All Quiet on the Western Front is the third adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque's famous World War I novel, and surprisingly the first German one considering it is from the perspective of that nation's soldiers. Paul Baumer and his school chums enthusiastically sign up for the German Army and are sent to the Western Front in France. They soon lose their glorious and patriotic notions of war as they encounter filthy trench conditions and a string of murderous battles. Veteran soldiers try to help them adjust and survive, with Stanislaus Katczinsky taking personal responsibility for Paul. It's one of the most famous anti-war stories (though Remarque famously never explicitly stated it as such).
I've never read the novel and only watched the famous 1930 version, so I'll have to compare this latest offering to that one. I did read that Director Edward Berger cut out a few supporting characters and scenes and changed or added new ones to differentiate his interpretation. This leads to my main criticism. There's a subplot that follows real life figure Matthias Erzberger and his attempts to form an armistice and end the war. It and relevant scenes showing German generals do add more historical context, but personally the movie should have focused only on the frontline soldiers. Removing this scenes would have also trimmed it closer to a two hour film (then again, these scenes might be necessary considering many younger folks don't have the best grasp of history). As for other changes and additions, they manage to keep the spirit of themes from the novel and previous adaptations. Another criticism is the musical score. The composer went for more of a sound design style to create a sense of dread, but it can be obnoxious and ill-fitted to early scenes of new recruits smiling on their way to war.
