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With: Felix Kammerer, Albrecht Schuch, Aaron Hilmer, Moritz Klaus, Adrian Grünewald, Edin Hasanovic, Daniel Brühl, Thibault de Montalembert, Devid Striesow, Andreas Döhler, Sebastian Hülk, Luc Feit, Michael Wittenborn
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Written by: Edward Berger, Lesley Paterson, Ian Stokell, based on the novel by Erich Maria Remarque
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Directed by: Edward Berger
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MPAA Rating: R for strong bloody war violence and grisly images
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Running Time: 148
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Date: 10/28/2022
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All Quiet on the Western Front (2022)
No Man's Plan
By Jeffrey M. Anderson
Erich Maria Remarque's landmark 1929 novel was first adapted into a masterful 1930 Hollywood film, and then a 1979 television production. The new All Quiet on the Western Front (1922) is the first time it has been made in its original German, and it's just as much a powerhouse as it was nearly a century ago. (It's generally considered one of the few genuinely anti-war war stories.) It focuses on Paul (Felix Kammerer) who excitedly enlists in the German Army in 1917, expecting adventure and the honor of serving his country. Instead he finds trenches filled with horror and inhumanity enough to deaden the soul. Director Edward Berger uses a fluid, wide-eyed, epic style that might otherwise be called "beautiful," but it captures shocks and cold astonishments, including the involved process of stripping uniforms and boots from dead soldiers, and repurposing them for newcomers. The most famous scene has Paul trapped with an enemy soldier in a pit in the middle of No Man's Land; Paul stabs him to death, but is unable to escape back to safety. He must remain there with the dead man, and the reality of what has happened. The devastating ending is the epitome of irony itself. Daniel Brühl co-stars as anti-war activist Matthias Erzberger. (On Netflix, be sure and set the language to the original German and turn on English subtitles.)
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