It’s the Spring of 1917 and Germany has been at war for three years. 17-year-old Paul Bäumer (Felix Kammerer) and his three best friends—Albert Kropp (Aaron Hilmer), Franz Müller (Moritz Klaus), Ludwig Behm (Adrian Grünewald)—have heard their government’s rallying cry and are excited to go off to war and do their part serving as proud members of The Iron Youth of Germany, helping to beat the French. As the young recruits head out, they’re laughing and singing songs. However, this eagerness and joy quickly wears off as the comrades make their way to the Western Front, where they witness the realities and horrors of war first-hand. The young men now find themselves cold, dirty, and hungry, standing in rainy, mud-filled trenches. Across from them is No Man’s Land and the Allied troops. As they are ordered to climb over the wall, they are met with spraying bullets, heavy artilery, explosions and bayonettes. It feels like a fruitless effort—the line hardly moves, and more and more young soldiers end up brutally wounded or killed. And Paul must look at all of his deceased comrades as he is tasked collecting the tags from the dead bodies.
More-seasoned soldier Stanislaus Katczinsky (Albrecht Schuch), takes Paul and the other boys under his wing, giving them tips on how to make the hellish experience more bearable. When there’s a break in the fighting, the men get to spend some time in the French countryside, stealing geese from a nearby farm for food, or hitting on French farm girls who pass by. But it’s only a matter of time before this serenity is broken, they’re rushed back to the front line, and the reality of war returns. Meanwhile, German official Matthias Erzberger (Daniel Brühl) sees that tens of thousands of young German men are being needlessly killed each week, and is eager to negotiate an armistice agreement with the French. However, the Allied powers refuse any kind of temporary cease fire unless the German delegation fully agrees to their non-negotiable terms.
Directed by Edward Berger, 2022’s All Quiet on the Western Front is the latest adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s 1928 novel of the same name. The film recently took home 4 Oscars for “Best International Film”, “Best Cinematography”, “Best Original Score, and “Production Design”, as well as 7 BAFTAs, including “Best Film”, “Best Director”, “Best Film Not in the English Language” and “Best Adapted Screenplay”. It is an unflinching and harrowing look at the realities of war and how the German government tricked young men into throwing their lives away for a senseless war. The film opens with an amazing and haunting sequence depicting the German war machine at work—a solider is killed in battle only to have his body thrown in a mass grave, and his uniform washed, mended, and passed along to the next wide-eyed young man excited to head into battle for his country. The recycled uniform is worth more to the government than the human life.
The film is beautifully shot. The gunfire and explosions and massive number of troops give the battle scenes such an epic scale, but at the same time the film makes the viewer feel like they are right in the trenches and on the battlefield with these young soldiers. Providing the film with this more intimate feel are these are these long, sweeping one-shots that weave through the action, helping to convey the fear, terror and sadness these young soldiers are experiencing. The sets, costumes and extensive special effects help to transport the viewer back in time 100 years to this deadly battle. And providing some unnerving tension is the film’s haunting score, which is just a sequence of 3 discordant notes, but every time they are repeated, it really sets the ominous tone for what is to come.
The film primarily centers around the journey of fresh soldier Paul Bäumer, from when he first enlists, to the end of the war. Newcomer Felix Kammerer is remarkable in this role—you would never know this was his first acting role. Without even saying a word, Kammerer is able to convey so much emotion in his face, even if it is caked in mud and tears. Paul starts off as this happy, fun-loving young man, but as he sees his friends and comrades get killed in battle, he becomes more of a sad, broken person. He becomes desensitized to the violence, and more raw and animalistic when he comes face-to-face with the enemy. Whether it’s shooting another young soldier a gun, hacking away at an attacker with a shovel, or using mud to try to drown an enemy soldier, his human nature goes out the window and he’s in pure kill-or-be-killed survival mode. Though there are still some glimpses that his humanity is still there, just buried deep down.
All Quiet on the Western Front is an engaging and thought-provoking film from start to finish, and certainly worthy of all the awards it has amassed. The film is a Netflix production, so it is streaming on that service, but capelight pictures has made the movie available to physical media fans in a Limited Edition 4K/Blu-ray mediabook release. The 4K picture with Dolby Vision HDR looks stunning. The grey, murky look of the battlefield looks hauntingly-beautiful, and even in the darker nighttime scenes, all of the details can be seen clearly, especially as the flares light up the night sky and provide a nice orange glow. Paul seems to get his face covered in ten different kinds of mud over the course of the film, and each time, the detail in his face is remarkable. There is an excellent level of detail in the texture, wear-and-tear and blood-soaked uniforms, and you can really see all of the work that went into making the trenches and other sets come to life. The Atmos soundtrack is phenomenal, with the sounds of gunfire, explosions and bullets constantly filling the room, and making the viewer feel like they are right there on the battlefield amidst all the chaos. The release does offer a UK English dub in addition to the original German track. While it is really well acted, the actors sound more British than German, which kind of takes you out of the film—just which side of the war are we watching?! Also, I found that the dialogue in the English subtitles was actually slightly better than the words used in the dubbed audio.
