ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT

Germany, 2022, 148 minutes, Colour.

Felix Kammerer, Albrecht Schuch, Aaron Hillmer, Moritz Klaus, Adrian Grunewald, Daniel Bruhl, Thibault de Montalembert, David Striesow.

Directed by Edward Berger.

1929. German author, Erich Maria Remarque, publishes his celebrated novel, All Quiet on the Western Front. 1930. The American film version, directed by Lewis Milestone, wins the Oscar for Best Picture and Best Director. 1979, successful version, made for television, in colour, starring Richard Thomas. 2022, a German version, Golden Globe nominee, official Oscar submission by Germany.

Critics and audiences have been strong in praise for this version.

Remarque based his novel on his own experiences as a young soldier on the Western front, 1917-1918, where he was wounded. Later, Goebbels would denounce Remarque in the 1930s and his works as unpatriotic and the author had to leave for the United States, American citizenship, and later living in Switzerland.

The trench sequences in this film are most powerful. There have been many films showing the trenches, especially Sam Mendes 1917. However, given the length of this film and the time spent in the trenches and in the open fields, the impact is very strong. In fact, the film opens with a five-minute prologue, focusing on a soldier Heinrich, the trenches, having to go over the top, wounded, killed – and, in a later sequence, a large group of women at sewing machines, mending the uniforms damaged in warfare, the audience glimpsing Heinrich’s name.

However, the film recreates the atmosphere of 1917, but, and this is a challenge for non-German audiences, to see a lot of familiar episodes, trenches, advancing in the open, deaths and woundings, but not from the point of view of the British or the French, but of the German experience of the war. Many of the experiences, wounding and death are similar, but the audience has to make the adjustment of looking at everything from the German point of view.

There is the enthusiasm of the young men, students, workers, listening to a patriotic appeal for enlisting, their willingly doing so, getting their uniforms, going to war – but very soon experiencing the realities, harsh, medicos, the dead, the officers, marching through the battlefields, taking up their positions in the trenches, going over the top.

The focus is on Paul, Felix Kammerer, wanting to go to war, expecting Germany to win, serving on the Western front, occupied France, expecting to march into Paris. There are scenes with him and his close friends, bonding with them, undergoing the first shocks of life in the trenches, seeing friends wounded, the dead.

The action moves then to November 8th, 1918, official German discussions about the end of the war, officials knowing that the end was near, the issue of an armistice and conditions, and the pride of the German military, especially as a gun-ho general whose father fought under Bismarck, who has no conception of defeat or concessions, who cruelly and arrogantly sends the young man on a final attack three hours before the armistice holds, deaths and chaos for both Germans and French. At the centre of the negotiations is the mild-mannered Matthias Erzberger, played with dignity and patience by Daniel Bruehl. He has to negotiate with Field Marshall Foch who has memories of previous defeats by the Germans, some powerful sequences on a train, discussions, translations, nuances, and the signing of the armistice.

This version brings home the horrors of war, a terrible sequence where a crowd of young recruits a gassed but take off their masks too soon and all die. The hungry German soldiers steal geese from a farm, later stealing eggs, which leads to death. There is the pathos of Paul reading a letter to his friend Kat, who can’t read, from his wife. There is pathos in the fatal 11^th of November attack and his assisting a Frenchman to die, promising to contact his wife.

Which means then this is a vivid war film but also a film of characters, relationships, sadness and pathos, heroism, as well as the impact of the defeat on Germany, the resignation of the Kaiser, and the armistice.

And, all the while, the audience knowing that within 21 years, the world will be at war again.

1. The status of the novel? The 1930 film version? 1979 film version? The status of this film, nominations and awards?
2. Audience awareness of World War I, the Western front, occupied France, the trenches, the open fields, the frontline and it scarcely moving over the four years of fighting? The background of government, military command, medicos, hospitals?
3. Non-German audiences having to adjust, the familiarity with the watching French and British troops in the trenches with the Germans as enemies? The reversal of perspectives?
4. The setting, 1917-1918, the German towns, the battlefields, the trenches and life in the trenches, fighting, weapons, gas, woundings and deaths?
5. 1918, the end of the war, German capitulation, French demands, negotiations for the armistice? The signing? The hours before its coming into force, the German general, arrogance, memories, not capitulating, sending the men into a final attack? The casualties on both sides?
6. The prologue, Heinrich, ordinary soldier, in the trenches, in the fields, deaths? Setting the scene – and the later sequence of the women sewing and the label on his uniform?
7. Paul’s story and experience of war, based on the novels author? Age? Family background? Studies? His friends? Listening to the inspiring speech, their enthusiasm, and listing, the uniforms, zest? On the train? Their having to stop, the reality of the war, the doctors and medicos, the bodies, the officers, marching?
8. Paul, sequences with his friends, jovial, but the fighting, wounding, Albert? The bond with Franz? The friendship with Kat, different background, shared experiences in the trenches, the scene with Paul reading the letter, Kat and his hopes? Kopp, his personality, friendship? The details of their interactions and their experience of war?
9. Paul, initial apprehensions, in the trenches, over the top, seeing companion shot, on the battlefield, dangers, rescues?
10. The sequence of the young recruits, the gas attack, their masks, their dead bodies in the hall, taking their masks of too early?
11. Paul fighting for a year, 1917? The repercussions for him, for the others?
12. 1918, moving to the end of the war, the hardships of the soldiers, the episode of stealing the geese? The later stealing of the eggs, Paul locked in, escaping, his friend, the young boy, shooting him, Paul carrying him back, already dead?
13. The wounded, Paul visiting, Tjaden, wounded leg, not wanting amputation, her bringing the double helping of food, his stabbing his neck with the fork, his dying?
14. The background of the armistice, Erzberger and his commission, a quiet personality, understanding the situation, the discussions with the generals, their reluctance to capitulate? The train journey? The luxuries on the train? Meeting with the French, the translators, Field Marshall Foch, the terms of the armistice, 72 hours, Erzberger wanting a cessation of hostilities during that period? The final meeting, the documents, the signing, the reluctant general? The attitude of the French? Past memories of German defeats in the 19^th century?
15. The German general, his assistant, the discussions, the assistant to return home to a job, making saddles? The general and his memories, his father fighting for Bismarck, not wanting to capitulate, assembling the recruits, sending them into the final attack? His being alone at the time of the armistice?
16. Paul, with the recruits, going into battle once again, the repetition of the battlefield warfare, his being injured, in the trenches, the French soldier, stabbing him and his reaction to his dying, eventually helping him, the photo of his wife, the Frenchman’s death?
17. Paul, death, stabbed just before the end of the war, seeing him propped up in the trench, the final image of war for the ordinary soldier?
18. The young recruit, collecting the medals from those who have died?
19. The armistice, the Kaiser resigning, the new government, and the fact that the world would be at war 21 years later.