Film Review by Carroll McCune
‘ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT‘
Adapted from the book ‘All Quiet on the
Western Front,’ Erich Remarque (1929)
Released by Netflix-October 28, 2022,
in dubbed English.
Director: Edward Berger
Screenwriters: Edward Berger, Lesley
Paterson, Ian Stokell
Cinematographer: James Friend
Camera Operator: Danny Bishop
Sound: Volker Bertelmann
CAST
Felix Kammerer as Paul Baumer
Albrecht Schuch as “Kat” Katczinsky
Aaron Hilmer as Albert Kropp
Moritz Klaus as Franz Muller
Adrian Grunewald as Ludwig Behm
Michael Wittenborn as Professor Kantorek
Daniel Bruhl as Matthias Erzberger
The German-made, Oscar nominated World War I film, “All Quiet on the Western Front,” has received the Newport Beach Film Festival Award for best cinematography in 2022. British Cinematographer calls the film the technical achievement of the year. The filmmakers inspired cinematography, devotion to realism, and accuracy in depicting even the smallest military detail of the era deserve the accolades they have received. Visit the on-line magazine for a full discussion of James Friend and Danny Bishop’s photography techniques.
The film is based on Erich Remarque’s 1929 fictionalized memoir of his experience fighting in the Belgian trenches in World War I as a nineteen-year-old conscripted German soldier. The story traces the main character Paul Baumer’s transformation from a naïve, patriotic schoolboy into a hollowed out, hopeless soldier who reflects, “We are feelingless dead men who through a trick, a dangerous conjuring, can still run and kill.”
Although other directors have made films based on the 1929 novel of the same name, (Lewis Milestone, 1930, starring Lew Ayers and Delbert Mann, 1970, starring Richard Thomas), this is the first adaptation that offers the German point-of-view on the war. Director Edward Berger deviates from the author’s novel much more than the American versions. He focuses on the soldier’s camaraderie, especially the relationship between Paul Baumer (Felix Kammerer) and an older soldier “Kat” Katczinsky (Albrecht Schuch). “Kat” teaches the young recruits how to survive the war, rather than fight the enemy, while being indifferent himself as to who wins it.
The character is so movingly played by the appealing Albrecht Schuch that he becomes the center of interest in the story rather than Paul Baumer who represents Erich Remarque.
In Berger’s production, Paul Baumer volunteers for service as a 17-year-old along with three of his school friends: Ludwig Behm (Adrian Grunewwald), Albert Kropp (Aaron Hilmer), and Franz Muller (Moritz Klaus). It’s spring, 1917, and the war has not yet stalemated, but the Germans desperately need new recruits to replenish their devastating losses in the trenches on the western front.
After being incited to volunteer by Professor Kantorek (Michael Wittenborn), Paul and his school companions are issued recycled uniforms stripped off dead soldiers and cheerily marched off to encampments in occupied France. Upon arriving, they are stunned by piles of corpses rudely treated, aghast at the squalid conditions in which they must live, and terrified by the maddening shelling of the front line. By summer 1918, the German government is looking for a negotiated peace with the Allies, but their self-deluded army commanders still think they can win the war. Berger added a sub-plot about the armistice negotiations and a time motif relating to the exact date and time agreed upon for a ceasefire; November 11th at 11 a.m.
All the film’s action rises towards this pivotal moment in world history.
[RELATED: Christmas truce was moment of peace in brutal WWI]
There is an obvious anti-French bias in this German production that contradicts the universality of Remarque’s classic anti-war novel. For example, only the French commit war crimes by launching poison gas attacks, burning people alive with flame throwers, and gunning down surrendering soldiers.
During scenes of the armistice negotiations the Germans are characterized as conscientious humanitarians while the French high commanders are portrayed as merciless, intransigent victors.
Berger doesn’t admit to any deliberate anti-French sentiment, but explained the film’s German cultural bias in terms of anti-heroics. “The most important thing, you know, that’s our perspective on the war. Obviously, if you’re from England or America; both countries were involved in the first and second world wars but against their will. They had to be pulled into it. England was attacked. The boys had to defend themselves. The boys went and defended their country. Americans liberated Europe from fascism. To make a war movie from that perspective I understand that this has a different cultural heritage that can be heroic. These soldiers could be celebrated. To make that from a German perspective, you cannot do that. We don’t have that feeling. There’s nothing heroic, there’s nothing glorious, there’s nothing to be glorified about what happened coming from Germany in the last century. So we live with that and we wanted to imbue the film with that feeling; to say this is what war does. It causes scars for decades if not for centuries to come.”
Some critics have complained that the cringing depictions of dead bodies and horrifying violence in Berger’s “All Quiet on the Western Front” serve no purpose beyond shock. ABC Entertainment posted “…there is no discernible reason that could ever hope to justify the carnage we observe—the savagery that unfolds is simply slaughter for the sheer sake of it.” In an interview with Deadline Hollywood, director Berger blamed Remarque for all the overly gross gore in his film, “When you read the novel it’s quite brutal. It’s even more brutal [than the film] and the images that open up in your head; you know there’s horses with their guts hanging out and whining. There’s horrific images that you can’t even put into the film. It’s a really brutal novel that we tried to adequately portray. It has to be brutal, otherwise it would be a lie and it would almost be propaganda. So I thought, let’s make it realistic but still bearable for an audience.”
Disregarding the unnecessary gruesomeness and brutality in the film, British Cinematographer writer Zoe Mutter said that the film’s photography directors believe their visualization of Remarque’s story “can inform a new generation about the reality and futility of war during a time of conflict in Europe.” Noting the outbreak of war in Ukraine, she feels that “the time is right to release the anti-war film which brings to the fore the disillusionment of that period through a realistic and hard-hitting depiction of the atrocities that occurred.”
