Director Edward Berger had no intention of glossing over the madness of World War I. He stages it with a lot of violence, great actors – and as just terrible. Unlike in American war films, there is no room for a heroic story. There were now nine Oscar nominations for this courage.
Death in the trenches not only leaves flesh and blood behind, but also trousers, a shirt and a pair of shoes. Edward Berger’s new film about the First World War sees poor wretches undressing the dead. Women wash the old clothes packed in bales, mend the holes in large sewing workshops; fresh uniforms for fresh soldiers are created in a smoothly organized process. “Sorry, it belongs to someone,” says recruit Paul Bäumer shyly when he is handed a jacket with someone else’s name tag. The man at the desk routinely tears it off. And the 17-year-old can go to war for God, Emperor and Fatherland.