When “All Quiet on the Western Front” set out to make the Oscar-nominated film, it was their firm belief that the story of the dehumanizing horrors of war would be relevant in any decade.
But the story became more relevant than they ever imagined, as they finished working on the film during the bloody Russian invasion of Ukraine. Now the Netflix film is nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture, for its portrayal of an ugly chapter in human history at the end of World War I, when very young men were uselessly sacrificed in a war. loss.
More than a century later, the modern parallels are apparent to “All Quiet” producer Malte Grunert, who sees history repeating itself as newly recruited young Russian soldiers are sent to his nation’s Western Front against Ukraine, and their leaders tell them it is a worthy and heroic cause to fight and die for.
These young pawns in the Russian army remind Grunert of his film’s depiction of idealistic German youth sent to the front lines in France in World War I, where most of them would die fighting for their leaders’ lust for conquest.
“When we set out to make the film, the escalation of the war in Ukraine was not foreseeable, we really didn’t have that in mind,” Grunert told TheWrap. “What we felt was relevant is the story of a young man who falls prey to right-wing nationalist propaganda, believing that war is an adventure and that they are on the right side. It is a timeless story, which we now see live in Ukraine.”
Grunert said that when the project was finished, he and his colleagues, like much of the world, felt sympathy for the Ukrainian people as their cities and homes were bombarded by Russian missiles. But he also drew their attention to how the German youths and teenagers in his film are compared to the Russian soldiers sent to the Ukraine.
“So possibly the perspective of our film is the closest to the perspective of the young Russian recruits, who are now being sent to the front lines in the Ukraine as cannon fodder,” Grunert said. “Hopefully it helps viewers see the soldiers, even the aggressors, as victims of their own leaders.”
Based on the best-selling German-language novel of all time, “All Quiet” follows the main character, Paul Baumer (played by Felix Kammerer), who lies about his age so he can join the army and fight for his country.
At the beginning of the film, Baumer and his friends finish their brief training and happily march on foot to the Western Front, after being told by their commander that they will lead Germany to Paris and victory. But above all, what these deceived young people find is hunger, intense cold, trenches full of mud and puddles, and death by bombs, bullets and enemy bayonets.
One of the reasons the modern film is so realistic is because author Erich Maria Remarque’s 1929 novel was based on his experience as a German soldier in World War I. After selling a million copies in Germany, Remarque’s novel was banned and burned by the Nazis. and Remarque fled to Switzerland after Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels called him an enemy of the state.
Making a modern version was the passion of Lesley Paterson, a Scottish-born screenwriter who lives in San Diego. She and her husband spent most of her savings and mortgaged her home to continue the project for several years, eventually partnering with Grunert and director Edward Berger.
“I read the novel in high school and it really stuck with me like a virus, the lesson of the betrayal of a useful generation and their lives lost forever,” Paterson told TheWrap. “So years ago I kept thinking that this story really needs to be told now, for our younger generations, to help teach them about the tragedy of war.”
The German filmmakers loved Paterson’s script, except for one thing: they wanted to make the film in German, to differentiate it from the 1930 and 1979 versions, and to bring the story closer to German audiences. So let’s go back to Paterson’s writing board, to convert the script. Netflix viewers will hardly notice this as the English version comes out very well with the help of modern technology.
To match the intensity of Paterson’s script, the film crew made sure the action scenes captured the sickening brutality of war with modern cinema.
While blood penetrates the senses, there is much pervasive subtlety. In the opening scenes, German soldiers pile up the corpses, delegating to the younger soldiers the grisly task of recovering the bullet-riddled boots and uniforms of their fallen comrades.
These uniforms are then sewn and patched by women in a German workshop, to be reused for new recruits. When Baumer receives her uniform after training, she sees a name tag: the name of the soldier who apparently died wearing the uniform. When Baumer points to the tag, the officer issuing the uniforms simply tears off the tag and hands the uniform back to Baumer.
This creepy moment stuck with Grunert after filming wrapped.
“I have read articles about Russian recruits receiving recycled uniforms when they arrive in Ukraine. The cycle repeats itself,” Grunert said.
Grunert said he is honored to be a part of the legacy of Remarque’s work..
“These are great shoes for us with our movie. I don’t mean to compare our film to what some of our predecessors went through, but it’s very moving to be even remotely connected to this story that “All Quiet” has, Grunert told TheWrap.
“We’ve managed to capture something that’s obviously horrible, and we’re trying to get at what we can only imagine to be an emotional truth of our main character, and how it might feel for him,” Grunert said. “We are honored to be nominated for these awards, although it is hard to feel joy over such a tragic subject. We just hope it helps people feel the terrible reality of war.”
To portray this bleak reality, the filmmakers had to rush to shoot the film in 52 days, on a drab abandoned airfield used by the Soviet Union during World War II outside of Prague, in the Czech Republic.
This was all done during the travel and social restrictions of the pandemic. The crew had to dig an elaborate maze of trenches, to represent trench warfare on the front lines of World War I. The trenches in the war crisscrossed for a total of 25,000 miles, equal to the circumference of planet Earth.
Paterson said that he spent 10 months researching this trench warfare, so he could realistically capture it for the script.
“I was worried if we could capture it on film. But as soon as we saw the first movie clips, it was like every shot was a work of art. Edward Berger is an incredible director and the film crew did an incredible job,” said Paterson.
Perhaps the best endorsement the film has is the reception of the military veterans who have fought on Mars from Korea to Afghanistan. Screening the film for veterans, Grunert said he quickly saw that the film was something “these soldiers felt connected to.”
Paterson spends her free time competing in triathlons, where she has met quite a few Navy SEALs in San Diego.
“Some of them have told me that they have already seen the movie 10 times, and theand I have really embraced it. That’s really his stamp of approval,” she said.
Just as important, he said that people in their teens and 20s have told him how much the film has moved them.
“It really warms your cockles that these young people have connected with him and the message,” he said. “That’s really the impact you want your movies to have.”
