Im Westen nichts Neues/All Quiet on the Western Front

Hi,

as my friend, @trumpman, made the review for Im Westen nichts Neues in this post, I had to watch the film.

As I'm sick in bed, it was the perfect opportunity to turn the TV on and get a Netflix account from a friend and watch it.

The film, as an anti-war film, with German DNA, is real good. As fiction, not as real facts, as there are some things that are mismatching with history and war setup. Also, it does not follow the book by Erich Maria Remarque, as it plays out differently. The character build is better in the book, as it describes better, the why and how. Here I would comment, that the finish in the book, is much more deep, from every point of view. In the film, the death of Paul Bäumer, the main character, is somehow stupid. In the book, Paul dies, in silence, alone, after a gas poison attack. I think if you watch the film, read the book. That is an anti-war manifesto.

As a fun fact, Paul Bäumer, not the character in the book, was the most successful German war pilot in the first world war. Also, the so-called villain, General Friedrichs has a counterpart in real life, General Erich Ludendorff, who actually blamed the communist/socialist for losing the war, but was against losing troops and would not have done such a pointless move.

Now back to the film, it is well build, it is surrounded all the time by the sadness and ugliness of war. That it is not historical accurate, does not matter, it sends the message what it wants to send.

Why I say that it is not historical accurate? Well, the trenches have been very well build by the Germans, and mostly would have flooring for faster move, also the barbed wire would be other setup and most important, the mindless running in masses was a century before. Now, with machine guns and grenades, it did not make any sense. Also, the French army stopped using flamethrowers after 1916.

Like already said, this film is a pleasant surprise on Netflix, first because it is real good, second, no wokeism in. It is worth watching, in original tone, with subtitles.