Paul Baumer and his friends Albert and Muller, egged on by romantic dreams of heroism, voluntarily enlist in the German army. Full of excitement and patriotic fervour, the boys enthusiastically march into a war they believe in. But once on the Western Front, they discover the soul-destroying horror of World War I.
Edward Berger, center, on the set of All Quiet on the Western Front. Reiner Bajo/Netflix. DEADLINE: What did the scriptwriting process involve?But mostly, there’s also an attitude in the novel that I tried to imbue into the rewrite of the script, and also into the filming. The attitude, or the style of the novel, is almost like a journalist describing — in a fairly unemotional, factual way — what’s happening to these kids. And as a reader, because he doesn’t dictate to you what you’re supposed to feel, you bring your own interpretations and you feel all the more, I think.
Environmental visuals are a potent force in All Quiet on the Western Front ’s visceral battle scenes. Representing the sensory experience of trench warfare, Paul exists in close proximity to the earth, sheltering in shell holes, crawling along No Man’s Land. With a close-up of mud encrusted on half his face, it is as if Paul himself is being subsumed into the war’s landscapes.
