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* ArtisticLicenseHistory: In the movie, German General Friedrichs orders an attack in the last fifteen minutes of the war that succeeds only in getting hundreds more young men killed for zero gain. [[TruthInTelevision While there were indeed multiple pointless attacks in the last hours of World War 1]], they were launched by ''the Allies'', not Germany, as noted in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6DERzglY1g a History Channel documentary]].
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* ArtisticLicenseHistory: In the movie, German General Friedrichs orders an attack in the last fifteen minutes of the war that succeeds only in getting hundreds more young men killed for zero gain. [[TruthInTelevision While there were indeed multiple pointless attacks in the last hours of World War 1]], they were launched by ''the Allies'', Entente'', not Germany, as noted in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6DERzglY1g a History Channel documentary]].
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* AnyoneCanDie: By the end of the movie, the only named character who might've lived is Franz, who gets separated from Paul during a French counter-attack and is not seen again. Every other character dies terribly and pointlessly.
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* ArtisticLicenseHistory: In the movie, German General Friedrichs orders an attack in the last fifteen minutes of the war that succeeds only in getting hundreds more young men killed for zero gain. [[TruthInTelevision While there were indeed multiple pointless attacks in the last hours of World War 1]], they were launched by ''the Allies'', not Germany, as noted in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6DERzglY1g a History Channel documentary]].
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* GreyAndGreyMorality: While the movie is centered on the German side of World War I, there are moments where the French are humanized too, such as when Paul is stuck in the shell hole with the dying French soldier, or in a brief PerspectiveFlip where the French soldiers are shown relieved that the war is about to end before Paul's company are forced to attack them. Neither are the Germans and French portrayed as wholly innocent either, as both are shown killing surrendering soldiers.
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* ScrewTheWarWerePartying: Defied. When the news of an imminent armistice causes impulsive celebrations and drinking in the German lines, General Friedrichs becomes appalled by the lack of discipline and orders a pointless, suicidal attack in the last fifteen minutes of the war, having anyone who balks summarily executed.
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* WarCrimeSubvertsHeroism: Both the Germans and French are depicted killing injured and surrendering soldiers, which is a war crime. One particularly gruesome example of this is when a group of Frenchmen kill a surrendering Albert by torching him with a flamethrower.
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* HomeByChristmas: That's what the soldiers are made to believe in order to join the war.
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* RecruitersAlwaysLie:
** Paul's teacher gives a bombastic speech about courage, glory, and the boys being ''this'' close to pushing the war to victory when encouraging Paul's class to enlist. What might have been misguided optimism at the start of the war is a complete damned lie by this point.
** When Paul notices that his uniform has the name Heinrich in it, the military officer that issued it rips the nametag out and glibly lies that it must not have fit that other person to not scare Paul off. The pile of nametags underneath the desk just underscores how many times this exchange happened that day alone.
** Paul's teacher gives a bombastic speech about courage, glory, and the boys being ''this'' close to pushing the war to victory when encouraging Paul's class to enlist. What might have been misguided optimism at the start of the war is a complete damned lie by this point.
** When Paul notices that his uniform has the name Heinrich in it, the military officer that issued it rips the nametag out and glibly lies that it must not have fit that other person to not scare Paul off. The pile of nametags underneath the desk just underscores how many times this exchange happened that day alone.
