- GERMAN, AMERICAN, BRITISH

Christy analyses the new All Quiet on the Western Front directed by German Edward Berger, The Great Escape directed by American John Sturges and finally 1917 directed by British Sam Mendes. Each film offers a different retrospective presentation of war and approach to its film genre.

Welcome to the war film. It can be graphic, patriotic, self-critical, heroic and even sometimes farcical. The war films explored here will all certainly offer more sober presentations of war but are not without their differences. This owes to the diversity and scope in recreating stories of the battlefield, making for an enticing viewing experience.

All Quiet on the Western Front

The new 2022 film is based on Remarque’s 1928 novel of the same title. It begins with Paul, who enrols in the German WWI effort despite being too young, revelling in the celebratory atmosphere and a supposed imminent surge on Paris. However within days, the soldiers are exposed to the cruel realities of war. The film follows the abysmal, hopeless final year of conflict. It catches the eye with its cinematic grandeur, as it juxtaposes the serenity of the French landscape against the cataclysm of WWI.

death. The latter brings us to the reality Berger puts at the forefront of our minds: the only thing worse than dying in war, is living through it. For what becomes of a soldier after war? In the eyes of the desensitised and harsh commanders comes the answer. War never leaves the soldier: it becomes him, both mentally and physically altering its victims for the rest of their lives.

The film gives death a new significance: not as something to fear but something to long for, a level of peace admirable to any on the battlefield. Berger presents numerous suicidal actions: from the soldier escaping into the war-ravaged atmosphere, to brutal suicide despite surviving through war. Death is inevitable, it’s the relentless suffering beforehand that the soldier fears. This is a reality reflected in the novel’s early title of ‘Nothing New in the West’. The same old, day after day. This is the true horror of war.

The Great Escape

Now, let’s backtrack to 1963 and an adventure war film. The plot is fictionalised yet based on a true event of WWII. It follows a group of well-known escapees in a German high-security prison, and their efforts to get out. Seventy six men escape via an underground tunnel, with the film following their attempt to flee the heavily patrolled German and French locale. It ends with the murder of fifty men, and the recapturing of much of the other twenty-six.

Sturges’ view of war is brutal and oppressive, yet not as much as you might expect. Upon arriving at the prison, the prisoners are given a level of trust: to garden, read, converge together - this is in contrast to the horrors of war camps portrayed elsewhere. These men are not tortured, dominated or crippled by conflict. They are confined yet given a certain level of freedom.

Director Edward Berger has possibly demonstrated as much of an anti-war perspective as it’s possible to. It’s a film of contrasts: the agonising soldier and the abundant general, the imagined few weeks of conflict and the relentless eighteen months of worthless battle, flourishing nature and the barren, arid battlefield, life and

Alongside presenting the battlefield, Berger also criticises the out-of-touch, overly wealthy governments. They are disgusted at out-of-date croissants rather than their responsibility in the loss of so many lives. They render young men numb, emotionless killing machines, spurred on by a tainted patriotic unity that discriminates against no circumstances, most poignantly shown in the film’s last moments. In all its emotion and sadness, All Quiet leaves its audience with the inequality between the soldier and government. Why should the soldier be patriotic when their true battle is against those in charge?

Berger’s presentation of battle from the German perspective is the epitome of the anti-war film, offering war’s most harsh reality: nobody wins.

Doubtless, The Great Escape does cater towards a sensationalised view of war at the expense of accuracy: the fighter plane, the tunnel builder with claustrophobia, the immense motorbike chase and the German soldiers who speak such good English. At the forefront of Sturges’ mind is entertaining the audience.

Yet the ruthless murder of fifty men gives a glimpse into the brutality of war, therefore deeming The Great Escape far from being a pro-war film. If you can get past the dramatic music and Hollywood names typical of American cinema, Sturges presents a glimpse into the atrocities all too common in WWII.

1917

The film is set during WWI and yet seems a world away from the two other films. The plot initially follows Will and Tom. They’re given a task which could save the lives of sixteen-hundred men, including Tom’s brother, if executed in time. After the death of Tom, Will journeys alone through all manner of lands: the blitzed fire-scolded buildings, the lonely country fields, and eventually the crowded trenches.

Not dissimilar to The Great Escape, Mendes’ presentation of war indulges in the conventions of cinema rather than reality. Will is an indestructible, invincible protagonist. The number of near-death experiences he avoids can be difficult to believe. He is given a mission fuelled by emotion and elevated above everyone else from the beginning. Compared to All Quiet, Mendes’ work is less realistic and, whilst based on truth, he undoubtedly has his audience and the cinematic experience in mind when making these directorial decisions.

One of the war’s key traits to Mendes and the British perspective present- ed is its uselessness. The film shows meaningless honorary medals along with needlessly massacred cows and felled blossom trees. War is an animal destined to destroy every living thing in its path and awards patriotic thing in its path and awards patriotic killing machines with medals that are no more than scraps of tin and ribbon.

If anything, these three films demonstrate a diverse genre while all sharing an unbridled optimism destined to be broken. This is attributed to the out of touch, patriotic government waging war whilst blind to its true reality. Each film has a different tone and level of seriousness to its message. The war film can be entertainment while also a serious anti-war critical force. Nevertheless, common in these films, is an unnecessary and tragic loss of life for seemingly such little gain.

Christy Clark