The following article contains spoilers for the Netflix film All Quiet on the Western Front.The new Netflix World War I epic, All Quiet on the Western Front is based on a 1929 novel of the same name by Erich Maria Remarque. Though the story is entirely fictional, it is based on Remarque’s personal experiences serving in “the war to end all wars.”
It is not the first film to be made of the novel, but it is perhaps among the most popular. The story centers on a young German man named Paul Bäumer (Felix Kammerer), who volunteers to join the war effort with his friends from school. Tragically, they have no idea what they are getting into. The novel and the movie both have a compelling anti-war narrative, and the film likes to drive the point home by leaving in a few extra details.
Updated on March 9, 2023, by Hannah Saab:
Fans of All Quiet on the Western Front are likely eagerly waiting to see how many of its nine Oscar nominations the war film will end up winning during the 95th Academy Awards (March 12). The decorated movie received the following nominations:
• Best Picture
• Best International Feature Film
• Best Adapted Screenplay
• Best Visual Effects
• Best Cinematography
• Best Production Design
• Best Makeup and Hairstyling
• Best Original Score
• Best Sound
1 Paul’s Uniform Belonged to a Deceased Soldier
Many have actually caught onto this one, but it’s still easy to miss if you watch the movie without subtitles, or just leave it on as background noise without paying close attention to it. In the opening scene of the movie, a young German soldier charges out of his trench and engages in hand-to-hand combat with a French soldier before the screen cuts to black, and the German is never heard from again.
A couple of minutes later, Paul enlists in the war and is picking up his uniform, when he states that the uniform already has a nametag and belongs to someone else. The administrators tell him it must simply be a case of the uniform being too small for the previous owner. Of course, the truth is that the previous owner of the uniform is the German soldier from the opening scene, and he likely died.
Throughout the film, it is shown that after artillery bombardments or assaults, the duty of the surviving soldiers is to take the dog tags off of the deceased. Another scene depicts two scribes who write down every name from the dog tags collected to mark that individual as a fatality, so that their families can be notified.
When Paul is found dead at the end by a new German recruit, the recruit gets distracted by the scarf Paul is holding. The recruit takes the scarf, but forgets to grab Paul’s dog tags. This, sadly, means that Paul’s family will likely never receive closure on what happened to him, and his heroic deeds will go unrecognized since his name will never even be recorded. Why didn’t he take Paul’s tags? It was likely just a simple mistake, and further emphasizes how futile the protagonist’s journey has been up to that point in the already-unflinching war film.
3 The Marching Song Shows the Order of the Characters’ Deaths
When Paul and his friends, Ludwig (Adrian Grünewald), Kropp (Aaron Hilmer) and Müller (Moritz Klaus) are marching off to the front for the first time, they are in high spirits and begin singing a marching song.
During the song, the camera pans over Ludwig, Kropp, Müller, and Paul, in that order. This wasn’t just a coincidence – this is the order in which the characters die. It’s the movie’s way of revealing the ending from the start, even if it is a grim one.
4 Paul Comes Full Circle
When Paul first arrives at the front line, he is essentially nothing but a helpless child. Just when it seems like he’s about to be killed, he is saved by his comrade, a veteran soldier named Kat (Albrecht Schuch).
Then, during the film’s final battle, a new recruit (the same one who forgot to collect Paul’s dog tags) is in a similar situation. Just when he is about to be killed, Paul, now being a seasoned veteran himself, rescues the young man and saves him from certain death.
5 The War is a Wild Goose Chase
Twice in the film, Paul and Kat break into French farmsteads and steal a goose so that they can have something good to eat. This was due to the food shortages that German soldiers experienced on the front lines. There’s a reason why a goose was picked rather than a chicken, a pig, or a lamb: the war is, in itself, a wild goose chase.
If you’re not familiar with the saying, a wild goose chase is an idiomatic expression referring to a pursuit of something pointless or unattainable. World War I was caused because of a Hungarian archduke’s assassination by a Serbian gunman. Due to established alliances and growing tension in Europe, the world went to war over the death of one man. Many of the ones who suffered in the war had no connection whatsoever to the archduke or the assassin, so most felt that the war effort was futile, and thus, a wild goose chase. What’s more, the award-winning war film states in the end that the front line barely moved from the beginning of the war to its end, meaning neither side really gained much territory.
6 The Mask of War
Whenever something horrible happens in the film, a character will usually find the right half of their face caked in mud. This is shown three times throughout the movie. The first is when Paul finds Ludwig’s corpse after the first artillery bombardment. The right side of Ludwig’s face is muddy.
It then happens to Paul twice. Once when he is stuck in an impact crater where he is forced to kill a French soldier, who dies a slow, agonizing death. It happens again in the film’s final battle, when Paul is nearly drowned in a mud puddle by a French officer. This may be used to symbolize how Paul and his friends’ innocence is being tainted and “muddied” by the horrors of war.
7 The Penultimate Battle and the Intro Sequence Are Very Similar
The penultimate disturbing battle in the movie takes place in an open field pockmarked by impact craters and mudholes. All of this is blanketed by a thin layer of snow and a thick layer of blood. The battle depicted in the intro sequence takes place in an almost identical setting.
In fact, Paul goes through a similar set of motions to the man whose uniform he wears. They both take cover behind a log, fire their rifles, and begin to panic in the senseless rush and brutal violence going on around them.
8 Kat and Paul Rob the Same Farmer Twice
During the aforementioned goose heists, you may notice that the farms look familiar. Sure, this might be because in early 20th-century rural France, most farms looked the same. But the truth is, Paul and Kat don’t go to different farms to steal geese.
During the first robbery, you can briefly see the farmer’s son running by. He can also be seen in the background standing next to his father as his father shoots at the thieves. When the farmer’s son is given a clearer look the second time, he is bald. During the first robbery, the farmer’s son also appears to be bald. Coincidence? Unlikely.
9 Kat Foreshadows His Own Death
After Paul and Kat bring the goose back to their comrades and begin feasting on it, they all begin singing songs and poking fun at the event. They say in a mocking tone that they should watch out because the farmer will shoot them with his rifle.
During the second goose robbery, this is exactly what happens: the farmer’s son shoots Kat with his rifle, killing him. The soldiers all warned Kat in a joking manner, but they had no idea how right they would be, as one of the most devastating movie character deaths would be just around the corner.
10 Paul is Only 17 When He Joins The War
This one is also easy to catch on to, but also easy to miss if you either watch without subtitles or don’t pay much attention. When Paul signs up for the army, his birthday is listed as November 18th, 1899. He joins in Spring of 1917. This would make Paul just 17 years old, the absolute lowest age German soldiers were permitted to join the war.
Paul meets his end only 18 months later, on the last day of the war. The last day of World War I was November 11, 1918, which would make Paul 18 years old at the time of his death, just one week shy of his 19th birthday. It really drives home the anti-war narrative given how tragic Paul’s situation is, and how his life was cut far shorter than it needed to be.
