Directed by : Edward Berger

When you're starving, you'll do anything.

Felix Kammerer and Albrecht Schuch in a still from 'All Quiet on the Western Front'

Spoilers ahead..


Adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque novel published in 1929, the story is about German Soldier Paul Baumer (Felix Kammerer) and his friends - Albert Kropp (Aaron Hilmer), Franz Muller (Moritz Klaus) and Ludwig Behm (Adrian Grunewald), all of whom volunteer themselves to be part of the World War 1. Later on, they are joined by experienced Stanislaus Katczinsky (Albrecht Schuch) who help in their survival time and again. 

The sub-plot of Matthias Erzberger (Daniel Bruhl) trying to negotiate an armistice with French General Ferdinand Foch (Thibault de Montalembert), goes in total conflict with  German General Friedrichs (Devid Striesow) who wants one final strike before the ceasefire time given 11am. 

I haven't seen too many war movies mostly because I don't enjoy watching them. 'Dunkirk' and 'Hacksaw Ridge' comes to my mind immediately as the ones that I did like a lot. I don't believe in war that results in killing of uncountable innocent lives and for many soldiers ruins their lives even if they return back alive. Even in the film we see Kat say the very same thing when he tells Paul how he would rather prefer to stay at war place with him instead of going back to his wife and live that normal life again.

This is a very brutal and relentless take on the reality of war seen through the perspective of Paul who in excitement (like his friends and many others) volunteer to show-off their patriotism for their country, but it takes very little time when they are walking into the war zone to realize the suffering they are about to undergo day by day. Many times I felt grasping for breathe, both the violence and the runtime of 2hrs28 mins amounting to that. 

How true the movie is I can't really say, as I haven't read the novel, nor seen the 1930's version of the story and also when it comes to history of World War I, I have been a sleeping student during school days so I know nothing apart from the simple fact that we have had 2 World Wars so far. 

This is a movie I feel won't look good to those people too who for very small reasons start shouting 'We should go to war' (I am pointing to our own news channels). In the movie, we see how brave the soldiers are but at same time we also see how some feel scared or vulnerable not knowing which moment will bring their death. There's a scene where one of the teenager is so scared that he just wanna go back to his normal life, but its too late for it. 

There are some standout scenes and some are really tough to watch too, like Paul stuck in the bomb crater with French Soldier where from being the killer (he had to do it to save his life), he shows humanity in trying to rescue him without success. There's the tank that crushes through a soldier's body, the use of flamethrowers to burn so many soldiers to death and those scenes of soldiers running to not get hit by the airplane bombs. 

I cared for the deaths of Kat and Paul, maybe that's why they are killed very last. You could feel how unlucky they were, yea maybe Kat brought it on himself for the un-necessary urge of going to the farm to get the goose when the war was over which he would had got at home. But, Paul was just 15 minutes away from survival, yet at the very last minute he dies. 

I certainly felt there was need of more character developments, so that we felt more sympathy for the many deaths that happens. Maybe the time constrain was the issue. I did like the use of drums at some places in the sound editing. 

Overall, All Quiet on the Western Front should work for the people who enjoy watching violent war based movies. I didn't really love it, but can't deny it's a well made film. 

My Rating : 6/10