History Film / AllQuietOnTheWesternFront2022

** Erzberger's stance towards the ongoing war. When he's about to face Hindenburg, he has just a single paper file as his argument: the thousands of losses the army is taking ''every day'', a rate which Germany cannot sustain .

* PlotArmor: Paul somehow manages to survive against all odds in all the hellfire he goes through. [[spoiler:Averted at the end of the movie where he gets stabbed in the back with a bayonet by a French soldier.]]

** The French counterattack is horrifying to witness. After the Germans cause the French to retreat, Paul and his squad mates enjoy a quick bite from food abandoned in a pantry, only to feel the ground shake, see rats running away, and hearing the mechanical rumbling of a French armored column headed their way. The tanks blast their way through the German infantry using [[MoreDakka machine-guns]], and [[LudicrousGibs cannons]], and the sight of them rolling over the Germans in the trenches below causes them to scream in panic, when one tank rumbles through a semi collapsed trench it [[CarFu drives over]] [[ChunkySalsaRule an unlucky German]]. Once the tanks have the main German force on the run, French infantrymen rush over to shoot the stragglers, and back up the flame thrower troopers [[ManOnFire who burn any stranded Germans where they stand]].

** Erzberger's stance towards the ongoing war. When he's about to face Hindenburg, he has just a single paper file as his argument - the daily losses the army is taking, counted in thousands, ''each and every day'', while losing ground and no means to replace the losses.
** Invoked and subverted mid-point through the film. When the soldiers are sent to search for a missing detachment of NewMeat, they eventually find them all dead as a result of a gas attack, taking their masks off inside a building in a false sense of security. Kat talks with Paul briefly about how stupid it was, but they are both thoroughly hardened by their war ordeal and just roll with the fact that fresh recruits are useless and die by the dozen.

''All Quiet on the Western Front'' (''Im Westen nichts Neues'', "In the West Nothing New") is a 2022 war film from UsefulNotes/{{Germany}} directed by Edward Berger. It is the first ever German-language film adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque's iconic 1929 novel, ''Literature/AllQuietOnTheWesternFront''.

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Matthias Erzberger was a real person who did in fact sign the armistice. When he arrives at Allied headquarters he meets several other historical domain characters, such as the Allied commander-in-chief, General Foch.

** Kat is killed on the morning of the armistice (after talking about his plans for after the war, and saying "[[TemptingFate I'll be right back]]")!
** Paul is fatally wounded just seconds before the ceasefire!

** Kat is killed on the morning of the armistice (after talking about his plans for after the war, and saying "IllBeRightBack"!

* {{Dramatization}}: At the end of Remarque's novel, Paul is killed a month before the end of the war. [[spoiler:Here he dies at the same time the armistice goes into effect.]]

* TheHeroDies: [[spoiler:The movie ends with Paul getting killed in combat.

* {{Dramatization}}: At the end of Remarque's novel, Paul is killed a month before the end of the war. [[spoiler:Here he dies at the same time the armistice goes into effect.

* {{Dramatization}}: At the end of Remarque's novel, Paul is killed a month before the end of the war. [[spoiler:Here he dies at the same time the armistice takes effect.

* WithinArmsReach: Paul when a French soldier tries to drown him in a puddle. As he holds him down in thick, muddy water, Paul grabs a rock that's just within arm's reach, and hits him with it, allowing him to escape the puddle.

** One of the few comic bits in this grim movie has Paul and Kat successfully stealing a goose from a French farm house. Late in the film they try this again, and the farmer's son kills Kat.

** The audience is fully aware of what sort of hell the frontlines of [=WW1=] is [[ForegoneConclusion by default]] and if they are somehow unaware, there is a [[TheTeaser combat scene before even opening credits roll]]. Characters in-universe, however, are not. This is most prominent with all the eagerness with which the students go willingly and enthusiastically to the recruitment office, even if the war has been in a complete stalemate for three years already.

