Movie Review - Im Westen Nichts Neues (All Quiet On the Western Front)

Director: Edward berger
Genre: Action/ Drama
Runtime: 148 minutes
Year: 2022
Starring: Felix Kamerer, Albrecht Schuch, Aaron Hilmer, Moritz Klaus, Daniel Brühl
 
Description: A young German soldier’s (Felix Kamerer) terrifying experiences and distress on the western front during World War 1

Review: “Im Westen Nichts Neues” is film that, like more recent releases, would do better on the big screen. It’s an adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s 1929 brutal book.

What most war movies lack of, is realism. A lot of war movies aren’t realistic enough. I believe that a lot of directors are afraid to show the brutal horrors of a war to the general public. Steven Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan” was one of the bigger movies that showed this to the general public, with one of the most memorable and brutal opening scenes in cinematic history. You could see what happens to a body when it blows u or shot to pieces. Somehow a lot of war movies have been romanticized. “Im Westen Nichts Neues” that anything but that.    

I believe this adaption of Remarque’s book should be the film the author envisioned when he published his novel. There are two previous adaptations, from 1930 and 1979, but they could not show the brutality as confrontationally and convincingly because the visual effects were not yet as good. But it’s not just that. In the 1979 version made it look like no one was to blame for millions of men dying in this terrible war.

This new film opens with a group of friends eager to travel to the front. One of these men, Paul Bäumer, will more or less be the main character and we follow him through the chaos. Paul is not in control of the course of events. It’s a bitter-realistic portrayal of the role of soldiers on the battlefield of WWI. As soon as the sound of the whistles is heard, the soldiers climb out of the trenches and run to where the bullets are coming from.

Like stated before, the book is brutal, and so is this movie. If you are squeamish, you might have a hard time watching this film. No heroes here, there isn’t a real story either, because that would suggest far too much order. Dialogues are also few. It’s chaos, brutality, the nightmares of war. The film stays true to its spartan aesthetic of mud and blood, with a beautiful score.

When mostly you think that another adaptation of a certain book is unnecessary, this movie had to be made. It’s the adaptation of Remarque’s book that we needed.

Rating: 4,5/ 5