We may believe we’ve seen it all when it comes to war movies, but every year a new film arrives to remind us that there are so many varied perspectives on the experience of war because of the wide variety of people involved. This is reinforced even further in the latest promotional material for All Quiet on the Western Front on Netflix. The military drama, which had a limited theatrical run (hoping for Oscar nominations) and screened at many film festivals, will debut on Netflix next week. The German trailer reveals that, although being based on already filmed source material, the film goes out of its way to aesthetically and narratively differentiate itself from other war films.
All by itself, the film’s cinematography and some truly breathtaking sights, like a tank crossing the trenches, make it an absolute must-see. Meanwhile, the teaser demonstrates that the film will depict the gruesome realities of battle, with troops urgently battling for their own existence, as promised. Director Edward Berger said in an exclusive interview that another theme explored in the film is the process by which soldiers are conditioned to suppress their feelings and become lethal killing robots. It looks like All Quiet on the Western Front is going to be a great film. Rotten Tomatoes has given it a 93% approval rating, and critic Maggie Lovitt called it “a welcome departure” from recent war movies because it presents a story with “no positive outcome on the horizon,” which only makes its impact more devastating and shows that “nationalism only kills for the glory of the ego.”
Edward Berger, a director nominated for an Emmy, has directed episodes of shows including Patrick Melrose, The Terror, and Your Honor. Berger co-wrote the script with first-time feature picture writers Lesley Paterson and Ian Stokell. The plot was adapted from Erich Maria Remarque’s 1929 novel, which was then made into a film in the 1930s and a highly regarded TV movie in 1979. Felix Kammerer, Albrecht Schuch, Aaron Hilmer, Moritz Klaus, Edin Hasanovic, Adrian Grünewald, Thibault De Montalembert, Daniel Brühl, and Devid Striesow are all included in the cast. Released in theatres today, All Quiet on the Western Front will make its streaming debut on Netflix on October 28.
Synopsis
In “All Quiet on the Western Front,” author Erich Maria Remarque narrates the engrossing narrative of Paul, a young German soldier on the Western Front of World War I, and his fellow soldiers as they struggle for survival and each other among the horrors of battle. The film by Edward Berger is based on Erich Maria Remarque’s best-selling novel of the same name.