Rating of
3.5/4
Krieg ist die Hölle
Chris Kavan - wrote on 04/05/23
While bleak and brutal, Edward Berger's adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque's novel is also unflinching in its depiction of war - in this case, trench warfare waged during WWI. Felix Kammerer is excellent as Paul Bäumer, who joins his friends Albert Kropp (Aaron Hilmer), Franz Müller (Moritz Klaus) and Ludwig Behm (Adrian Grünewald) on the German front line only to find out their idealized perception of battle quickly turns to death and just trying to survive. Albrecht Schuch is also great as Stanislaus Katczinsky or Kat - friend to Paul and partner in crime. Short moments of levity as well as showing the German high command and their attempts to end the conflict even out the long sequences of warfare. This is right up there with the best of the war films I have seen and though it is a fair bit depressing - that is the reality of war for you.
