All Quiet on the Western Front Movie Questions & Review

Welcome to the Buddy Book Club, we have a light-hearted comedic podcast that covers a variety of books. Despite being a book podcast, our discussions sometimes (read: frequently) verge into movies. Often its because we’re making comparisons or we’re just imagining what the book would look like on the silver screen (check out our Make it a Movie blogs). We’re now combining our two loves: books and movies, and covering them on our movie episodes.

Our Questions & Reviews try to be a little more outside the box/comedic, and come from a readers perspective. Hopefully you enjoy them.

All Quiet on the Western Front Movie Questions

-> Is length of mustache an indicator of how shitty a person you are?

Kat’s mustache, perfect length, working mans mustache – General Friedrich on the other hand has an unruly mustache and clear indicator that he’ll be a dickhead.

-> Should pissing in public be legal? Kat walks off to pee (spoiler) and ends up getting shot in the woods. Why not just piss right there in the field they were in?

Big difference from the book where they talk about them having no shame and openly urinating and defecating next to each other all the time. 

-> What did you think of the casting for this movie? 

I think they nailed it. The actor that played Kat was perfect. The transformation of Paul was great. Job well done.

-> Did the first scene showing how horrible the front was kind of spoil things?

Obviously we knew it was going to be bad, but I think Paul going from excited to miserable would hit harder if we didn’t know what the front looked like.

-> What do you wish they kept in from the book?

I think they should have kept the portion where Paul goes back home and showed how horrible medical situation was. Both of those portions of the book amplify the overall hopelessness of the war, and the feeling that all was lost even if they get out alive.

-> Is there any pump up speech in history that would have you like this?

For me no, pump up speeches only work if I’m about to go do something that instant, but they wear off pretty quick. This would maybe inspire me for about 5 minutes then I’d forget about it.

-> Are you a dubbed movie watcher or subtitle person?

Big debate on the podcast about this one, but for this movie I think either way could work, wasn’t a ton of dialogue.

-> How do you think the movie compared to the book?

Personally, I liked the movie better, it really brought to life the suffering, plus I thought adding the negotiations was a nice touch.

 

All Quiet on the Western Front Movie Score

D-Man    / 4

Keith        /4 

3 out of 4 stars/Buddies = really solid movie, would recommend.