* ExternallyValidatedProphecy: During the negotiations with the French, Matthias Erzberger warns the French delegation that the terms imposed on Germany will lead to famine and anarchy with the general population and requests for more merciful terms that will not cause resentment amongst the populace. The French delegation does not listen and forces them to sign the peace agreement, setting the stage for the post-war conditions in Germany that led to the Nazis rise.

* GeneralRipper: After the French and German delegations sign the treaty that officiates that the ceasefire will begin at 11:00 am, on November 11, 1918, General Friedrichs is furious that Germany accepted defeat. In a last ditch effort to recapture some land from the French and spite the "social Democrats" that he believes will "ruin mankind", he orders his men to march towards no-man's land and achieve at least one last victory in the hours before the war officially ends, and orders any soldier who refuses to fight to be executed as a deserter and a traitor.

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Matthias Erzberger was a real person who did in fact sign the armistice. When he arrives at Allied headquarters he meets several other historical domain characters, such as the Allied commander in chief, General Foch.

** Paul even has it rougher than that. He makes it cross the whole way in the final suicidal strike, before being stabbed to death by a bayonet in the literal last minute of the war.

* OminousFog: The trenches are often obscured by ominous fog and mist in the mornings, like in the opening shots of the movie, or when Paul's unit is sent back to the front line in the last days. This raises the sense of fear and dread.

** Towards the ending of the film, during a tense moment between Paul and a French soldier, the two are at a standstill in a bunker, neither one of them seeming to want to make a move. The camera turns to Paul just in time to catch him [[InTheBack get stabbed through the back]] by another French soldier.

* AdaptationExpansion: The part of the film that follows Matthias Erzberger as he tries to get an armistice is an addition to the story, found neither in the original novel or previous adaptations like the 1930 film.

* ExternallyValidatedProphecy: During the negotiations with the French, Matthias Erzberger warns the French delegation that the terms imposed on Germany will lead to famine and anarchy with the general population and requests for more merciful terms that will not cause resentment amongst the populace. The French delegation does not listen and forces them to sign the peace agreement, setting the stage for the post-war conditions in Germany that led to the Nazis rise.

* ThisIsGoingToBeHuge: During a dinner, General Friedrichs comments with conviction that the future of his aide, Brixdorf, is secured, for his family owns a saddle-making factory and those will never go out of demand.
* TooHungryToBePolite: When Kat and his fellow German soldiers discover the French mess room, they stuff food into their mouths as quickly as they can with no thought to etiquette or dignity.

* ForebodingFleeingFlock: A SwarmOfRats acts as an alarm, as the rats are fleeing the French dugout, along with the [[BadVibrations ominous vibrations]], alert Paul and his friends that something bad is happening. It's a French tank attack.

* TankGoodness: After successfully raising a French trench, the Germans' position is assaulted by Saint-Chamond tanks, which prove immune to their bullets and drive straight over them. The Germans are routed and soon flee.

* StressVomit: A soldier turns around and vomits [[VomitIndiscretionShot on-camera]] into the trench, as all the men stand at the ready, waiting to go over the top in a counterattack.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: During the frantic retreat from the French counterattack, Paul's friend Franz is separated from the group, his fate left uncertain.

* TheSnackIsMoreInteresting: While clearing a trench, Kat and another soldier stumble into a French mess room filled with delicacies like sausages and jam. Starving, they drop their weapons in the middle of the fighting to [[TooHungryToBePolite wolf down]] the feast. Even when they are ordered to defend the freshly taken French positions, one of the soldiers is still busy filling his rucksack and pockets with the food.

* FatalFamilyPhoto: After the fact. Paul pulls out the wallet of a French soldier he has just killed, and finds a photo of the man's wife and daughter.

** Towards the ending of the film, during a tense moment between Paul and a French soldier, the two are at a standstill in a bunker, neither one of them seeming to want to make a move. The camera turns to Paul just in time to catch him [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice get stabbed through the back]] by another French soldier.

