re: Netflix is remaking All Quiet on the Western Front

It’s Netflix so I wouldn’t hold my breath.

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Great movie.


Do people really primarily consider this a "movie"?

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Not sure what your point is? The originakl 1930 version is one of the greatest war films ever made.

All Quiet, like much of the post war writing was a political statement, and a rejection of traditional values - values like heroism. But where someone like Wilfred Owen saw serious combat, and was decorated for courage, Remarque was not.

An American reviewer described Jünger, saying he was a man looking for Achilles on the battlefields of WW1. Jünger was trying reconcile the heroic stories he grew up with the reality of modern warfare. But he’s actually able to do that. He was the most decorated German soldier of the war.

I do see the war as a tragedy though, and largely because of the outcomes. The destruction of the Austro Hungarian Empire, the overthrow of Tsarist Russia. These had tragic consequences. But the war also sped the decline of the West, and gave rise to the worst aspects of modern culture.

I worry that it was our Manzikert.

I guess I'm trying to see your point. It's not so much the anti-war message in AQotWF that you disagree with, but just that you discount Remarque's stance as being able to speak to it because of his experience during the war?

I draw this because while Owen's work wasn't outright anti-war he also didn't try to put a glamorized spin on the actions he saw, much like Junger tried to do. Owen's writings never hid the violence so many take that as a type of pacifist-writing but Owen's never had a chance to really elaborate with his early death.

I don't really blame any of the authors for any specific viewpoint because at some level everyone is a product of their experiences, and someone like Junger who had the upbringing he had is invested in not seeing their or those of their compatriots as wasted.

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Do people really primarily consider this a "movie"?

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It won best picture and best director, and is considered a classic, so lots of people probably do. Lots of us had the book assigned in school too.

My issue with All Quiet is the message, which I disagree with, and Remarque’s stature and his credibility in making such sweeping statements.

Jünger experienced far more than he did, and had a very different attitude.

You don’t get to cry, woe is me! Unless your someone like Jünger or Owen. Of course Jünger would never say anything like that. It wasn’t his nature.

Storm of Steel is also much better written. But that’s another topic.

I’d they had hung on, we might have been saved a lot of instability and conflict. It’s an interesting what if.