All Quiet on the Western Front
Year: 2022
Rating: R
Length: 148 minutes / 2.46 hours
There has been a trend in recent years of remaking films that had previously been nominated for the Oscar for Best Picture. Movies like A Star is Born (2018) didn’t win the highest prize in previous years like West Side Story (2021) did in 1961. The latest in these remakes is All Quiet on the Western Front (2022), a German-language film based on the 1929 book of the same name that had a Best Picture-winning adaptation in 1930. And while visually beautiful, I think this new version misses parts of what made the 1930 version stand out.
I’ll admit that I haven’t read the book these movies were adapting. However, there was a powerful message that the 1930 version conveyed that was missing in this newer version. Both successfully showed that war is hell and completely pointless for those fighting on the front lines. And while the 2022 adaptation made the horrors of World War I trench warfare much more cinematic, there wasn’t that much character growth for the main character. Sure, he becomes jaded from the experiences he endured. However, he then could not pass these lessons on to the young boys who were so blinded by propaganda as he was when he joined.
Perhaps this is my main qualm with the 2022 version: emphasizing the pointlessness of war. While I agree with this statement, the approach was heavy-handed. Through expertly shot scenes and an ominous, earworm-worthy three-tone sound, it gave the audience a front-row seat to all that’s wrong with war. But this analysis hasn’t changed in the almost 100 years since the original adaptation won Best Picture. What makes this observation more meaningful is when the characters push back against the pointlessness. When they help others break the cycle of propaganda to reveal the true cost of war.
A visually stunning but somewhat hollow adaptation from a century ago, I give All Quiet on the Western Front 3.0 stars out of 5.
