Search - All Quiet on the Western Front [DVD] on DVD

B.J. W. (analogkid01) from CHICAGO, IL
Reviewed on 4/12/2024...

Edward Berger's 2022 film "All Quiet on the Western Front," the third major adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque's 1929 book of the same name, is a highly-regarded film about World War 1. It was lauded with numerous Oscar and BAFTA awards, among many others.

So why did it leave me feeling a little hollow?

Warning: major spoilers.

The film follows German teenager Paul Bäumer and his friends who, in the third year of the war, decide to enlist despite being underage. In a time when nationalism exuded an irresistible force on the young, they see it as their patriotic duty as well as, perhaps, fun.

Their rose-tinted view of the war is quickly corrected upon arrival at the trenches of the western front. The reality of trench warfare is quickly and brutally brought home and the boys immediately question their choices. It's also implied that the boys received no basic training whatsoever - they learn what they can on the way to the trenches, and after that it's pure on-the-job training. "Shoot, move, cover! Shoot, move, cover! Got it??"

The boys, of course, are picked off one by one (hard to tell who's who when their faces are caked in mud from the No Man's Land between German and French trenches). There's a lull in the middle of the film where the survivors, after 18 months of battle, enjoy a little R&R. We're also informed that the Armistice is being negotiated and signed - but one psychotic German general decides to launch one final attack before the 11am cutoff time. At that time, hostilities cease, Bäumer is dead, and the film ends.

Here's the thing. The German title of Remarque's book and Berger's film is "Im Westen nichts Neues," which literally translated means "Nothing New in the West." There is a 30-screen cinema full of excellent war movies, and All Quiet certainly belongs in that pantheon for purely its technical achievements and unique perspective if nothing else. But we've seen this story before - young boys go to war for dubious reasons, learn firsthand the absolute pointless hell that war is, and either die in the process or come home physically and psychologically damaged. All Quiet, aside from being a story told from the German perspective, doesn't bring a whole lot new to the table. Bäumer forms bonds with brothers-in-arms, and their deaths affect him...up until he is killed himself. There's no chance to explore his life after the war. No survivor's guilt, no PTSD, and in the case of the German perspective specifically, no examination of how the Treaty of Versailles set up the Germans to launch World War 2. Bäumer dies, and...movie's over.
This version of All Quiet is...just kinda pointless. Technically competent, but I'm not sure why they made it in the first place. Almost like war itself. Nothing new.

Grade: B-minus

(I will admit that I'm curious to see the 1930 version and compare/contrast the two.)

K. K. (GAMER)
Reviewed on 3/3/2024...

Had some really harsh moments of war. Other scenes should have been cut down to shorten this long movie.