Standing with my class on Friday taking in a minute silence for Remembrance Day, it was a nice moment to feel the respect that the current generation maintains in holding the tradition of remembering the fallen from wars gone by. Officially, in most countries, Remembrance Day is observed on 11 November to recall the end of First World War hostilities. Hostilities formally ended 'at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month' of 1918, in accordance with the armistice signed by representatives of Germany and the Entente at 5:20 am that morning. The new movie 'All Quiet On The Western Front (2022)' has embedded the scenes of this negotiation into its script as a comparison to those who were fighting for the War and those who were fighting for Peace. The movie's weakness in my opinion is its explicit direction in depicting the violence of the war to the audience. With the saturation of blood and gore depicted in the theme of the 'horror of war', I felt myself wanting to shut my eyes from it instead of embracing its message. Maybe also in doing so, it has lost a potentially younger audience, unlike the original 1930 version, which saw the metamorphous of Paul Bäumer as a naive innocent youth setting out on his adventure of war. That film concluded with one of the most powerful scenes as Paul's hand slowly reaches towards that symbol of life and beauty, in a Butterfly (foreshadowed earlier in that movie in the scene with his sister), just as a French sniper rifle cracks in the background. The minute of silence that follows from the final scene of Paul's hand stiffing, then relaxing is more potent in its impact than what I currently saw in the new version. Although my year 9 students tell me they have watched the new version already, I can't but think of an opportunity lost in learning about The Great War in a greater way. So you probably did not click this message open to read my opinion on movies so with further delay what's been going on in the Store at Tally Ho Chap...