Lance Tennenbaum

It is hard for me to fathom not giving this movie five stars, yet here we are. The book is without a doubt my favorite book, I even got a first edition English print for my bookshelf. It was definitely disheartening to see how the director decided to convey the story and his choices in the order of certain parts of the book. The timeline of the book made sense, a lot more focus on what happened when the soldiers were not fighting, as most of the time they were just waiting around to fight. The book also focused more on character interactions between Paul and his squad. Not to mention they spend a lot of time focusing on the generals and the signing of the armistice, which was something the book virtually ignored in favor of focusing on the plight of the individual soldier. This is not to say the movie was bad. It still did a great job conveying the brutality and senselessness of war, just as Remarque intended. The battle scenes were very well done and from a cinematic standpoint there is very little to complain about. I just imagine how great this movie would have been if they had stuck closer to the original story.