The Making of 'All Quiet on the Western Front'

Dan Snow's History Hit

History Hit

History

4.7 • 12.9K Ratings

🗓️ 6 March 2023

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

All Quiet on the Western Front is the 2022 film adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque's famous anti-war novel. Told from the German perspective, it presents a gruelling depiction of life and death in the First World War, emphasising the despair and disillusionment of the soldiers who fought in it. The film has enjoyed great success, having already won seven BAFTA Awards and been nominated in nine categories at the upcoming 95th Academy Awards. But what does it take to transform a film like this from a passion project into a blockbuster hit? And how should filmmakers handle stories rooted in conflict? On today's episode, we are joined by Lesley Paterson, the film's executive producer and co-writer, and a world champion triathlete. She tells us about the trials and tribulations she faced to bring the project to fruition, and how history influenced her writing to bring the story to life.

Produced by James Hickmann and edited by Dougal Patmore.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi everybody, welcome to Dan Snow's History It.
0:03.4	All quiet in the Western Front.
0:04.8	We're all talking about all quiet in the Western Front.
0:07.6	It is the runaway, surprise hit of 2022.
0:12.6	It's one seven bafters.
0:14.6	It's nominated for a bunch of Oscars, including writer, best picture cinematography, production
0:19.6	design, score, visual effects, obviously sound, crazy, the sound, all that kind of stuff.
0:25.1	On the twother march we'll find out where it's one of these years, big winners at the Oscars.
0:29.8	But we felt we had talk well on the pod.
0:31.3	Obviously, for lots of reasons, one is because it's about the First World War.
0:35.6	It's sort of based, it's inspired by Eric Merriam-Rark's remarkable biographical account of the First
0:41.7	World War, the book All Quiet in the Rest of Front, which was published in the 1920s.
0:46.4	As ever folks, it's a film, it's not a history documentary, it's not a super accurate portrayal
0:51.2	of the events that it shows, but it's proved super popular with audiences around the world.
0:56.6	For its ultra-impressive depiction of life and death on the Western Front
1:01.9	as told from the German perspective.
1:04.8	Now, in this episode of the podcast, I'm lucky enough to be talking to Leslie Patterson.
1:08.0	She's the executive producer and co-screen writer of All Quiet in the Rest of Front.
1:13.7	This is brilliant. She grew up near the bathroom,
1:15.6	Bannock Berman's Scotland, that's why she loved this stuff.
1:17.9	And she has written a film that is now a smash hit.
1:21.2	So I'm going to get her on.
	...

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