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MoonlightMile75 t1_iuismqn wrote

I loved it. And while it is changed from the book, the main ideas are still there - that war is terrible, that it irrevocably ruins soldiers, the lack of regard for life by leaders, and ultimately the incredible wastefulness of WW1 in particular.

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thorppeed OP t1_iuiuidv wrote

At a very basic level it keeps a lot of the main ideas, and those are things that any good WW1 movie should have whether it's based on Remarques book or not. That's why I say it's a pretty good ww1 film still.

But at the same time so much is lost from it. And not just minor themes either. The details really add up and I can't even really call it the same story anymore. I went over a lot of it in this post but it was the way Paul's death was mishandled in particular that really made me want to make this post.

I'm glad you loved it but personally I was really just expecting something else from it. If I could seperate it from the book totally then I probably would have loved it too. But as it stands I feel like the book and the older adaptations as well were a lot more meaningful and so I felt disappointed by it.

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brogrammer9k t1_iuit08g wrote

Books that tell a story of wear and tear on its survivors over a period of time rarely translate well to film. About 5 years ago I went on this spree of reading books with an emotional toll, with the highlights being The Road, In The Heart Of The Sea, then got capped off with All Quiet on the Western Front.

I dont know why hollywood is so against making a miniseries for stories that clearly require a miniseries to capture the full extent. I saw the Netflix trailer but thought it was going to be a show. Very disappointed to hear its a movie and even more so that they cut a lot of the book out for it. Maybe Tom Hanks could produce one that is Band of Brothers quality if he ever gets his ww2 fighter pilot series off the ground.

Oddly enough the part of the book that stuck with me the most was how hungry they were. There are times in my life where I thought I was hungry but after reading this book, I realized how privileged I've been to never truly experience hunger like these poor souls did. (or the sailors in the heart of the sea.... ;) )

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thorppeed OP t1_iuiv79a wrote

Yes I completely agree. I liked the TV miniseries from the 70s better than this, although that wasn't perfect either. If they made something like that again but improved with like an HBO's band of brothers budget then that would be really amazing. Maybe one day.

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Sure_Whatever__ t1_iuiprz0 wrote

I watch all 3 movies adaptations an this was the worst of the bunch, by far.

They basically skip the beginning which takes away a lot from the build up, and story. And a lot of the other scenes were re-written by someone that obviously never experienced such things (the original story was written by a WW1 vet, someone that has live it).

Example >!The kid catching up and shooting the soldier in the woods, that whole scene is wrong. Why was dude peeing so deep in the woods, away from his buddy? How did the young boy keep up with 2 seasoned vets running for their life? How did that same young boy sneak up on a solider dead silent so quickly? etc. etc.!<

In the original Movie >!The same soldier is hit by shrapnel as they walked down the road. Then while being carried to the hospital he is hit by shrapnel again in the head!<

Plus the use of that dah-DAH-dah sound effect was over used and rather annoying.

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