Erich Maria Remarque wrote in the preface to his book, "It will try simply to tell of a generation who, even though they may have escaped its shells, were destroyed by the war." Lewis Milestone's 1930 film remains the boldest statement against the cruelty and futility of war ever made, lacking as it does any conciliation to patriotism or glory, any exploitation of spectacle or slaughter. In Germany, 1917, seven enthusiastic schoolboys leave their village to enlist in the army. Brutalized and disillusioned in training, they are posted to the French front, where further horrors await them. Then, further disillusionments: when one soldier is sent home on leave, he finds himself a virtual stranger to his former way of life. The film was originally released in 14 reels, or roughly 150 minutes, but it was not long before its strong pacifist message came under attack; a 1939 re-release had excised some 103 minutes, including many of the strongest anti-war sequences. Attempts to reconstruct this masterpiece have been hampered by its unusual original format: it was shot in part as a silent film (allowing for Milestone's remarkable use of tracking camera) with sound effects edited in, then completed in sync sound, and alternative camera takes existed for many of the missing shots. Peter Williamson at the Film Department of The Museum of Modern Art, New York, has now reconstituted 125 minutes of the original release version-a work in progress that already is a substantially different film from the 1939 edit.