* VomitIndiscretionShot: A soldier turns around and vomits into the trench, as all the men stand at the ready, waiting to go over the top in a counterattack.

* SwarmOfRats: They actually act as an alarm, as the swarm of rats fleeing the French dugout, along with the ominous vibrations, alert Paul and his friends that something bad is happening. It's a French tank attack.

* CallForward:
** During the negotiations with the French, Matthias Erzberger warns the French delegation that the terms imposed on Germany will lead to famine and anarchy with the general population and requests for more merciful terms that will not cause resentment amongst the populace. The French delegation does not listen and forces them to sign the peace agreement, setting the stage for the post-war conditions in Germany that led to the Nazis rise.

* RobbingTheDead: To highlight just how resource-stripped Germany is by the spring of 1917, the opening sequence tracks a jacket taken off a dead soldier prior to his funeral in a mass grave. It goes through cleaning, drying, sorting, stitching back, sending to inventory... and ends up being handled to Paul during his recruitment.

** General Friedrichs, who just sent the peace party through the lines, says that "the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Democratic_Party_of_Germany Social Democrats]]" are destroying the country and that Germany can win as long as it can hold out. This is an allusion to the "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stab-in-the-back_myth stab-in-the-back]]" myth, the idea that the German army was undefeated in the field but was betrayed by disloyal elements at home, with Germany's Jewish population often being blamed despite tens of thousands of Jews giving their lives for Germany. This was a lie--the German army had been retreating for three solid months, and it was the generals like Hindenburg and Ludendorff who demanded that the politicians make peace, before the Western Front completely collapsed--but it became powerful propaganda for Hitler and the Nazis.

* ItWillNeverCatchOn: Inverted. During a dinner, General Friedrichs comments with conviction that the future of his aide, Brixdorf, is secured, for his family owns a saddle-making factory and those will never go out of demand.
* JabbaTableManners: When Kat and his fellow German soldiers discover the French mess room, they stuff food into their mouths as quickly as they can with no thought to etiquette or dignity.

* TheSnackIsMoreInteresting: While clearing a trench, Kat and another soldier stumble into a French mess room filled with delicacies like sausages and jam. Starving, they drop their weapons in the middle of the fighting to [[JabbaTableManners wolf down]] the feast. Even when they are ordered to defend the freshly taken French positions, one of the soldiers is still busy filling his rucksack and pockets with the food.

* BigGood: Matthias Erzberger, who tries his best to end the war Paul and his friends are fighting in diplomatically.

The film received 9 nominations at the UsefulNotes/{{Academy Award}}s, including Best Picture and Best Foreign Language Film.

The film is set in 1917-18 and the last year and a half of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. Paul Bäumer is a 17-year-old schoolboy who, along with his buddies Albert, Franz, and Ludwig, volunteer for the UsefulNotes/{{Imperial German|y}} [[UsefulNotes/PrussiansInPickelhauben Army]] after getting a patriotic talk from their teacher. They do not know that the army uniforms they are receiving have been taken from corpses.

The boys are sent to the trenches where they come under the wing of a veteran sergeant, Stanislaus "Kat" Katczynski. The mud, blood, and horror of the trenches quickly strips the boys of their patriotic enthusiasm. Time passes, and the fortunes of war turn against Germany, and the German army goes into retreat. While the surviving boys try to make it to the end of the war alive, German Minister of Finance Matthias Erzberger (Creator/DanielBruhl) is sent to the French, to beg for an armistice.

* WithinArmsReach: Paul when the French soldier tries to drown him in a puddle. As he holds him down in thick, muddy water, Paul grabs a rock that's just within arm's reach, and hits him with it, allowing him to escape the puddle.

* WithinArmsReach: The French soldier that Paul tries to drown in a puddle. As he holds him down in thick, muddy water, the soldier grabs a rock that's just within arm's reach, and hits him with it, allowing him to gain the upper hand and eventually kill him.