all quiet on the Western Front

all quiet on the Western Front

Nothing is happening right now. The phrase originated during World War I in reference to the major site of trench warfare. A: "Have you heard back from any of the schools you applied to yet?" B: "Nope. All quiet on the Western Front."
See also: all, front, on, quiet, western
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • western
  • all quiet on the Potomac
  • beat (one) to the punch
  • beat someone to the punch
  • beat to the punch
  • ace in the hole
  • all things to all men, to be
  • be all things to all men
  • be all things to all men/people
  • bag of fruit
References in periodicals archive
Although Laemmle Sr was concerned that the sombre ending would discourage audiences, All Quiet on the Western Front was a major box-office success in the United States, and won the Best Picture and Best Director Oscars in 1930.
All Quiet on the Western Front is famed for its authentic depiction of World War I; yet, rather than becoming distracted by details of accuracy, the film raises more interesting questions regarding the strategies of representation employed and why they were chosen.
(4) David Imhoof, 'Culture Wars and the Local Screen: The Reception of Westfront 1918 and All Quiet on the Western Front in One German City', in Peter C Rollins & John E O'Connor (eds), Why We Fought: America's Wars in Film and History, The University Press of Kentucky, Lexington, 2008, p.
(5) Modris Eksteins, 'All Quiet on the Western Front and the Fate of a War', Journal of Contemporary History, vol.
(6) Andrew Kelly, Filming All Quiet on the Western Front: 'Brutal Cutting, Stupid Censors, Bigoted Politicos', I.BTauris, London, 1998, p.
(11) Dan Thomas, 'All Quiet on the Western Front Goes to Flickers Without Knife', Universal Weekly, 30 August 1929, p.
(12) Carl Laemmle, 'All Quiet on the Western Front, Universal Weekly, 27 July 1929.
'Better Not to Die at All': The Battles of All Quiet on the Western Front
Intelligent war movies like All Quiet on the Western Front were a rarity in the early 1930s as the movies learned to talk.
The sound & the fury: the movies learn to talk
To refresh my memory, I watched the video of All Quiet on the Western Front. With no musical background, without the benefit of modern cinematography, without fields of corpses, with no pools of blood reddening the screen, that film conveyed the horror of warfare more powerfully than Saving Private Ryan.
But more important, All Quiet on the Western Front does not dodge--as Saving Private Ryan does, as its gushing critics do--the issue of war.
Private Ryan saves war
Novelist who is chiefly remembered as the author of Im Westen nichts Neues (1929; All Quiet on the Western Front), which became perhaps the best-known and most representative novel dealing with World War I.
All Quiet on the Western Front is a brutally realistic account of the daily routine of ordinary soldiers during a war.
Remarque, Erich Maria