This book is to be neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped its shells, were destroyed by the war. ~ Erich Maria Remarque, epigraph, All Quiet on the Western Front (1929)Director Edward Berger’s 2022 adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s novel All Quiet on the Western Front currently streaming on Netflix stays relatively faithful to the spirit of the book if not completely accurate to the text. It has been well over thirty years since I read Remarque’s brutal indictment of the First World War, so my recollections may be a little inexact, however, as so often is the case when books are adapted to film, the director definitely took some artistic liberties with the storyline, altering and omitting written episodes to suite his vision or because he felt they wouldn’t translate well to celluloid.
Regardless, I think the movie is still pretty compelling and well worth a watch. In fact, I will go so far as to say it was one of the better films I’ve seen in recent years. This may not be saying much, considering the garbage regularly churned out by the movie industry these days, but I genuinely mean this as a complement.
First, the acting, dialogue and story are very strong. I thought Felix Kammerer as Paul Bäumer, the story’s main protagonist, did a terrific job. Paul and his classmates, the so-called “iron youth” of Germany, are idealistic, impressionable, and easily persuaded to enlist in the army by their imperious schoolmaster, Kantorek (Michael Wittenborn). Underage, Paul forges his parents signature so he could volunteer and go off to fight with his best friends. Kantorek has a minor role in the film, but is featured more prominently in the book.
Second, the film is visually stunning. From the majestic settings representing Northwestern Europe (e.g. La Malmaison and Champagne); to the rolling desolation and corpse laden morass of No Man’s Land (the terrain between enemy trench lines); to the authentic period costumes and weaponry; I thought it all looked pretty realistic and convincing.
Third, the production has a solid sound design with intense cries of war and pain, gunshots, and explosions. Add to this the haunting soundtrack by composer Volker Bertelmann and the film is suffused with a constant sense of foreboding. So far I watched it twice, once in the original German with subtitles and again with English dubbing, and found neither to be problematic or distracting.
As an anti-war film All Quiet on the Western Front masterfully portrays the harrowing futility and insanity of this fratricidal bloodbath. Lest we forget there were over 40 million casualties in the Great War, any romantic view one may have held for it is quickly shattered. The viewer cannot help but feel the gut-wrenching anguish and despair of the combatants.
One of the more heartrending scenes is where Paul comes face-to-face with a rival French soldier in a bomb crater and repeatedly stabs him. As the man lies dying in the mud, the sound of blood gurgling in his throat causes Paul to have an existential meltdown. At first he tries to stuff dirt down the man’s throat to stifle the pitiful din, but then he tries to save him. When the soldier finally succumbs to his wounds, Paul frantically searches the corpse and discovers letters and pictures from the man's loved ones back home, dramatically underlining the commonality of the average soldier.
The one area I do think the film was found wanting was in character development. Except for Paul and Stanislaus "kat" Katczinsky (Albrecht Schuch), an older soldier who befriends the lads at the front, we learn practically nothing about the backstories of the other characters.
While Remarque focuses almost exclusively on Paul’s experiences at the front and back home while on leave, this adaptation completely omits the home front. Perhaps unnecessarily and at the expense of character development, it also added new characters and a subplot: the secret peace negotiations held in a luxurious railway car between the belligerent nations. Real-life centrist politician Matthias Erzberger (Daniel Brühl) and newly fabricated fictional character General Friedrichs (Devid Striesow) are the most prominent.
Erzberger, as he did in real life, negotiated and signed the armistice with the Allies. In contrast, General Friedrichs (who sadly appears to be based on U.S. Army General John J. Pershing) continues to send waves of soldiers to their doom for the glory and honor of Deutschland.
In a speech to his men, a symbolic portent of what lies ahead, Friedrichs inveighs against the treachery and backstabbing of the Imperial Army by the Social Democrats back in Germany. His callous decision for one massive final offensive gets thousands killed, including Paul who is literally stabbed in the back with an enemy bayonet seconds before the “perfidious” armistice came into effect on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. In the book Paul fell in October 1918,
on a day that was so quiet and still on the whole front, that the army report confined itself to the single sentence: All quiet on the Western Front.
He had fallen forward and lay on the earth as though sleeping. Turning him over one saw that he could not have suffered long; his face had an expression of calm, as though almost glad the end had come.
All Quiet on the Western Front is definitely not for the squeamish. It graphically depicts the harsh and bloody realities of war endured by the fighting men in the trenches as well as the cold-blooded arbiters and indifferent general staffs plotting away and negotiating safely at a distance from the danger and hardships of this hellish conflict.
More than a remembrance or modern rehashing of an epic war story for contemporary audiences, All Quiet on the Western Front is a fitting warning in a mad world on the brink of another world war or even nuclear Armageddon. The movie is timely and relevant today.
~ By Giovanni di Napoli, November 11th, Veterans Day
