Film Review: "All Quiet on the Western Front" ("Im Westen nichts Neues") (2022).

From the director of All My Loving (Geschwister) comes All Quiet on the Western Front (Im Westen nichts Neues). This German anti-war epic directed by Edward Berger, adapted by Berger, Ian Stokell and Lesley Paterson, and based on the 1929 novel of the same title by Erich Maria Remarque. The film tells the gripping story of a young German soldier on the Western Front of World War I. Paul and his comrades experience first-hand how the initial euphoria of war turns into desperation and fear as they fight for their lives, and each other, in the trenches.

In February 2020, it was announced that Berger was adapting and directing a new film adaptation of Remarque's 1929 literary classic with Daniel Brühl attached to star. This film has been in development hell for several years. Mimi Leder and Roger Donaldson were originally attached to direct with Stokell and Paterson penning the adaptation. Travis Fimmel was attached to star as Stanislaus Katczinsky. By March 2021, Felix Kammerer, Albrecht Schuch, Thibault de Montalembert, and Devid Striesow were cast. At the same time, principal photography commenced and wrapped in May. Filming took place throughout Liberec Region, Melnik and Nymburk District, Czech Republic, as well as Barrandov Studios in Prague.

The film stars Kammerer, Schuch, de Montalembert, Striesow, and Brühl. While in some ways the film speaks the visual language of a current-day glossy Hollywood production, the performances elevate the film to almost operatic drama.

With the film, Berger takes his audience on a perilous journey driven by a simple but tightly-wound story soaked in an unending tension. It’s a harrowing tale of heroism, friendship, and sacrifice. The filmmakers have taken a simple premise and gone with a "less is more" tactic. This allows for more focus on a beautifully shot film, and highlights the actors who give their all emotionally and physically. The film can safely be added to the list of movies that have expanded and enhanced our understanding of how truly brutal war can be. The film , under the talented hands of Berger, is one of the best war movies ever made and one of the best of 2022. Berger's quiet WWII epic is a cinematic masterpiece, a near perfect war film that appeals to even those of us who don't particularly enjoy war movies. To put it even simpler, this film is bananas. War is hell and Berger's hell is quiet and real and intimate and suspenseful and you feel it in your bones long after you exit your Netflix account. When the soldiers struggle through near-darkness in a collapsing tunnel, we suffocate with them. When a plane plunges from the sky towards them, it's an almighty effort not to leap from your seat. Although the film will not change your life, there's no doubt it's an audiovisual spectacle of the highest order. A cinematic experience that shakes my sensations at the time it moves me to the hell of a war that is constantly threatened by light and darkness.

Simon says All Quiet on the Western Front (Im Westen nichts Neues) receives: