteen.
No use. I couldn't find anything.
- We'll have to eat the sawdust.
Not me! I'll go hungry first. It makes me sick.
Now it's gonna be a real war again.
Paul! How's old Paul?
Here I am.
You know, the 2nd Company's getting hard to find. Nobody seemed to know where you were.
I'm glad you found it.
I guess I don't get much of this.
There used to be some food in the sawdust. Now it's all sawdust.
No joke, either. Eats ya up inside.
This doesn't look much like the old 2nd Company.
The replacements are all like that. Not even old enough to carry a pack.
All they know how to do is die.
I guess... some of the old-timers are here yet.
Paul, they're tryin' to invent somethin' to kill me right now.
Where's Westhus?
Messenger dog was wounded. He went out to get it.
- Is it true about the armistice? - Doesn't look that way back there.
- You mean they want us to go on fighting? - That's what they say.
They're crazy!
Germany'll be empty pretty soon.
Where is-- Where is Detering?
He got homesick. You remember about the cherry blossoms?
I guess he never got over that.
He started out one night to go home and help his wife with the farm.
They got him behind the lines, and we never heard of him since.
He was just homesick, but probably they couldn't see it that way.
Where's Kat? Is he--
Not Kat! If he were out, the war would be over.
You remember what he always says: They're savin' him for the last.
- Where is he? - He's out lookin' for food, something to make soup with.
-Which way? -Down the road about two miles that way.
I'll see you later.
Kat!
Paul!
Hello, Paul.
- How's the side? - Oh, it's all right now. It's fine.
- Have any luck? - No, the general's staff's been over this country with a rake.
Let's sit down there.
Tell me, Paul... how was it at home?
Have a good leave?
- In spots. - What's the matter?
Ohh... I'm no good for back there anymore, Kat.
None of us are. We've been in this too long.
The young men thought I was a coward because I told them that...
we learn that death is stronger than duty to one's country.
The old men said, "Go on. Push on to Paris."
My father even wanted me to wear my uniform around him.
It's not home back there anymore.
All I could think of was, "I'd like to get back and see Kat again."
You're all I've got left, Kat.
I'm not much to have left.
I missed you, Paul.
At least we know what it's all about out here. There're no lies here.
Push on to Paris?
You ought to see what they've got on the other side.
They eat white bread over there.
They've got dozens of airplanes to our one,
and tanks that'll go over anything.
What've we got left?
Guns so worn they drop shells on our own men.
No food, no ammunition, no officers.
Push on to Paris!
So that's the way they talk back there.
I guess we'd better be going.
How I lied to my poor mother.
I told her it wasn't so bad out here because there was always a lot of us together.
Now that I'm with you, I'm beginning to believe that I told her the truth.
Down!
That's another one that missed us. Come on. Let's go.
Wait a minute. Looks like the old bread wagon's broke down.
- I guess I don't walk the rest of the way. - Did that get ya, Kat?
Aah, I think it broke my shin.
That's not so bad. Hold it together.
- Just my luck, huh? - Good luck. That means the war is over.
Oh, no, sir!
This war don't end till they really get me.
Now this one--
- Aah. - Easy, now.
- Hey! - Easy!
Easy!
Come on. I'll take you in. Give me your hand.
Easy.
All right.
Well, kid... now we're gonna be separated.
Maybe we can do something together later on when the war is over.
- Yes, kid. - You give me your address, I'll give you mine.
You can't get both of us in one day.
Ah, we'll surely see each other again, Kat.
Remember that day when you brought the whole pig into the factory?
And that day in the woods when you taught us how to dodge shells?
And my first bombardment. How I cried.
I was a young recruit then.
Here we are. Here we are.
All right now, Kat.
You could've spared yourself the trouble. He's dead.
Oh, no. He's just fainted. He was hit in the shin.
He's dead.
Would you like to take his pay book?
- You're not related, are you? - No, we're not related.
Your deal. Get his name and number?
Yeah, Corporal Stanislaus Katczinsky, 306.