Review of All Quiet on the Western Front (2022) by Moviebuff54 — 31 Oct 2022
I just loved this film! It follows Paul, a dashing young German cadet, and his irascible best mate Tjaden, on their daring escapades and brushes with peril during the great adventure that was the western front.
Warning! Spoilers ahead. Like all good war stories, they get a heroes welcome when they ride back home into Brandenberg— piked helmets gleaming, uniforms fresh pressed with bright gold lapels, and a crowd of German girls waving imperial flags.
Paul catches eyes with Heidi, the cobblers daughter who he’d promised to marry on the day he left for France, and who he wrote to when the going really got tough out there and for a moment he thought that war and honor and duty weren't as exciting as his beloved old schoolmaster Herr Kantorek had made them out to be when he walked the whole graduating class of ‘14 to the enlistment office to answer the call of Kaiser and Fatherland (though Paul had too stiff of an upper lip to admit it to Tjaden or the other lads out there on the line, and the feeling passed soon enough before he was ready to saddle up his beautiful chestnut courser Wilhelm for another courageous raid on the hapless tommys).
Anyway, back to the heroes welcome! When she locks eyes with Paul, Heidi bursts into the biggest smile and her bright eyes fill with tears of joy. Paul tosses her his iron cross and she catches it as she pushes to the front of the crowd.
Paul reaches down and in one big motion sweeps the young beauty onto his horse, buxom as ever with her green lederhosen and braided golden hair. Paul and Tjaden draw their sabers and hail each other farewell one last time, now heroes of the Reich, before Paul rides off with his bride to be as the band plays Die Wacht am Rhine This adaptation is really a fun jaunt and I couldn’t have asked for more- the gallant cavalry charges, the jovial young Bavarian lieutenant, the German marching songs, the imposing figure cut by gruff old General Friedrichs as he rouses the men to battle, big as a house upon his grizzled war horse and puffing a pipe between barking orders.
It really is just a beautiful painting of all the pomp and virtue of the glorious old Prussian army, brought to life on the silver screen. 10/10.
This review of All Quiet on the Western Front (2022) was written by Moviebuff54 on 31 Oct 2022.
All Quiet on the Western Front has generally received very positive reviews.
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