All Quiet On The Western Front (2022)

My quick rating - 7.6/10. Time to get to this year's Oscar nominations for best picture. I have already reviewed Top Gun, so that leaves 9 more to get to reviewing (8 more to watch). It isn't an easy task to make you feel actually empathetic towards German soldiers, but this movie does about as good a job at that as can be possible. Director Edward Berger is able to capture what I would think is a very real transition from being patriotic for the cause of fighting for your country to the horrifying reality that war is hell, no matter whose side you are on. Even though this is a remake that I cannot compare to, on its own, it is still a stark anti-war movie, and the original story is still a first of its kind. I am sure I lost plenty in dubbing, especially from the acting standpoint, but it was still quite powerful. Seeing the way war is in a non-glamorized fashion also helps with the realism. The soldiers here have to walk to get to the battles, and walk to wherever there may be food and shelter, etc. There aren't vehicles dragging them from place to place as we think of it now. A good portion of this movie is the things you see before hitting the front lines. Training, walking, and stealing food were all part of leading up to the nightmares of the trench warfare that was upcoming. Then we are taken straight into a style of combat where just poking your head up gets it shot square. Everything looks accurate to someone who is not a WWI buff by any means, so I am sure historians can make far better assessments of that aspect, but it sure looked solid. Scenes at times were scaled out to show the expanse of the lines in the field of battle spanning for miles, and just two sides gunning at each other. Back then, running across a single tank was a spectacle of fear for the soldiers to overcome. There are a couple of truly memorable scenes in this one, and being spoiler-free, I won't go further, but ONE in particular is such a haunting reality of war. That enemy vs enemy when you don't even know why you are fighting. That scene is captured so well and sticks out as one major highlight in a flick that is definitely deserving of the Oscar nomination. I'll leave it at that since I like to keep it short, and far better expertise can give you even greater insight into the realism of this flick if you search it out.

This one is exclusive to Netflix so you know what that means.

All Quiet On The Western Front (2022)

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