Netflix's redemption: All Quiet on the Western Front (2022)

     Finally finished this film and what can I say? Netflix, I'm impressed! So, All Quiet on the Western Front (2022), was it really that good to deserve a BAFTA award? Spoilers!

    Short summary: The film follows a young man named Paul who starts off with big dreams of serving his country in WWI. Unfortunately, his new life is not what he expected it to be and he must fight not to win the war, but to survive.

    After the absolutely saddening The Empress, I had doubts about whether to watch this film or not so I gave it a shot. Brilliant choice, brilliant!

    So as you've seen in the summary the film is basically about WWI which is a very interesting subject many people don't talk of. The First World War represented an important event which changed the world significantly. WWI was also the first 'modern' war which represented a change from the traditional wars. That's why the film already succeeds with the setting but achieves almost perfect historical accuracy.

    Never thought I might say this about a Netflix film, yet here we are. The shots do a brilliant job of displaying the hardships of life in war. You get to learn that for example, men didn't really know what they were fighting for in the first place (this is absolutely true). Or another example is that new recruits were often taught how to fire a weapon on the way to the battlefield without any prior experience. You get to see the extremely unsanitary conditions German soldiers had to live in, you get to see the lack of food and of course, the horror many had to endure.

    Everything that we see on screen is well-placed and accurate, from the outfits to the characters' emotions and feelings. And speaking of emotions, I think the cast did a brilliant job and they truly deserved every award they got, they were able to show empathy, relief and fear, all mixed together in a perfect way.

    Another aspect of the movie that I enjoyed was the involvement of things that actually made WWI 'modern'. Basically what I'm talking about is the way they introduced the tank for example. Back in 1914, the machine gun was considered a new thing, but the Brits had other plans. They came up with a series of tanks. the most well-known being the Mark line. The German soldiers had no idea what was waiting for them. 

https://www.landships.info/landships/tank_articles

    The film is sad, it is depressing in fact, heck the ending is just too sad. It's horrible to think that Paul was killed at the last moment. Btw none of the main characters survives. 

    In the end, I give the film a 9.8 out of 10 overall because it had almost no background context about the placement in time (they didn't specify the years and battles), and a 10 out of 10 for historical accuracy. And with that my extended German period drama marathon ends and I'm heading back to classic English.