a review of 西线无战事

When I was around seventeen years old I read Erich Maria Remarque’s Im Westen Nichts Neues novel for my German class reading list, and I was very impressed. Remarque wrote the book based on his own experiences as a soldier in World War I. The book cemented my preference for anti-war stories. Not much later I saw the 1976 remake of the original 1930 movie adaptation, and remember finding that quite good as well. Don't know what I would think of that intermediate version nowadays though. I think the 2022 movie adaptation is very good. Loved the direction, performances, cinematography, sets, wardrobes and the dirtiness of everything: uniforms, skins, teeth, trenches and combat. I’m very glad that this was a German production, as a Hollywood production would undoubtedly have been too slick to convincingly portray the filthiness, madness and cold indifference of war. There's only one German (anti-)war movie I think is even better: Das Boot (1981). Films like these remain important, as even more than a hundred years after World War I, stupid people still start wars. Added to my list of all-time favorite movies: https://letterboxd.com/metinseven/list/my-all-time-favorite-movies/