A German war action drama; A story about a young German soldier's terrifying experiences and distress on the Western Front during World War I. With a theme on War is hell, this adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque's German novel establishes an antiwar message effectively and in a gruesome way. It stages the battle scenes and scenes of horror with an intimacy which seeks maximum impact though it is at the expense of character development. It attempts to heighten the sense of a generation tragically lost, the moments of comradeship and small moments of beauty but without adding anything new. As an adaptation of Remarque's novel it is very accomplished but it is very conscious of its budget and material with sweeping camerawork and digital mastery that occasionally draws attention to itself. As an aside, the original film All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) had a superior narrative in the way it carefully built up the contrast between the soldier expectations and the reality of what they then encountered when arriving at the battle.
Review of All Quiet on the Western Front
