The First World War was marked at the time of its conclusion as the war to end all wars. That, of course, turned out to be hyperbole because humanity can hardly go five minutes without starting wars with itself. But something must be said about the utter brutality and meaninglessness of WWI. Started by petty feuds and ending with nothing gained but everything lost, it was truly a war of attrition with almost all conflict taking place within trenches, the majority of soldier dying of gangrene and other nasty illnesses rather than combat itself. It really is quite important then that the 1928 novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, a German soldier’s perspective on the war and returning from it, was so revered for its anti-war sentiments that it was banned by many European countries in the lead up to WWII. The original film adaptation in 1930 was similarly heralded for its achievements, and it was once again adapted in 1979 for TV with a similarly stellar reception. So, the recent Netflix adaptation has big shoes to fill, but with a German director on board, Edward Berger, he was determined to truly tell Germany’s story of the war that should never have been.
In 1917, when seventeen-year-old Paul Bäumer (Felix Kammerer) joins the German army, he is excited to serve his country and become the hero the government have told him he will be. Jump forward to 1918 and Paul has truly learned the harsh realities of war with many of his comrades succumbing to horrific and meaningless deaths. But with the final days of the war drawing near, Paul is faced with the daunting reality of returning home from the Western Front. Meanwhile German official Matthias Erzberger (Daniel Brühl) meets with the representatives of the Allied powers to come to an agreement for an Armistice, placing Germany’s future in murky waters.
In 1917, when seventeen-year-old Paul Bäumer (Felix Kammerer) joins the German army, he is excited to serve his country and become the hero the government have told him he will be. Jump forward to 1918 and Paul has truly learned the harsh realities of war with many of his comrades succumbing to horrific and meaningless deaths. But with the final days of the war drawing near, Paul is faced with the daunting reality of returning home from the Western Front. Meanwhile German official Matthias Erzberger (Daniel Brühl) meets with the representatives of the Allied powers to come to an agreement for an Armistice, placing Germany’s future in murky waters.
I will preface this review by saying that I have neither read, nor watched any versions of All Quiet on the Western Front before, so I’m coming to this with no expectations other than the rave reviews it got upon release. It is by far one of the bleakest and unrelentingly grim war films I have ever seen, and I hadn’t really expected that. I’m not really sure what I expected, certainly not a film about military bravado that’s for sure, but All Quiet on the Western Front has an almost singular fixation on death and the futility of survival in such impossible odds. It’s just downright depressing, and whilst I do recommend the film, it’s certainly not one I’ll be rushing to watch again because of just how pessimistic it is.
With the opening few minutes of the film tracking the journey of a uniform stripped from a dead German soldier. It is returned to base to be cleaned and repaired, before being handed to the newly recruited Paul, a boy who’s fresh faced and eager to prove his worth to his country along with a close group of friends.
It doesn’t take long for things to go south as the moment the boys arrive on the titular Western Front where the trench warfare is taking place, they become the targets of the Allied Forces who are relentlessly pushing on the offensive.
This soon leads into a scene involving tanks, which is really is quite terrifying. They’re an incredibly imposing and seemingly insurmountable presence on the battlefield, and the inability of the German’s to effectively defend themselves makes it incredibly hard to watch without needing to look through your fingers in terror.
I was really quite surprised by how graphic All Quiet on the Western Front was. The tank scene sees soldiers getting crushed, blasted to bits, and burned alive in excruciating detail. But in spite of this the film never feels gratuitous with its bloodshed, nor like it is doing it for the sake of entertainment. No kill in this film feels warranted or earned, and I really do think that’s the point of it all. The horror and fear in each person’s eyes when someone is gunned down or stabbed near to them, regardless of whose side they are on. There are glimpses of humanity in the heat of battle as some soldiers try to make kills quicker, more painless, or even apologise for doing what they have done. It adds a whole other dimension to the film that remains grimly tonally consistent with the gory special effects.
Watching the film in its native German language with English subtitles made the experience so much more real to me as well, a defining factor to the experience I feel as it is a story about German soldiers, and all prior adaptations of the source material have been in English.
With the opening few minutes of the film tracking the journey of a uniform stripped from a dead German soldier. It is returned to base to be cleaned and repaired, before being handed to the newly recruited Paul, a boy who’s fresh faced and eager to prove his worth to his country along with a close group of friends.
It doesn’t take long for things to go south as the moment the boys arrive on the titular Western Front where the trench warfare is taking place, they become the targets of the Allied Forces who are relentlessly pushing on the offensive.
This soon leads into a scene involving tanks, which is really is quite terrifying. They’re an incredibly imposing and seemingly insurmountable presence on the battlefield, and the inability of the German’s to effectively defend themselves makes it incredibly hard to watch without needing to look through your fingers in terror.
I was really quite surprised by how graphic All Quiet on the Western Front was. The tank scene sees soldiers getting crushed, blasted to bits, and burned alive in excruciating detail. But in spite of this the film never feels gratuitous with its bloodshed, nor like it is doing it for the sake of entertainment. No kill in this film feels warranted or earned, and I really do think that’s the point of it all. The horror and fear in each person’s eyes when someone is gunned down or stabbed near to them, regardless of whose side they are on. There are glimpses of humanity in the heat of battle as some soldiers try to make kills quicker, more painless, or even apologise for doing what they have done. It adds a whole other dimension to the film that remains grimly tonally consistent with the gory special effects.
Watching the film in its native German language with English subtitles made the experience so much more real to me as well, a defining factor to the experience I feel as it is a story about German soldiers, and all prior adaptations of the source material have been in English.
The film is beautifully shot, James Friend’s cinematography is harrowing yet stunning both in action sequences and the quieter, more dramatic moments. But this visual beauty pales in comparison to Volker Bertelmann’s haunting score. This raw, mechanical noise that permeates through the entire ordeal initially felt somewhat out of place in a historical drama, seeming better suited to a horror or even science fiction film. But as the film progressed and the score persisted with such violence and power it really shone through as one of the films greatest assets in communicating just how terrifying the reality of the war must have been to those in it.
All Quiet on the Western Front is absolutely a must watch, and had I seen it last year it may well have placed in my top five films of the year. But it is not light entertainment, it’s not the kind of film you can just stick on and half-pay attention to. This film requires and deserves your full attention. See it on the biggest screen and the loudest sound system you can so to fully immerse yourself in the hellish theatre of war. If there ever was a way to illustrate why war is never the solution to any problem, this is it.
All Quiet on the Western Front is absolutely a must watch, and had I seen it last year it may well have placed in my top five films of the year. But it is not light entertainment, it’s not the kind of film you can just stick on and half-pay attention to. This film requires and deserves your full attention. See it on the biggest screen and the loudest sound system you can so to fully immerse yourself in the hellish theatre of war. If there ever was a way to illustrate why war is never the solution to any problem, this is it.