Oscar Season: All Quiet On The Western Front (Netflix, 2022)
The German First World War movie All Quiet On The Western Front made history this week by scoring nine Oscar nominations. And yes, it deserves everyone of them.
The film by writer-director Edward Berger was not only nominated for Best Picture, but also for (deep breath), Adapted Screenplay, Music (Original Score), Production Design, Cinematography, Makeup & Hairstyling, Sound and Visual Effects. And, of course, it was also nominated in the category for Best International Film.
It is the third nomination for Germany in the International Feature Film category in the last ten years. And the first German film to enter the race in the Best Film category.
This is all very well, but is the movie any good? The answer is: yes, absolutely!
Based on the famous anti-war novel by Erich Philippe Remarque from 1928, the movie tells the devastating story of a young German soldier sent to the Western Front of the First World War.
One of the reasons the story has stuck a chord with so many is that it is based on Remarque’s own experiences as a soldier in the war.
Main character Paul (Felix Kammerer) and his comrades experience first-hand how war is not just a matter of life and death, but also of fear and suffering, coupled with long stretches of boredom.
The action scenes are very impressive, but the quieter scenes are disturbing as well, showing how the soldiers try to bring some normalcy into their lives while waiting for the next battle. Slowly but surely they lose their humanity, til they are battle hardened fighting machines.
There is one gripping scene where Paul has to engage in hand to hand combat with a French soldier, which is reminiscent of a similar scene in Saving Private Ryan by Steven Spielberg.
At other times the movie reminded by of other classics like Paths of Glory by Stanley Kubrick and also the more recent 1917 by Sam Mendes.
Like all of the above, it’s powerful cinema.
The central theme of the movie is that war only benefits the powerful. For the ordinary folk, with their boots in the mud, it’s just death and devastation. Or, at best, a living hell.
There may be wars worth fighting, like the Second World War or the current war in Ukraine, but even they are the results of conflicts between world leaders that the common man has no influence over.
The opening scene of the movie shows how cynical war is. A young soldier, Heinrich, scared out of his wits, is sent into certain death.
A couple of scenes later, our protagonist Paul, checks out his uniform and notices a label with Heinrich’s name on it. When Paul asks for an explanation he is told that the uniform was simply too small for the other soldier.
Before that, we are shown how Paul and three friends are drafted to enlist in the German army: by their charismatic university professor who is very good at selling them the lie that they will become heroes and that their country will be proud of them.
Pretty soon the first of the group of friends is reduced to shrapnel and over the course over the movie it becomes very clear that, apart from their immediate family, nobody really had a clue what happens in the trenches. To most people, all was indeed quiet on the western front.
To be fair, the story already has a history with the Academy. The first film adaptation was produced in Hollywood in 1929, at a time when Hollywood was quickly becoming a safe haven for many artists fleeing Europe. The film went on to receive two Oscars: best film, and best director, to Lewis Milestone.
There is also a TV movie, from 1979 by Delbert Mann, which won a couple of Emmy Awards.
What makes this new version special is that it is the first German language adaptation of Remarque’s literary masterpiece.
And yes, fortunately, this new movie lives up to its expectations and shows us once again how timeless this story is.
All Quiet On The Western Front had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 12, 2022. It has been available worldwide on Netflix since October 28, 2022 where it is in the streamer’s global Top 10 of non-English titles.
Apart from the Oscar noms the movie has received numerous international awards, including two European Film Awards 2022, the award for Best Adapted Screenplay from the National Board of Review, a Golden Globes nomination in the category for Best Picture – Non-English Language. The film is now leading the field at the BAFTA Awards in London with 14 nominations.
The winners of the Oscars will be announced by in Hollywood on 12 March, 2023.