All Quiet on the Western Front (2022 film)

English dubbing

The English version was produced by Liquid Violet in London. James Daniel Wilson adapted the script and directed the dubbing.

Development

Writers Lesley Paterson and Ian Stokell spent 16 years bringing their film project to fruition. They initially obtained an option for the film rights to the book in 2006 but faced challenges in securing funding for both the film's production and the annual option renewal, which cost between $10,000 and $15,000. In a resourceful attempt to raise funds, Paterson participated in XTERRA triathlons starting in 2011, ultimately winning the top prize of $20,000. This allowed her to maintain the option by winning five triathlon world championships over the years. Paterson and Stokell estimated that they spent approximately $200,000 to preserve the option during the 16-year period.^[11] The film was eventually announced in February 2020 with Edward Berger directing and Daniel Brühl as part of the ensemble cast.^[12]

Filming

Principal photography began on 9 March 2021 in Prague, Czech Republic, and lasted 55 days.^[3][13] The film cost $20 million.^[2]

Cinematographer James Friend worked closely with another DP, wildlife cameraman Rob Hollingworth, in order to capture the fox sequence in the beginning of the film. "We had to essentially put a pregnant fox in a purpose-built den that was designed for shooting with camera traps. The fox then gave birth to the cubs in this den and that turned into what you saw on camera...The only way to get those shots is basically to raise the cubs in the environment in which you're filming them, so the mother and the cubs feel completely at home. Then, if a probe lens comes in to get a closeup of a cub or the mom, they're already used to it by that stage. Essentially, we wanted it to look like a David Attenborough piece and not like a movie."^[14]

Critical reception

James Friend's cinematography and Volker Bertelmann's score received widespread praise and earned them numerous accolades, including the awards for Best Cinematography and Best Original Score, respectively, at the 95th Academy Awards.

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 90% of 165 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.1/10. The website's consensus reads: "Both timely and timeless, All Quiet on the Western Front retains the power of its classic source material by focusing on the futility of war."^[21]

Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 76 out of 100, based on 37 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.^[22]

Ben Kenigsberg, writing for The New York Times, found the film to be less impressive than the 1930 version, but appreciated the pounding soundtrack. He also praised the addition of a parallel plot tracking the armistice, even if it diverged from the first person narrative of the novel. He found the tweaked fate of the characters to be narratively powerful.^[23] Jamelle Bouie in The New York Times said the 2022 version missed the essence of the novel, which is not just antiwar, but also portrays the alienation and terrible toll even on those who come home. "Remarque is not as interested in the war and geopolitics as he is in the war as human absurdity made manifest." In a sequence of the 1930 film, omitted from the 2022 film, Paul comes home on leave and can't relate to former teachers and other adults. "You still think it's beautiful and sweet to die for your country, don't you?" says Paul. "The first bombardment taught us better." According to Bouie, "The inclusion of this political subplot and the exclusion of Paul's return home transforms All Quiet on the Western Front from a psychological examination of the soldier's experience and a condemnation of war into a much simpler story of virtuous soldiers and cynical leaders who betrayed them."^[24]

Mark Kermode says that, although it is on Netflix, there is an excellent reason to see it in cinemas because it is "visually very, very impressive, overwhelming, and gruelling." "It is harrowing of course ... and it should be."^[25] Cultural historian Bethany Wyatt makes a case for its being the "finest First World War film to date". She claims that it "is faithful to the spirit of Remarque's novel".^[26] Wyatt says "it is difficult to match the power of the 1930 All Quiet on the Western Front's conclusion," ... "but the 2022 adaptation succeeds in crafting its own elegy for the men who did not return home."^[26]

Journalist Martin Schwickert of the RND media group called the film "frighteningly current" in light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, saying it "made plain what war means for those who have to fight it".^[27] Producer Malte Grunert said the film tells the "story of a young man who falls prey to right-wing nationalist propaganda – believing that war is an adventure, and that they are on the right side. It is a timeless story, that we now see played out live in Ukraine."^[28]

Filmmaker Kimberly Peirce praised Berger's direction, saying that he "captures the humanity of his narrative by depicting the devastating transformation of our protagonist from a godly beautiful innocent eager-to-fight young soldier to a grunt following every order still unable to stop the cascading loss of his friends, to a man unleashed, echoing the monster he was set to slay."^[29] Filmmaker Rob Marshall and actress Dolly de Leon have both cited the film as among their favorites of the 21st century.^[30]

Many German critics praised the action sequences but found fault with the film's considerable deviations from the book,^[5][31] which is required reading in many German schools.^[32] As Britain's New Statesman summarised, "...in Germany, it is seen as shallow, cynical and 'horny for Oscars'".^[33] Hubert Wetzel, writing in Süddeutsche Zeitung, criticized the film's alterations to the book stating that "you have to ask yourself whether director Berger has even read Remarque's novel". He also criticizes that Berger added characters at will, omitted central characters and scenes, and changed the ending so that the title and content no longer had any connection to each other.^[34] The film also received negative reviews from Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.^[35] Military historian Sönke Neitzel praised the battle scenes as being more historically accurate than the previous adaptations but criticized the film for depicting soldiers being shot to prevent desertion, as only 48 German soldiers were officially executed for all causes during the war.^[5]