Netflix’s ‘All Quiet On The Western Front’ Looks Truly Phenomenal

All Quiet On The Western Front has already been adapted for the screen twice. The first adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s novel was released in 1930 and won Academy Awards for both Outstanding Production and Best Director, and was the first film based on a book to win Best Picture.

In 1979, a made-for-TV film adaptation was released, which also received positive reviews though not any Academy nods.

This time, the adaptation will be in German, the language of both the author and the characters. The entire cast is German, including Inglorious Basterds alum Daniel Brühl who played the celebrity sniper in that film.

The trailer shows us a violent, grim and troubling view of one of the most destructive wars in all of human history. The last really terrific World War I movie I saw was the excellent 1917, which had its fair share of horrors. If anything, this looks even darker.

I come to this trailer by way of Jeff Schogol, writing at Task And Purpose, who adds some troubling flavor to the novel’s history:

“Remarque’s portrayal of trench warfare was so bleak that his book was later banned by the Nazis. The author fled Germany after Hitler took power, eventually settling in the United States, but the Nazis got their revenge by beheading his sister in December 1943 after a sham trial. The German judge allegedly told Elfriede Remarque before sending her to the guillotine: “‘We have sentenced you to death because we cannot apprehend your brother. You must suffer for your brother.””

As Schogol also notes, the film appears to address the ways that World War I set the stage for the Second Great War two decades later.

All Quiet On The Western Front was directed by Edward Berger and stars Daniel Brühl, Albrecht Schuch, Sebastian Hülk, Felix Kammerer, Aaron Hilmer, Edin Hasanovic and Devid Striesow. It premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 12th and will be released on Netflix on October 28th with a 147 minute run-time.

Interestingly, the film was shot in the Czech Republic. The 1979 version was fought in then-Czechoslovakia. The 1930 Academy Award winning adaptation—which came out right between the two Great Wars—was shot in Los Angeles.