Really nothing new
It's all there in All Quiet on the Western Front. Everything you would expect to find in a war film is there. Fraud against young people who are enlisted, friendship between comrades, generals and ministers who are horrified by peace, death of characters we have grown fond of, crazy sense of honor and so on.
And there is nothing new. Indeed, after Spielberg's stylistic revolution with Saving Private Ryan and Sam Mendes' recent gamble which revitalized the genre with a false sequence shot set in the First World War in 1917, what could Berger do? Any form seems already seen and is not striking. There's no denying that he tries to liven up the situation, which for a film set in the trenches is no small thing, but it's not enough.
Good technical cast with an original soundtrack, convincing sets and good photography are not enough to make Berger's film stand out from the common cinematic transposition of a bestseller. Let's not forget that the book is a hundred years old and the first film a few less.
Presented in this period it certainly strikes consciences and the pacifist message arrives clearer and more direct. As useful as it is simple. But it's really a small thing from a cinematic point of view.
Yet 9 Oscar nominations rained in and the one for the international film seems practically certain. Directly on the platform without practically arriving on the big screen (could it have improved the situation?) Nothing new on the Western Front is a work without infamy and without praise, perhaps more suitable for a high school matinee than for the theater public.
And there is nothing new. Indeed, after Spielberg's stylistic revolution with Saving Private Ryan and Sam Mendes' recent gamble which revitalized the genre with a false sequence shot set in the First World War in 1917, what could Berger do? Any form seems already seen and is not striking. There's no denying that he tries to liven up the situation, which for a film set in the trenches is no small thing, but it's not enough.
Good technical cast with an original soundtrack, convincing sets and good photography are not enough to make Berger's film stand out from the common cinematic transposition of a bestseller. Let's not forget that the book is a hundred years old and the first film a few less.
Presented in this period it certainly strikes consciences and the pacifist message arrives clearer and more direct. As useful as it is simple. But it's really a small thing from a cinematic point of view.
Yet 9 Oscar nominations rained in and the one for the international film seems practically certain. Directly on the platform without practically arriving on the big screen (could it have improved the situation?) Nothing new on the Western Front is a work without infamy and without praise, perhaps more suitable for a high school matinee than for the theater public.
