Erich Maria Remarque was a German infantry soldier who served in the trenches of World War One.

In 1928 he published his memoirs, "Im Westen Nichts Neues." The book was an unflinching look into the lives of the common soldier, and a striking condemnation of war and its effects.

It struck a chord in a world still stunned by the carnage of Verdun, and sold over two million copies in its first year. Hitler was less than impressed, however, and the book was banned in Nazi Germany.

But that didn't stop director Lewis Millstone from making one of the best novel-to-movie adaptations ever.

The film is at once both deeply lyrical and savagely brutal, contrasting the banality of army life with the sudden punctuation of mindless violence so effectively that the film won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

Back then, that actually meant something.