This year's Oscar is second only to the winner of "Instantaneous Universe" and is a remake

At the 95th Academy Awards held in March 2023, the German-language film "No War on the Western Front" produced by Netflix and directed by Edward Berg won four awards: Best International Film (formerly known as the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film), Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, and Best Original Soundtrack, becoming a big winner second only to "Instantaneous Universe".

The 2022 version of "No War on the Western Front" rewrites the ending of the male protagonist Boymer in the original novel. (Infographic/Figure)

This is not the first time that "No War on the Western Front" has been favored by the Oscars. In 1930, the English film "No War on the Western Front" directed by Lewis Myerston won the 3rd Oscar for Best Picture and Best Director that year. The film is adapted from the novel of the same name by German writer Erich Maria Remarque, which was published in 1928 and became popular in Germany and also sold in Britain, France, the United States and other countries, which happened to be the main participants in the Western Front battlefield of World War I.

A classic picture from the 1930 version of "No War on the Western Front". (Infographic/Figure)

He was killed in October 1918, the day the entire front was so quiet and silent that even the report of the corps headquarters contained only one line: There was no war on the Western Front.

He fell forward, lying on the ground as if asleep. When people turn him over, it can be seen that he did not suffer much torture before he died - the expression on his face was calm, and he seemed satisfied that the way things had ended.

At the end of the novel, the first person from the subjective perspective suddenly changes to the third person. With the death of the protagonist Paul Boimer, his world closes, and Paul ends up being the object of retelling. In his eyes, the cruelty and absurdity of world war has long been not a promise of military goals, but a long torment that cannot advance nor retreat, cannot be won and cannot be defeated, an inhuman hell:

In the summer of 1918, when the wind of hope blew through the scorched earth, anxiety and disappointment rushed feverishly, and the fear of death tormented painfully, we wondered incredulously: Why? Why not end yet? Why are rumors that the war is coming to an end still boiling over? ......

If we had returned home in 1916, we might have set off a great storm because of the pain and depth of our experience. If we go home now, we are just tired, decadent, exhausted, without roots, without hope. We will never be able to live normally anymore.

But in the grand narrative represented by the "Command Report," Paul's feelings, and ultimately his death, are meaningless. In official history, there was no war on the day he died.

The 1979 edition of "No War on the Western Front" presents the ending of the original novel. (Infographic/Figure)

This is the dark humor of the novel's title: the First World War declares that war has reached the pinnacle of nothingness, and humans have killed each other with the most advanced weapons, paying a heavy price of tens of millions of sacrifices, tens of millions of injuries, and scorched homes and lands, in exchange for despair, fear, hatred, and conspiracy theories.

2022 rewrite 1918

The original novel and the 1930 version of the film have become classics of the anti-war genre. The 2022 version of No War on the Western Front is not entirely faithful to the original, with Paul dying in a battle and an incredible death at the last second before the armistice went into effect. It's a reverse writing of Hollywood's last-minute victorious rescue. Although this changes the plot of the original work, it is still faithful to the spiritual core of the original work: war is a tragedy, but also an absurd drama.

The German commander-in-chief, von Hindenburg, was portrayed as a gambler who lost his eyes, and the more he did not win, the more he wanted to continue to use the war machine. Even though German diplomats had signed armistices with representatives of belligerent countries such as France, Hindenburg did not buy it, feeling that the Prussian iron-blooded soldiers had been betrayed by a group of capitulationist politicians. The soldiers, who originally thought that the agreement had been signed and could end the torture, were urgently summoned by him to fulfill "glory" and "dignity", but in fact acted as the last cannon fodder.

The "war maniac" Hindenburg in the movie "No War on the Western Front" (2022). (Infographic/Figure)

Compared with the 1930 version, the 2022 version of "No War on the Western Front", in addition to using wide format, large panorama and the latest film special effects technology to express realistic cruel war scenes, a more prominent feature is that it strengthens the double-line parallel editing between politicians, military leaders and front-line soldiers. On the eve of the end of the "First World War" in 1918, on the one hand, the generals' wine and flesh smelled, for them, war was a game of sand table deduction, even if it was defeated, it would only affect their political future, without any worries about livelihood and security; On the other side are the soldiers in the trenches, facing the threat of cold, dirt, hunger and death, and fantasizing about being an ordinary person after the war is over, which seems so luxurious.

The civil and military attachés on the German side are another set of parallel cuts. The civilian officer is at the negotiating table, the military attache is in the command room. The former wanted to end the war quickly, but the French, who had been invaded and had suffered a huge price, put forward harsh conditions, which made the Germans sting their backs and faced an impossible signing task. However, every delay, hesitation, and bargaining they made meant that more warriors died senselessly. On the military attaché's side, Hindenburg was still fantasizing about increasing the chips at the negotiating table with a victory, and balancing his lost dignity with a suicide attack that would also lead to death. Both civil and military attachés are immortals fighting, they move their mouths in heaven, and ant-like soldiers suffer in hell.

