Erich Maria Remarque’s great novel was turned into a harrowing 1930 film – but the rising Nazi Party couldn’t stand its anti-war message
In December 1930, Joseph Goebbels led an attack against the landmark anti-war film, All Quiet on the Western Front. Based on the controversial, hugely successful novel by Erich Maria Remarque, a First World War veteran, it depicts the bleak, traumatising reality for Germans in the trenches. In the story, a group of school chums enlist – all hyped up on the glory of war – and perish one-by-one.
The American-made film, directed by the Russian-born Lewis Milestone, was critically acclaimed in the United States, Britain, and France; by the time it reached Germany, All Quiet on the Western Front had won Academy Awards for Outstanding Production and Best Director.
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Netflix’s German-language All Quiet on the Western Front is a haunting revelation
The First World War is reimagined as a symphony of mud, teen angst and terrible beauty in All Quiet on the Western Front, Edward Berger’s stunning German-language retelling of Erich Maria Remarque’s anti-war novel. As with Lewis Milestone’s 1930 Hollywood adaptation, it faithfully communicates Remarque’s message about the futility of the conflict. To this Berger adds production values that have the blood-in-ears rush of a hyper-stylised video game. Violence may be hell, but Berger bathes it in a pulsating shimmer. Oh, what a lovely-looking war he has conjured.
