Feb. 13th, 2026

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All Quiet on the Western Front (2022) is an old school film which delivers what old school does best. The closest analogy that I can find is Doctor Zhivago, both in scope and cinematics. It follows a German youth who joins the infantry in World War One, and what he experiences during his days.

This film takes no shortcuts. It delivers punches. It's a treat to the eye and a thorn to the heart.

It has this minimalistic score, more of a soundscape, three deep and ragged notes, played as punctuation, over and over. The music is never comforting. Rather, it's jarring and disquieting. In this war film, quiet is the music, for when it's not quiet, there are guns and thunder.

It never quite explains itself, always letting you work out the situation for yourself, which you do well enough. You can put two and two together. That's the horrible part of the piece. By making you do the work, by getting you into the frame of mind of assembling the pieces, you assemble a far more comprehensive idea of what's going on, which makes you despise the situation far more deeply than words could ever deliver.

This is not a must-see film, because it's a hard film, but it is absolutely a magnificent film, worthy of cinematic accolades.

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Varidog

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