All Quiet on the Front: The Crumbling Dream

When a movie leaves you with teary eyes, trembling hands, and goosebumps, you know he’s done a good job. And it is that, for me, the most beautiful thing about cinema is precisely letting you be moved. Whether with sweet or bitter sensations, the stories on the big screen have the mission of seizing the viewer and, although on this occasion I have had to live through sadness, “No news at the front” is one of those films that promise to leave you with your heart in your mouth. From the start, it begins as one of the favorites for the awards of the Academywith nine nominations, included in the main category.

The hardest of movie It is not the inordinate amount of blood –which, at times, made my blood pressure drop–, nor the constant sound of gunshots and cries for help. I would dare to say that the most difficult thing to digest is the crudeness with which he tells us what begins as the nationalist dream of a group of adolescents that ends up becoming nothing more than an eternal and dying struggle for survival. The daredevil Paul Bäumer is the protagonist of this story in which, overwhelmed by the yearning for greatness, he lies about his age in order to enlist in the German army and fight in World War I along with his friends. What is not expected is that, quickly, all those fantasies about combat will end up falling apart when, one by one, his companions begin to die in cold blood.

The excellence of the movie maybe it lies in his cinematography. The colors and the sequence shots create a precise narration, especially in the strongest points of the confrontations. We see gray and opaque tones when we are on the Western Front, while some are warmer in the vein of Matthias Erzberger, a politician in charge of managing agreements and alliances for the cessation of the war. He would say that, at least in this category, the movie He has the statuette insured.

Despite the complexity of the language, the performances really stand out. As the plot progresses, we see a complete change in Paul’s character: what starts as an “experience” ends up turning him into a young man with almost no emotions, completely traumatized and disillusioned with his homeland. It is not a movie of heroes and villains; is a movie about hope, inequalities, empty promises and –of course– a lot of violence in every way.

“No news at the front” is available at Netflix so that we can see it and remember how terrifying those years were and the lack of humanity that still exists in the world. As the novel on which the film is based says so well: “Because death is not an adventure for those who stand face to face with it.”