The physical media release comes in limited edition mediabook packaging. There is a J-card over the mediabook that provides a more standard contents/specs back cover to the release. Inside, the 4K and Blu-ray discs reside in clear plastic trays on either side of the book, while a 24-page color booklet sits in the middle. The booklet includes color photos and two different articles. The first, “Sharing The German Perspective”, is an interview with writer/director Edward Berger, who talks about telling this story from a German perspective, the challenges of the production, working with the cast, and more. The second article, “A Machine of Death Unlike Any Experience Before”, is an interview with historian/professor Daniel Schönpflug, who discusses Erich Maria Remarque’s novel, the historical context in which it was written, the reactions to the book, and more. The 4K & Blu-ray discs both contain the same bonus material—an audio commentary from writer/director Edward Berger, an 18-minute making-of featurette with the cast/crew, and several versions of the film’s trailer.
While the packaging looks beautiful, I have a couple gripes. First that the box is DVD-release dimensions rather than 4K/Blu-ray height, so this taller box won’t fit on the shelf with the rest of my 4K/Blu-ray collection. Also it looks like the booklet inside is supposed to be physically attached to the center of the mediabook in three places, but two of these connections were already detached when I first opened the mediabook, and the third became fully detached as I flipped through the booklet. While it’s easier to read the booklet now that it’s separated, it’s no longer secured inside the book, and there’s three small slits in the center of the mediabook where it used to be connected. While it’s not a huge deal, just a warning that the packaging is a bit delicate.
What’s Included:
Film: (2:26:57)
- 2160p / Widescreen 2.39:1
- Dolby Vision / HDR10
- Audio: German Dolby Atmos, English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, French Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1, Italian Dolby Digital 5.1, Czech Dolby Digital 5.1, Hungarian Dolby Digital 5.1, Polish Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish (Latin America) Dolby Digital 5.1, Turkish Dolby Digital 5.1, Ukrainian Dolby Digital 5.1
Descriptive Audio (Dolby Digital 2.0): German, English, French, Spanish, Italian, Spanish (Latin America) - Subtitles: German, German SDH, English, English SdH, French, Spanish, Italian, Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Spanish (Latin America), Spanish (Latin America) SDH, Turkish, Ukrainian, Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, Portuguese, Finnish, Swedish
- 1080p / Widescreen 2.39:1
- Audio: German Dolby Atmos, English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, French Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1, Italian Dolby Digital 5.1, Czech Dolby Digital 5.1, Hungarian Dolby Digital 5.1, Polish Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish (Latin America) Dolby Digital 5.1, Turkish Dolby Digital 5.1, Ukrainian Dolby Digital 5.1
Descriptive Audio (Dolby Digital 2.0): German, English, French, Spanish, Italian, Spanish (Latin America) - Subtitles: German, German SDH, English, English SdH, French, Spanish, Italian, Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Spanish (Latin America), Spanish (Latin America) SDH, Turkish, Ukrainian, Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, Portuguese, Finnish, Swedish
- Audio Commentary from Director Edward Berger (2:26:57)
Writer/director/producer Edward Berger provides an entertaining and informative English-language commentary. He talks about the story, the characters, the music, the actors, filming locations, and more. He also discusses the way certain shots were filmed, the use of one-shots and minimal editing, and shares lots of interesting behind-the-scenes stories about the production, pointing out Easter eggs, improvised scenes, and other factoids—such as that the sounds of the sewing machines in the opening montage were actually created using machine guns. - Making-Of (18:27)
The cast and filmmakers discuss filming the novel from a German perspective, storyboarding the action, the filming locations, designing and building the trenches, the challenges of filming in the tight spaces, bootcamp for the actors, filming the massive battle scenes, creating special effects such as the dead bodies, designing and creating the costumes and makeup, creating the film’s score and its role in the movie, and some final thoughts about working on the challenging production. Includes behind-the-scenes footage, and interviews with writer/director Edward Berger, director of photography James Friend, producer Malte Grunert, production designer Christian Goldbeck, stunt coordinator Marek Svitek, effects makeup artists Tamar Aviv & Jörn Seifert, costume designer Lisy Christl, makeup artist Heike Merker, composer Volker Bertelmann (alias “Hauschka”), and stars Edin Hasanovic (“Tjaden Stackfleet”), Felix Kammerer (“Paul Bäumer”), Moritz Klaus (“Franz Müller”), Albrecht Schuch (“Stanislaus Katczinsky”), Daniel Brühl (“Matthias Erzberger”) & Aaron Hilmer (“Albert Kropp”). Primarily in German with English subtitles—only Friend and Svitek speak English. - Original Trailer (2:19)
- US-Trailer (2:19)
- International Trailer (2:16)
- Teaser (1:5218:27)
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4K UHD:
Blu-ray:
Extras:
Final Thoughts:
All Quiet on the Western Front is a stellar film, worthy of all the awards and praise it has been given. It is both epic in scale and also a intimate story of one soldier’s harrowing war experience, featuring some amazing visuals, explosive action, and stellar performances. The 4K release features excellent picture and sound, as well as a small but entertaining selection of bonus material. The mediabook packaging looks really nice, though I had couple of minor issues, which are mentioned above. This release is an easy recommendation for fans of the film or of war movies in general, or for those who are looking for an engaging and entertaining new take on the classic novel.
All Quiet on the Western Front Limited Collector’s Edition [4K UHD + Blu ray]
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