What’s a soldier without a war? A German general says it, and broadly summarizes its meaning No news at the frontwhich is more than just a remake of the Oscar-winning 1930 film. And which will surely reach an Oscar nomination for the best international film, in the category where Argentina, 1985he is also fighting for a place.

Wrote the German Erich Maria Remarque Western front in 1928, that is, a decade after the end of the First World War. The Hollywood film was made almost immediately. And now Edward Berger instead of revisiting Lewis Milestone’s film goes straight to the source material, changes it, yes, but the film is as heartbreaking and visceral as any war genre made in recent years.

It’s often said that it’s hard for a war film to be against war, no matter how much the filmmakers want to. I pass with Coppola Y Apocalypse nowwith Oliver Stone and Platoon. No news at the frontshowing another side of WW1, as it did 1917by Sam Mendes, ratifies desire.

Bloodthirsty, showing the mutilations, wounds and horror of the soldiers, desperation, and even solidarity. What the director does is a kind of parable. On the one hand, he illustrates how wars repeat themselves, and particularly in this film, where what Germany wanted was to expand on France, and the title (No news at the front) is precisely this: that only a few steps forward have been made on the front.

The protagonist is Paul (impeccable performance by Felix Kammerer), a soldier who is sent to fight, dressed as someone else. The film opens with a strong image of several soldiers shot to death and a young soldier (Heinrich) passing by is killed. It is his clothes, which end up in a bloody and bagged mass, which are washed and reused by Paolo.

Paul is almost as young as Henrich. He and his schoolmates are excited to march on Paris when, in the third year of the war, he is drafted and sent to the front.

comrades

The film will follow Paul and his comrades in arms, and will never save a drop of blood, a viscera, a mutilated arm or leg.

Soldiers will go from rat-infested trench to trench, with mud and water on their feet, fearing that a superior will shout to them that they must advance and, in the open, attack in front of the French artillery.

Gradually, Paul will establish a relationship with an older soldier, Kat (Albrecht Schuch), who belongs to a different social class (Kat cannot read), who has lost his little son and who longs to return to his wife. The bond between them is strong, whether or not they will steal an animal from a paddock in Champagne from a French farmer.

There is a character, the liberal politician Erzberger (Daniel Brühl) who is trying to obtain an armistice, a peace like this doesn’t continue to add up the corpses, but on the other side and on the same German side, there is General Friedrich ( Devid Striesow), the one with the opening line, who understands no other motives than his own, and sends more troops to more than likely death.

“No news at the front”

Very good

War/drama. Germany, 2022. Original title: “Im Westen nichts Neues”. 148′, SA 16. Of: Edward Berger. With: Felix Kammerer, Albrecht Schuch, Daniel Bruhl, Aaron Hilmer. Available in: Netflix.