“All Quiet on the Western Front” Trailer Reveals Netflix’s Ambitious WWI Feature

The first trailer for Netflix’s All Quiet on the Western Front has arrived, revealing the streamer’s ambitious WWI epic. This is the first-ever German-language adaptation of novelist Erich Maria Remarque’s iconic WWI novel and, fittingly, the trailer opens with Remarque’s own words: “This is neither an accusation nor a confession…and least of all an adventure.”

All Quiet on the Western Front aims to show the horror of the war without zeroing in on the figures usually prominent in such a tale—namely heroes and villains. Sticking with the novelist’s ethos that this story is not an adventure as well, the film will explore what a violent slog trench warfare was, the wanton slaughter of millions for inches of scorched earth, and the shattered lives of the survivors it left behind. Director Edward Berger adapted the novel with co-writer Lesley Paterson, and as he told The Hollywood Reporter, his goal was to show the war’s effects on Germans, who did not get to return home heroes but rather tortured, shellshocked, and guilt-ridden.

“I watch a lot of American and English films, as we all do, and occasionally there is a war movie or even an anti-war movie among them. And I find them extremely entertaining. But I feel they never show my perspective, the perspective I have as a German,” Berger told THR. “Not that of America, that saved Europe from Fascism, or England, which was attacked and drawn into a war against their will, whose soldiers returned home, certainly traumatized and psychologically broken, but celebrated as heroes, [where] the war is an event that enters the national psyche as something that the society is in part proud of. For us, it’s the exact opposite. In our national psyche, there is nothing but guilt, horror, terror, and destruction.”

The cast includes Daniel Brühl, Sebastian Hülk, Albrecht Schuch, Anton von Lucke, and Devid Striesow.

Check out the trailer below. All Quiet on the Western Front will make its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival on September 12.

Here’s the synopsis for All Quiet on the Western Front:

All Quiet on the Western Front tells the gripping story of a young German soldier on the Western Front of World War I. Paul and his comrades experience first-hand how the initial euphoria of war turns into desperation and fear as they fight for their lives, and each other, in the trenches. The film from director Edward Berger is based on the world renowned bestseller of the same name by Erich Maria Remarque.

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Featured image: All Quiet on the Western Front – Production Still Image. Photo by Reinar Bajo/Netflix.