All Quiet on the Western Front

Movie: All Quiet on the Western Front

Nominated for: Best Picture, Best International Feature, Best Cinematography, Best Sound, Best Original Score, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best MakeUp and Hairstyling, Best Production Design, Best Visual Effects

How I watched: Netflix

When I fell asleep: I don't think so

When it had me: Beautiful Visuals

When it lost me: I don't know, just war, I guess?

What systems does it challenge: Military Industrial Complex

Content Warning: War, brutal violence, self harm, PTSD

**Official Complaint: When an International Feature is nominated for Best Picture, please, Academy, remove that movie from the Best International Feature category. If it is the only one of five nominees that was worthy of best overall picture, it stands to reason that you deemed it the best international film of the year. I feel bad for every other nominee in the International Feature race this year because it seems they have no possible shot at winning and that sucks. Please correct this.**

I always wonder about the process of a movie that I haven't really heard of getting nine nominations. (Sometimes the Academy does, too. The story about the "To Leslie" nomination just broke) Aside from the possibility that I was just not paying attention, that is. Is it because of word of mouth? Or is active campaigning the only way to get there? 

Let's talk good stuff. It is beautifully shot! Very gorgeous french country side, very eerie pastels, stark and disturbing visuals, crisp focus. The acting is great, but... (well, let me get to the but later.) 

The movie's main point seems to be that every single second of WWI was trauma-inducing for everyone on the front. Unceasing, unprocessable brutality, fear and despair. We see moments of terror, moments of disgust, moments of bravery and great cowardice that are indistinguishable, one form the other. It's just an onslaught of the worst. It kept calling up for me the things you hear from relatives of veterans, "He never spoke about his time in the war", "He refused to be called a hero", "He was never the same".

How could anyone begin to speak about such things? They are completely beyond understanding. You must have trouble recalling or believing that such things ever even happened. They would become buried deep inside your body, secrets that you keep from yourself in hopes of surviving. 

Now I have to admit that I found this to be a grueling and unenjoyable watch. Two things kept me from feeling any connection to the film.

1. It is dubbed. I will say it is dubbed VERY well. But I couldn't get over the disconnect between the voices and the performance I was seeing on screen. Both were good performances and yet, fractured?  I appreciate the choice to not have viewers need to read the entire time as that robs you from seeing so many visual cues and moments, but it still felt like a barrier to me.

2. I couldn't be convinced to take the ride. To be fully transported by a film like this, you have to give yourself over to it in a way and I wasn't willing to do so. I just took the ride a few years back with 1917, I remember how awful the war in the trenches was and I could not be induced to fully go along again. I kept it at arm's length the whole time. And it was a LONG time! 2 hours, 23 minutes! Have I mentioned that the movies are too long??? Perhaps a big screen might have helped break down my barriers more?

There was a jarring and interesting musical cue of the drums of war being beaten in a random sort of pattern early on in the film. Then it stopped and didn't really come back. I thought they were signalling some other music work that would happen and in the end it felt like they didn't really follow through on that.

I'm already feeling like this movie might grow on me over time. It wasn't fun to watch but with time I can see that it was crazy well made? We'll see.