The civilian officials in charge of war peace talks in the movie "No War on the Western Front" (2022). (Infographic/Figure)

An important adaptation of the 2022 edition also includes the passage that omits Paul from returning home on vacation. The older comrade-in-arms, Carter, took Paul to a French peasant house twice to steal geese, which is an important new plot. In fact, Wolfsburg-born director Eduard Berg had his previous main experience in making TV series, and movies were only occasional for him. The series' emphasis on suspense, reversal, and the audience's expectations and anti-expectations undoubtedly also influenced the creation of the new version of "No War on the Western Front". In the original book, Carter died of a minor injury to the leg, and in the new version of the movie, after the armistice had been declared, two soldiers attempted to steal a goose for the second time, and a young boy from the farm family chased him out and shot Carter in the abdomen with a shotgun. Whether it's a funny goose stealing or being shot and not thinking about it, it's a bit of joy and sadness. Carter felt that it was not a fatal part, but he died because of the blood flowing to the internal organs, causing liver poisoning.

The goose-stealing duo in the movie "No War on the Western Front" (2022). (Infographic/Figure)

Paul didn't believe that Carter would die like this, they had just imagined their future life together, but what was even more shocking was that at dinner after the armistice, someone committed suicide with metal cutlery. The parallel clip reveals not only the difference between officials and soldiers, but also the drive and burial of a generation of young people by middle-aged and elderly people. The middle-aged and elderly people whose interests are solidified and hold the power of grand narratives have allowed a large number of young people in their teens to twenties to go to the front, and flies like deaths.

A belated restatement

The remake of classic films has become a trend in Hollywood in recent years. "The Birth of a Star", "West Side Story" and "Bin Hu" have all been put on the screen again, but the reputation is mediocre; The award-winning films "Listening Girl" and "Infernal Affairs" are adapted from the French film "The Bellier Family" and the previous peak of Hong Kong police and bandit films in China, "Infernal Affairs". It seems that adapting films from other regions is more successful than Hollywood's self-replication, after all, American judges and audiences may not be familiar with stories from foreign lands, even if the Hong Kong version of "Infernal Affairs" is much more wonderful than Martin Scorsese's remake, even if "Infernal Affairs" is difficult to rank in the top five in Martin's own works, it is enough to help him win back a little golden man.

"No War on the Western Front" was already remade in 1979, and this time it was recreated on a third path, that is, to have the story retold in German by a German director. It's a belated retelling of the 1930 version of the film that was banned by the Nazis for a long time, the novel's author Remarque even fled to Switzerland for refuge, and his family who remained in Germany paid with their lives.

Undoubtedly, anti-war novels and movies will not only fail to prevent war, but will also become a thorn in the side of war madmen. According to historian Volker Beckhan, World War I was a great disaster for all participating countries, and there were no winners in this war. If we think about what happened in Europe and the world from then until 1945, we will realize that the First World War was the "culprit" of all the disasters of the 20th century.

"World War II" has always been the main material library of war films and spy war films, and the United States, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, China, Japan, the Soviet Union and Russia have continued to produce a large number of films set in World War II or the broader anti-fascist war. The difference is that defeated countries such as Germany and Japan mainly reflect on the disasters of war through films, and other countries are the parties that have been invaded and launched resistance, and "World War II" is an important mobilization process in the process of modern state creation, and the common hatred has become the premise of nationalist "imagined community".

In comparison, the number of "World War I" films is much smaller, but there are still Hollywood classics such as "Blue Bridge", as well as film history masterpieces such as Jean Renoir's "The Great Phantom", Kubrick's "Road to Glory", and Truffaut's "Zu and Zhan". In recent years, taking advantage of the outbreak of World War I and the end of the centennial, a large number of "World War I" films have been produced, such as Spielberg's "War Horse", the British documentary "They Are No Longer Old" and the popular "One Shot to the End" film "1917" in 2020.

If you look back at the Oscars for Best Foreign Language Film in the last ten years (changed to Best International Film from 2020), you will find that the award of "No War on the Western Front" in 2023 is not ordinary.

The Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film or International Film has always been known for valuing authors and directors outside the English-speaking world, paying attention to the humanism and artistry of the film, Fellini and Bergman have won this award many times, and the award of Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" once revived the martial arts craze of Chinese-language films. In the past ten years, most of the winners of the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film or International Film have been endorsed by the three major European film festivals of the previous year, especially the Cannes Film Festival, with a few exceptions such as "Beautiful City" and "The Alcohol Project", and their directors Sorrentino and Winterberg are also today's hot authorial directors. The 2022 version of "No War on the Western Front" belongs to a fine work without too strong author's personality.

World War I ended Europe's golden age since the Franco-Prussian War in the 1870s and put an end to the illusion of permanent peace for Europeans at that time. Perhaps, what matters is not the story, but the era in which it was told. The reason why "World War I" deserves to be talked about again is because in 2022 and 2023, when the flames of war are rekindled, we need to understand what war means.

Southern Weekend reporter Li Heng