D.in preparation for the remake of “Nothing New in the West” took place in 2020, when military experts convinced us that wars with tanks and howitzers were a relic of the past; the wars of the future would be fought with precision missiles and drones. The filming of “Nothing New in the West” took place in the spring of 2021, when Ethiopia was fighting such an old-fashioned war, but it was far away and not state of the art.
The theatrical release of “Nothing New in the West” now hits us in the middle of the war in Ukraine in the middle of Europe, and is being fought with tanks and howitzers. Never before has a film reached its subject so radically and so quickly. But not passed.
Edward Berger’s version of The West is the antidote to all the Hollywood war films of recent decades, in which heroism has become more and more prevalent, there was less and less mud, blood and hunger; Hollywood psychologically paved the way for “clean” wars before military technology was available.
The other more realistic narrative of the war began in 1929 with Erich Maria Remarque’s novel “Nothing New in the West”, and the first Film adaptation by Lewis Milestone the following year (yes, even Hollywood!) remained true to this point of view: a relentless depiction of a senseless death, which is why nationalists in Germany also stormed the film.
Death Assault: “Nothing New in the West”
Those: Reiner Bass / Netflix
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Edward Berger returns to this tradition. We may be more insensitive to the violence of movies today, but this is still cool stuff. Berger begins with an apocalyptic post-battle landscape, with volcanic lakes carved from shells and corpses scattered around.
Then a brilliant sequence begins: the survivors strip the dead of their red-soaked uniforms, which are dragged behind the front in bundles, the women at the troughs wash the blood, the women at the sewing machines remove the bullet holes – and it is presented the cloth repaired to high school graduates, who enthusiastically reported to the front. Paul Baumer (Felix Kammerer) is one of them and finds a stranger’s name sewn onto his recycling uniform. “He belongs to someone else,” he says, wanting to give it back. “It was too tight for him,” lies the officer and simply rips off the label.
There are also a lot of shootings and explosions from Berger, and tank tracks crush people and flamethrowers roast people, and the comrades around Paul die like flies. It is still shocking, despite our habit of cinematic fireworks.
It’s about humanity in the inhuman
Most disturbing, however, are some quiet scenes. When Paul walks through the trenches after the fight and collects the platelets of the dead, when he asks forgiveness from the Poilu, whom he mortally wounded, or those dirty and bloodstained faces that express a truly indescribable horror. Like Remarque, he speaks of humanity in the inhuman.
Berger takes liberties with Remarque. Paul Bäumer was not drafted into his service until 1917, in the third year of the war, not the first. Basic training is skipped, he doesn’t get injured, he doesn’t get a vacation home where his stories of suffering and death don’t want to be heard.
Instead, his film jumps relatively quickly to November 1918, and one wonders what will happen, because the armistice was already signed on November 11. The reason is immediately understood: suddenly generals (including Devid Striesow) and politicians (including Daniel Brühl) appear, fighting to end the war.
– –If politicians capitulate: Daniel Brühl as Matthias Erzberger
Those: Reiner Bass / Netflix
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This level does not exist in either Remarque or Milestone and at first it feels like a foreign body. Gradually it becomes clear that he intends to provide the historical context which, 100 years later, may be unknown to many. The French general rejects any changes to the strict terms of the armistice, the German general sends his soldiers to the final battle with a speech in which he blames the defeat for the “betrayal” of the Social Democrats – and carefully conceals the fact that his commander-in-chief declared the end of the fighting required under all circumstances. Both the vengeful French attitude and the German legend of the stab in the back made Hitler possible.
This is a film about losers, made by those who once lost (although now the money has come from Netflix, where the film will be available from late October). It is the first film adaptation of “Im Westen” in German, with German actors. He doesn’t blame anyone for the war, he doesn’t compare atrocities against each other. Perhaps it also teaches skepticism when suddenly we would have to buy weapons worth 100 billion.
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