At the onset of war WW1, Paul Baumer and his idealistic classmates are lured into what they believe to be a great adventure of fighting for the German imperial army in the battlefields of Western Europe. Their healthy optimism is soon destroyed when at the front the reality of war is quickly realised with slaughter, toxic gases, mud and corps eating rats. A film that brilliantly shows the true extent of war and its consequences for society and the individual. Based on the famous novel by Erich Maria Remarque.