The film, directed by Edward Berger and with Daniel Brühl in the cast, is up for the award in 9 categories.
‘All Quiet Front’ spoilers ahead!
Not even two weeks have passed since Netflix released one of his most powerful proposals of the last year: ‘All quiet on the front’. The platform’s new war movie appeared on our screens on October 28 (in Spain) and was quickly positioned as one of the titles of the Top 10 most watched Netflix movies of the moment. In addition, it has become one of the great surprises of the season, sneaking among the nominees for Best Film and among the nominees for Best International Film at the 2023 Oscars.
It’s about a remake of the 1930 film of the same name, which in its day already marked a milestone by adapting the novel (with which it also shares its name) by Erich Maria Remarque, in which brings us closer to the western front of the First World War in the first personwhere German and French troops bloodily annihilated each other for just a few meters of territory (for a reason we count it among the best movies to learn history: here you will discover what it really meant to go to war).
‘All Quiet on the Front’ has many ballots to be included among the best war films in the history of cinema, as well as among the best films of 2022. The tape is dDirected by Edward Berger and starring Felix Kammerer, Albrecht Schuch, Aaron Hilmer, Moritz Klaus, Edin Hasanovic and Sebastian Hülk. It also has Daniel Brühl in its main cast, who gives life to a decisive figure for the outcome of the war.
The film introduces us from the beginning to a group of young Germans who are preparing to enlist to go to the front. The protagonist, Paul Baumer (Felix Krammerer), does not receive the necessary family support to join the troops, but he and his friends decide to forge the document. With his phrase “I’m a dead man” (referring to the reprimand he will receive from his parents upon hearing the news), he poetically sentences the tragic fate he will find in the trenches.. There is only destruction there. The lightness and even happiness with which the group receives their uniforms and sets off into battle will soon be overshadowed by the horrors of war.
But what is it that has made it a strong bet for Netflix at the Oscars? What makes this film different from others that Netflix has released throughout 2022? Let’s see some of its strengths.
The aesthetic vision of the director
Director’s proposal Edward Berger continually marks the opposition between life and death throughout the film. The first one is so beautiful and delicate; so raw and insensitive the second. She manifests it this way through a continuous use of resource planes in which nature appears to us aesthetically impeccable.
Despite having numerous moments in which the battlefield is untenable due to its harshness, there is no shortage of moments of genuine happiness within the film. We see some human characters, who have come to this place due to political decisions that are out of their hands. Those who pay the highest price? The men who are thrown into a ditch and forced to give up their lives for “the cause”. We see the group of protagonists gather around a pot of soup, to enjoy their punctual banquet; we see the letters they receive from their loved ones; we see a woman’s scarf as a link to love and what is outside the trenches…
There is a lot of death, but a lot of life too. And there the drama of the film is forged, in which the spectator joins in a particularly close way with the protagonists. He shares her fear, her dreams and her death.
The temporality in the fight
The film traverses the last years of the war. From 1917 to November 1918. Stopping at three key moments, in which in parallel we will see the fight that took place in the offices of the Government. While the soldiers lose their lives, a group of men tries to reach the peace treaty.
After Baumer and his friends arrive at the front, Paul is tasked with collecting the dog tags of his compatriots killed in battle. Among them, just a few hours after joining the trench, one of his best friends is found dead. At the end of the movie, we see that another soldier (also a newcomer) will do the same to him.
War represented as a cycle. Baumer’s story becomes a universal account of all soldiers in World War I. Over and over again, during the years of war, 17 million people lost their lives.
The last minutes of the film focus on the attack undertaken by the Germans, forced by their superior in command, during the final quarter hour of the Great War. Having signed the peace, it would become effective at 11:00 a.m. on November 11. However, wounded by the pride of having “failed”, the general of the German troops sends them for one last blow, (so they will return home “with honor”). This absurd gesture turns the only survivors of the front into new victims.
The bitter taste of lives lost at the last moment is formed in the end. None of the members of the group, whom we knew at the beginning of the story, managed to leave the front alive. No time is spent on happy endings. Although in a few moments it seems that it will be like that, destiny quickly changes. Like life itself.
humanity at war
There are several moments in Berger’s film, in which humanity prevails over the injustice that we face. Men, muddy in the mud of death, manage to have moments of lucidity and seem not to want to be part of the hell they are shaping.
One of the most important scenes that our protagonist lives occurs in the middle of the battlefield. After having come face to face with a French soldier and having stabbed him numerous times in the chest. Moments after this, when the troops have withdrawn and the two individuals have been left lying in a hole in the ground, his awareness of his actions manifests itself. What then is your natural reaction to the enemy? Save his life.
Although it is already too late, the moans of the dying man pierce him like bullets. She then goes to plug the wounds that he himself had caused and attends his death. In the man’s pockets he finds his identification papers and a photo of his wife and his daughter. The weight of giving an identity to the person he has murdered falls like a stone on Paul and on us, who accompany him as sympathizers. The viewer is also guilty.
Baumer keeps these documents for himself, with the purpose of contacting his family when everything is over.
Previous referents
‘All Quiet on the Front’ comes not long after another great title portraying the fighting in World War I. In 2019, Sam Mendes premiered the acclaimed ‘1917’, in which he also immersed us fully in this battlefield. Accompanying, in this case, two soldiers with a mission that is almost impossible to achieve. the tape Mendes obtained 10 Oscar Award nominations and won 3 of them: Best Photography, Best Sound and Best Visual Effects. In addition to 2 Golden Globes: Best Picture and Best Director.
Both plunge us into the mud and cold of the trenches. In the most recent, only the light of the flares and the fire of the bonfires illuminate us during the dark nights. He bluntly subjects us to bullets, hacks and the terror of tanks and incendiary machines.
Undoubtedly, ‘All Quiet on the Front’ has been placed in a great place within Netflix productions. Following in the wake of previous ones such as Alfonso Cuarón’s ‘Roma’, one of the best Netflix original films, we would not be surprised if it ended up occupying a place among the nominated films for the Hollywood Academy Awards. In not too long, we will know.
‘All Quiet Ahead’ is available at streaming on Netflix.
Source: Fotogramas
Camila Luna is a writer at Gossipify, where she covers the latest movies and television series. With a passion for all things entertainment, Camila brings her unique perspective to her writing and offers readers an inside look at the industry. Camila is a graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in English and is also a avid movie watcher.
