All Quiet on the Western Front (2022) Film Review
It’s very hard to remember a war movie that isn’t technically anti-war. When portraying this horrific and seemingly civilized practice, the tendency in modern society is to repeat some criticism every few decades. Haven’t we learned something from decades of successful cinema that reflects the terror of conflicts? It seems that cinema is not as widely present as we thought, and superheroes and villains are still more popular than faithful reproductions of the conflicts from which we as a society survived.
Let’s add a pebble to the shoes of the 2023 Oscars. Directed Edward Berger, Silence on the Western Front This is the third time Erich Maria Remarque’s book has been adapted for the big screen, and it’s definitely the best. The 1930 classic stands on its own, but Berger has done a great job of portraying the broken ideals of the book while achieving an extraordinarily technical film that puts the best of the genre aside in cinematic history. Silence on the Western Front undoubtedly one of the best movies of 2022 and one of the best war movies of all time.
The story is the same as you know. It’s the story of 17-year-old Paul, who dreams of going to war after listening to a speech about their school with some of his friends. The next day they join a German company stationed in France. Paul’s ideals begin to shatter when he realizes that the uniform he was given belongs to someone else. This is the beginning of Paul’s frantic descent into the horrors of a war that Germany has no way of winning. A few hours later, an attack leaves Paul friendless and mortally wounded on the Western Front behind God’s back.
Silence on the Western Front not much more than that. It’s a play about the effects of armed conflict and how nations deal with youth horribly. We are sent to war as meat that will serve as a shield. More and more people are coming after us and the horror will never stop. In several scenes, Paul runs across the trench and shoots at whoever is on the other side, but it’s not really clear who is actually there. Fire at an enemy who doesn’t care. Why is Paul struggling? Who is he protecting?
You will ask yourself why it doesn’t stop and becomes more and more a tool of a nation. But the film keeps answering this, as Paul observes the deepest dynamics of a society that fought because it simply had to. The last image perfectly reflects such a nerve-wracking thought process. Paul goes on and on when Germany has already surrendered, following the orders of a rogue commander who simply refused to give up. I won’t spoil the movie, but there’s nothing good about Paul’s cold-blooded and nonchalant attitude.
These are just a few arguments that I feel are related, but Silence on the Western Front a movie experience that everyone must watch again and again because of today’s social dynamics and humanity on the brink of modern warfare.
Founder of Screentology. Member of OFCS. RT rated critic
Dog daddy.