Photo Courtesy of Netflix
Cinematography: 9.6/10
Costumes: 9/10
Sets: 9.8/10
Acting: 9.6/10
Special Effects: 9/10
Character development: 9/10
“All Quiet on the Western Front”, directed by Edward Berger, is a war drama that takes place during World War I from the perspective of young German men recruited to join the war under false pretenses. The film is rated R for strong, bloody war violence and grisly images.
The character development in “All Quiet on the Western Front” is extremely well done. The film follows seventeen year old main character, Paul, played by Felix Kammerer. At the start, Paul was recruited as a naive teenager influenced by peer pressure and the glorification of trench warfare. Throughout the film, from the moment he enters the trenches until the end of the war, his perspective of the army, trench warfare and his country changes. This is clear through the writing as well as the acting. The movie is incredibly realistic, and you genuinely will feel like you are in the trenches amidst World War I. It’s horrifying, petrifying and gruesome. The battle scenes themselves are overwhelmingly chaotic, and at times it was unbearable to watch. The cinematography and acting paired together seamlessly to create a very moving film. The angles, for example, used to show power dynamics between different characters. In the negotiation scenes especially, different angles are employed as the two sides attempt to reach an agreement. Lower angles show more power, and higher angles make characters look smaller and weaker. Framing, lighting and sound are all used to further convey the power of cinematography. In the final shot, for example, the use of framing, light and shadows are implemented to form a really powerful scene when one character (no spoilers!) dies. In addition, sound effects bring the battle to a new level of realism as those little details truly make a gruesome battle scene even more somber. In this, we believe the film has truly earned its R rating.
In addition to accurately portraying the horrifying reality of trench warfare, the film was well balanced in the amounts of time spent in and out of the trenches. As people who do not particularly enjoy graphic war scenes, we would have preferred less time in the trenches as there was not much dialogue between characters. However, the contrast shown between peacetime and wartime is excellent as it provides depth to individualize each character and show who they really are apart from the fighting.
However, the script is not as complex and interesting as it needs to be to win an Oscar, as it is made up of a majority of non dialogue war scenes. It is also difficult to gauge how well the writing is when the film was written in German and dubbed over in English. Nonetheless, there were a few lines in particular that stuck out. At the very start of the film, for example, the man recruiting young men to join the army says, “the Kaiser needs soldiers, not children.” in addition to, “it is never about the individual soldier, our only care is for the entirety of the body”. Additionally, the sets and costumes felt very true to the time period. It set the stage completely for the plot of the film. I also really appreciated the information and statistics on the war provided at the end of the film.
Overall, “All Quiet on the Western Front” was supremely well done, however it was long and had very little dialogue as it spent a little too much time in the trenches. One of the reasons why we think this movie was very popular was that it portrayed a different perspective on World War I that has never really been explored before in film, other than the original film of “All Quiet on the Western Front” in 1929. While I do not think the film will win Best Picture, I think it is a strong contender for Best Cinematography and also Best International Feature Films. Normally, I hate war movies. I hate gruesome battle scenes. I hate intense violence, blood and gore. And yet somehow I didn’t hate this.
