Erik Autor

While there were things I liked about this film, I think it would have been much better had it followed the book more closely. The book focuses on the shattering experiences of the Frontsoldaten, specifically a group of school mates and a seasoned soldier, Kat. I agree with other commenters that the addition of the senior officers and politicians negotiating the armistice did not really add much to the film. The book and earlier films begin early in the war when enthusiasm was high. It ends at armistice with the death of the last survivor of the group, Paul - depicted much differently in this film than the moving scene in the book and the previous two films. This film begins in 1917 - late in the war when enthusiasm had long waned and resignation and despair were settling in. I also felt the film could have done a better job at character-development. There were also inaccuracies - including the final, suicidal German charge minutes before the scheduled cease-fire. In sum, it was an interesting, but flawed film. Finally, I would like to see a movie version of the other great German novel of the First World War - "In Stahlgewittern" (In Storms of Steel) by Ernst Jünger, which, being autobiographical, I found to be an even more detailed, grim, and brutal depiction of the war from a soldier's perspective than Remarque's book.