All Quiet on the Western Front
A landmark anti-war film following young German soldiers through the brutal realities of WWI trench warfare, earning its Academy Award for Best Picture partly through unflinching depictions of death, dismemberment, and psychological collapse. The violence is the film's moral argument, not decoration, but it is sustained and serious throughout.
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A professor delivers a patriotic speech urging students to enlist; the film treats this as manipulation rather than heroism, making it a strong discussion point about propaganda.
Machine-gun fire cuts down wave after wave of charging soldiers; artillery blasts kill multiple characters on screen, including a moment showing only severed hands still gripping barbed wire after an explosion.
The main character stabs an enemy soldier and is then trapped in a foxhole with the man as he dies very slowly; the scene is prolonged and emotionally harrowing.