Last night (after 4 pints of strong ale, so possibly not 100% focused) we sat down to watch Netflix’s All Quiet on the Western Front. Now I have watched the version with Jon-Boy Walton (and Ernest Bourgnine) and read the book. They both describe Paul’s journey from young student to soldier to cynical veteran - iirc. Possibly the original story created the cliche of recruit to soldier to combat seen in so many films (Full Metal Jacket etc).
The Netflix film is visually stunning in showing the horror of the First World War - but for me it was lacking something - perhaps because they ditched the training we didn’t get to know the characters, so when they were dropped into battle we didn’t care … or I didn’t. Which is a pity as obviously so much effort had gone into the production .
I found the armistice talks an irrelevance to the story of Paul and the soldiers on the front - i understand that the idea was to show the poor piece which would lead to the “stab in the back”, nazis and war. The non historical German attack on the French on the 11th November 1918 although well executed visually was nonsensical for the story and didn’t happen. And I don’t understand why writers keep thinking that they can improve on a classic by changing what made it a classic in the first place …
Rating for the film - disappointing.
Morts
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