Mud and Misery, But Make It Beautiful

The thing about Edward Berger's All Quiet on the Western Front is that it looks exactly how you'd expect a prestige war film to look in 2022. Which, fine. The use of perfectly arranged camera angles to show teenagers getting destroyed creates an uncomfortable viewing experience because the artistic precision of the shots makes the violence seem both beautiful and unreal despite the actual body destruction.

Paul Bäumer receives his uniform with a name tag that belongs to another person. The film extends its attention to this detail because it refrains from using understated methods. Felix Kammerer plays Paul with these wide, startled eyes that never quite adjust to what's happening around him, even after he's stabbed his third or fourth person. The whole Western Front situation was pointless, we know this, but Berger wants to make absolutely certain you understand exactly how pointless by cutting to Daniel Brühl eating fancy cheeses while boys drown in mud.

Look, the color work here is genuinely striking. James Friend shoots everything in these sickly yellows and bruised purples that make even the quieter moments feel diseased. There's this one scene where Paul's in a crater with a French soldier he's just stabbed, and the whole frame goes this awful mustard color while he watches the man choke on his own blood. Paul attempts to assist him by crying while covering him with mud but Kammerer completely dismisses the situation. "Comrade, I did not want to kill you," Paul whispers to the dying soldier, though by then it's obviously too late for either of them.

The costume design reveals all the information about the characters before anyone starts speaking. Those fresh uniforms on the eager boys versus the filth-caked rags they become. Lisy Christl makes every thread count, especially in how the officers' pristine jackets never seem to touch the same war everyone else is fighting.

Actually, wait. The film makes its most intelligent move by presenting its approach to the armistice talks. Brühl's politiBrian character desperately trying to end things while the generals plot their next move, already bitter about surrendering. The rooms display indicators which suggest that World War Two will start shortly.

Berger keeps hammering his point about meaningless death right up to the literal last minutes before ceasefire. The last senseless attack resulted in additional pointless deaths of young soldiers who fought in vain. The credits play without music to create a suitable mood which indicates the film has mastered the ability to allow viewers to experience silence independently. The score by Volker Bertelmann achieves interesting effects during its initial sections through its industrial grinding noises which create a sense of mechanical determinism.

The truth is this film does exactly what it sets out to do. The film presents a visual representation of war's brutal nature through its technical perfection which would make film school instructors feel tears of envy. The entire process of creating a piece of art results in the disappearance of its original essence. The organized structure of horror needs to introduce more randomness than its current linear format. Paul survives impossibly long just so we can watch him break down properly. The other boys merge into a single group as they meet their expected deaths. The movie runs at 148 minutes yet it creates a feeling of excessive length while simultaneously rushing through its action sequences between set pieces.