Review of All Quiet on the Western Front (2022) by Sourramen — 20 May 2023

Though I was half-asleep watching the film for the first time, the odd perspective the film took led me to read the book. The book is one of my favourites of all time, how Paul and many of his friends in the war fall disconnected from violence, separating themselves from other germans.

How he loses everything on a day so insignificant in the war. Though he and the other soldiers think otherwise, they are still bound by a humanity, how a futile and personal death can still be so heartbreaking.

I then rewatched the film, making sure that I was wide awake. Despite the slowness of the film, mimicking the pace of the book, It lands so perfectly. It's not trying to shove violence down your throat like many other war films, it's depicting the suffering war induces.

many say that All Quiet on the Western Front is a pro-war film, it's not. The happiness the soldiers emit while talking together is later ripped apart by the suffering of the war. A scenic film, depicting the tragedy and suffering the First World War could lay upon even the most disconnected soldiers shaped by the war.