The topic for today's Throwback Thursday is a good throwback filled with one long scene featuring four naked boys. The 1930 Oscar went to a film called All Quiet on the Western Front which is by all accounts a classic. It also has ASS. Lots of ass! It's just one scene, but this black and white movie makes the most of buns at a time when seeing seat meats on the big screen was a taboo.
This World War 1 movie from Lewis Milestone stars Lew Ayresas a young German soldier who is bright-eyed and even excited to fight in World War 1. We follow him into his first battle as he and other young men risk their lives and realize war is hell. After he gets injured, he is given a furlough to visit his familyand hometown which is where we see he's a changed man. And then? It's back to war and things don't end well. Okay, interesting movie. Even more interesting is that these boys escape their uniforms to have a playful swim in a pond in a scene that shows off their bums.
William Bakewell, Slim Summerville, and Lew have a great time bathing and swimming. Boys will be boys and boys will be naked!
So how did a movie in 1930 get away with this much man ass AND very gory battle scenes? The answer is simple, film nerds. The Production Code (aka The Hays Code) was not enforced until 1934 which makes this a pre-code film and we all know that pre-code films are a little more scandalous than the films that followed. Not only that, but Universal felt this film was really important andthus allowed the bloody violence to remain. After violent scenes like these, male nudity was hardly anything to bat an eye at. Many more horrifying war films have been made since, but All Quiet on the Western Front remains one of the most graphic war movies ever made and one of the most critically acclaimed.
All Quiet on the Western Front took home the Best Picture Oscar in 1930, beating out The Broadway Melody and Disraeli to name a few other classics that survived that era.Lewis Milestone also took home a Best Director prize. And we would like to award this scene for best black and white ass:
