I watched this last night after much anticipation. I was fairly quickly surprised by how soon in the film we got to the front.
Where was the schoolroom and Baumer looking out of the window, daydreaming and sketching?
Where was the baiting of the postman (to become training corporal) Himmelstoss?
Where was the training, the mud field, the bullying by Himmelstoss? Kemmerich's boots getting passed from man to man as the owners died. The visit home and Paul's realisation that his family and home was now the front.
We didn't really get to know the boys.
The actual war stuff is impressive and I would imagine it was reasonably realistic (I wasn't at Western Front myself) but there wasn't actually much of a story, it was just war for war's sake, but maybe that was the point?
It did borrow a couple of bits from the novel, Paul's stabbing the French soldier then his regret over it, the crippled soldier in hospital trying to kill himself, but then Kat's death? No, not like that, Kat was a hardened, wiley experienced soldier, he'd not have been caught out like that and it is unlikely they would have been unarmed in that situation.
It is good the way that they work the story in to the last hours of the war but that is missing the whole point of AQOTWF.
The point is that when Paul dies (either reaching for the butterfly or trying to sketch the bird as in the previous versions, I can't remember how EMR wrote it in the book) it isn't the end of the war, it is just another day during the war.
The communique at the end of those earlier versions says simply "all quiet on the Western Front" and the point is a man has just died but as far as anyone is concerned there's nothing going on, its just another day the same as those before and those to follow. That is the poignancy of Paul's death and the example of how worthless life had become.
This new version misses that point with its last set piece battle in the few minutes before armistice at 11am on November 11th 1918. Paul heroically (albeit reluctantly) going over the top one last time and dying fighting in a trench, Remarque wrote the death of Baumer as futile and pointless whilst he was just trying to snatch a moment of normality, a moment of his carefree previous existence.
This doesn't mean the film is without merit, it really did happen that there were flurries of intense fighting and killing in the last few hours of the war, this wasn't some made up idea to add extra drama, which in itself is a sad indictment of humanity.
This was a brilliant, thought provoking, stunning film that during its course borrowed some bits from All Quiet On The Western Front... but it wasn't All Quiet On The Western Front.
Where was the schoolroom and Baumer looking out of the window, daydreaming and sketching?
Where was the baiting of the postman (to become training corporal) Himmelstoss?
Where was the training, the mud field, the bullying by Himmelstoss? Kemmerich's boots getting passed from man to man as the owners died. The visit home and Paul's realisation that his family and home was now the front.
We didn't really get to know the boys.
The actual war stuff is impressive and I would imagine it was reasonably realistic (I wasn't at Western Front myself) but there wasn't actually much of a story, it was just war for war's sake, but maybe that was the point?
It did borrow a couple of bits from the novel, Paul's stabbing the French soldier then his regret over it, the crippled soldier in hospital trying to kill himself, but then Kat's death? No, not like that, Kat was a hardened, wiley experienced soldier, he'd not have been caught out like that and it is unlikely they would have been unarmed in that situation.
It is good the way that they work the story in to the last hours of the war but that is missing the whole point of AQOTWF.
The point is that when Paul dies (either reaching for the butterfly or trying to sketch the bird as in the previous versions, I can't remember how EMR wrote it in the book) it isn't the end of the war, it is just another day during the war.
The communique at the end of those earlier versions says simply "all quiet on the Western Front" and the point is a man has just died but as far as anyone is concerned there's nothing going on, its just another day the same as those before and those to follow. That is the poignancy of Paul's death and the example of how worthless life had become.
This new version misses that point with its last set piece battle in the few minutes before armistice at 11am on November 11th 1918. Paul heroically (albeit reluctantly) going over the top one last time and dying fighting in a trench, Remarque wrote the death of Baumer as futile and pointless whilst he was just trying to snatch a moment of normality, a moment of his carefree previous existence.
This doesn't mean the film is without merit, it really did happen that there were flurries of intense fighting and killing in the last few hours of the war, this wasn't some made up idea to add extra drama, which in itself is a sad indictment of humanity.
This was a brilliant, thought provoking, stunning film that during its course borrowed some bits from All Quiet On The Western Front... but it wasn't All Quiet On The Western Front.