How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from All Quiet on the Western Front.
Quote #4
[Mueller marches to the Front in Kemmerick's boots, but during an assault, he is killed. Peter inherits the boots, but in the next scene, Peter is hit and killed going over the top.]
Kemmerick's boots aren't cursed, but through them, we see the trail of death Paul's friends walk. The movie treats these deaths less ceremoniously than it did Behn's or Kemmerick's. Like the characters, the audience has begun to grow accustomed to seeing death.
Quote #5
PAUL: You'll have to forgive me, comrade. I'll do all I can. I'll write to your parents. I'll write to…
[Checks the soldier's papers.]
PAUL: I'll write to your wife. I'll write to her. I promise she'll not want for anything. And I'll help her and your parents, too. Only, forgive me. Forgive me! Forgive me. Forgive me. [Sobbing.] Forgive me…
Looking at the French soldier's papers, Paul learns his name is Duval and he has a family waiting for him at home. This realization leads Paul into a deep depression as he begs the man's corpse for forgiveness. The French soldier provides a name for the so-far nameless enemy, and Paul learns it is far easier to kill "the enemy" than it is to kill a person.
Quote #6
PAUL: Terrible thing happened yesterday. I stabbed a man. With my own hands, stabbed him.
KAT: I know how it is. Your first time. Never mind. The stretcher-bearers will find him.
PAUL: No, no. He's dead, Kat. I watched him die.
KAT: You couldn't do anything about it. We have to kill. We can't help it. That's what we are here for.
Although Paul's upset over the French soldier's death, he also realizes another truth about the war with Kat's help: you either kill or you're killed. If Paul hadn't stabbed the French soldier, likely it would have been him dying slowly and painfully in a crater in the middle of No Man's Land.