All Quiet on the Western Front 4K 2022 Ultra HD 2160p

Story Movie

The German Empire, 1917. The patriotic 19-year-old Paul Boehmer and his classmates volunteer for the front, where they will experience the horrors of World War I.

Review 4K Movie

My acquaintance with the works of Remarque began in high school, when we were given a summer reading list. The books that interested us on that list were 'On the Western Front Without Change' and 'Farewell, Arms! The latter was abandoned on the tenth page, and then it was given away. With Remarque was more interesting, after reading the novel in a few days, I began to look whether there are any film adaptations of the work.

The 1979 version was chosen for viewing and this film just amazed me. The camerawork, the characters, particularly Himmelstos (played superbly by Ian Holm), Paul Boehmer himself, his schoolmates and friends who went to war together under the influence of patriotic propaganda. More boys, joyful boys who think they will fight valiantly, but in reality they are facing trench warfare, countless casualties, disabilities, and death. After this movie, I began reading other books by Remarque, and after reading almost all of them, I greedily devoured them, absorbing what was written.

In the twentieth century, two film adaptations came out - the American one in 1930 and the English one in 1979, respectively. Now it's time for the German one as well. The main omission in the new version is that most of the film is devoted to battles, whereas the other adaptations were 'peacetime', also the school friends and comrades of Paul Boehmer are hardly revealed. There's no Himmelstoss, either. But still the main point of the narrative is the protagonist Paul Boehmer, and also Stanislaw Kaczynski or simply 'Kacz' - a sly trickster, with a striking sense for danger, good grub and lukewarm places. I'd also like to highlight the supporting role of Matthias Erzberger's character, who was not in the book.

Special mention should be made of the soundtrack, which truly conveys the sound component of the combat battles, such a campaign reminded me of E. Klimov's film 'Come and See'. A big role in the film is played by the silence and the long shots that capture all the reality that the soldiers see in front of them. The atmosphere of horror of war and fear of death is conveyed by strong camerawork, of recent similar works '1917' comes to mind.

And yet despite the lack of character development and an attempt at more action, this is one of the best screen adaptations that shows that war is the worst thing mankind has ever invented. And the film fully captures all its cruelty and ruthlessness.