COMING SOON TO NETFLIX: A German-Language Version of All Quiet on the Western Front.

Lewis Milestone’s All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) was arguably the first, and inarguably, amongst the very best anti-war movies ever made. Adapted from Erich Maria Remarque’s 1928 novel, which Remarque based on his own experiences as a German soldier in the trenches of World War I, the film went on to win Oscars for best picture and best director. All Quiet on the Western Front was remade for American television in 1979, with Richard Thomas and Ernest Borgnine.

But it has taken nearly a century since the publication of Remarque’s book for it to be adapted in German, the language in which it was written. Partly, this has to do with the book’s history in the Third Reich. The Nazis banned and burned copies of All Quiet on the Western Front for its “treasonous”, and decidedly unheroic, depiction of war. Remarque’s story follows Paul Bäumer, a student who, inspired by his teacher’s patriotic speeches, leads his class to volunteer to serve on the front. But that patriotic fervor does not survive the first day of battle. What follows is a brutal, and shockingly honest, depiction of the horror and trauma of war and the toll, both physical and psychological, that it takes on the young men who fight.

Capturing that horror, and giving a very unheroic cinematic vision of war, was one of the main goals for director Edward Berger in his new, German-language adaption of All Quiet on the Western Front. The film, which premieres Sept.12 at the Toronto Film Festival, stars newcomer Felix Kammerer Bäumer, Albrecht Schuch (System Crasher) as his brother-in-arms Stanislaus Katczinsky, and star Daniel Brühl (Rush, Inglourious Basterds) as a German diplomat negotiating his country’s surrender in the war’s final days.

All Quiet on the Western Front was just named Germany’s official entry for the 2023 Oscars in the Best International Feature category. After its TIFF premiere, the film will go out in select theaters in Germany on Sept. 29, in the U.K from Oct. 14 and after an exclusive engagement at the Paris Theater in New York from Oct.7, in select theaters in the US from Oct.14. It bows on Netflix worldwide Oct.28.

The trailer looks epic:

Though looking at the poster atop the film’s Wikipedia page, I thought it starred Scarlett Johansson for second!

Of course, we all know that this new remake will never top the epic chemistry and cinematography of the aforementioned 1979 made for TV version staring Richard Thomas (fresh off playing John Boy in The Waltons) and Ernest Borgnine…