REVIEW Nothing New on the Western Front – perhaps the best war movie since Saving Private Ryan

All Quiet on the Western Front is perhaps the best war movie you can see, right now, on Netflix.

A movie that stirs your outrage and obviously has a number of twists and turns that you wouldn’t anticipate if you hadn’t read the book.

Nothing New on the Western Front, the film that makes you feel guilty for watching it from your comfortable armchair

All Quiet on the Western Front is a 2022 German anti-war film based on Erich Maria Remarque’s 1929 novel of the same name. Directed by Edward Berger, it stars Felix Kammerer, Albrecht Schuch, Daniel Brühl, Sebastian Hülk, Aaron Hilmer, Edin Hasanovic, and Devid Striesow.

With all due respect, this war film is arguably the best of its niche since Saving Private Ryan, if not better. It moves you so much that, by the end, you end up feeling guilty for sitting in your comfy chair eating popcorn and more than 100 years ago, people were going through situations that are hard to describe. A comparison that hurts.

This film means all the more now, in the context of the war in Ukraine and other ongoing conflicts around the globe. War doesn’t have to happen, but here are the ambitions of “fat” generals, whom we could easily categorize as sinister, leading to loss of life. People who don’t know what they are fighting for, may not believe in those causes, but are forced to.

Immediately after publication, Erich Maria Remarque’s novel was banned, for understandable reasons: anti-war propaganda did not look good in a world that was eagerly preparing for another one, much crueler and more senseless than the first.

All Quiet on the Western Front can be seen on Netflix.