Alternate Best Actor 2022: Felix Kammerer in All Quiet on the Western Front

Felix Kammerer did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Paul Bäumer in All Quiet on the Western Front. 

All Quiet on the Western Front while not quite the masterpiece of the original adaptation, is still an excellent remake that finds effective variation within the same story.

The greatest similarity between the two versions is that our focal point entrance to experiencing the great war is a group of four school boys who sign up for the war. A relatively minor change happens early on as Paul in the original film, as performed by Lew Ayres, has a slightly more doubting reaction when watching the speech by their schoolteacher setting himself up differently as not fully into the idea of the war even as he goes along with peer pressure. This is downplayed substantially as we do see Paul pushed along by his classmates again, however, Kammerer's portrayal of this is more so a "sure why not" than granting any reservations to it. He does present a certain kind of naïve shrug to the whole thing about just going along with his more adamant friends, however less with doubt and more just with an "I guess I'm doing this now" attitude. This isn't a criticism of Kammerer's performance however and instead grants Paul really as this starting point within the film as just a naïve young man going along with his friends for "an adventure". When he is going along the process of joining and gets a coat from a now-dead soldier, Paul's question about it is again performed by Kammerer as just a good schoolboy in a sense of just wanting to make sure he isn't getting something owed to something else, rather than doubting what is in front of him. 

Kammerer's work from this point on becomes the focal point in which to see the reality of their situation as they proceed into the war and face the very harsh realities of its existence. Kammerer's performance just watching as they see medics needing the truck for wounded men captures the dawning realizations naturally as just the minor hint of concern as they begin on their journey. What Kammerer also brings through shortly afterward is this naturally empathetic quality in Paul as the men are instructed to wear gas masks, and Paul helps another soldier help, getting himself into trouble for not getting the mask on fast enough. Kammerer's reaction brings a natural humanity in the moment of helping him out and brings just a natural ease in the part that makes it very easy to invest in Paul within the situation, as a good man, albeit definitely not a hero. On the first night of the actual war we see kind of the nature of playing the game at war, and though they are starting to see the truth of it, Kammerer's reactions again bring so naturally the dawning reality however as something that isn't fully there, yet. As we see Paul take on watch duty at night, taking a potshot at the enemy lines, which Kammerer portrays with a boyish eagerness, really just a boy at play. As natural though is his immediate reaction of fear and disbelief when his helmet gets shot off, and Paul runs into a bit more reality on his first night. 

What follows I think is really a grouping of different moments that one can connect to Kammerer's work that all speak to the strength of this performance. that is his ability to very much make the battle scenes that much more visceral and intense by always presenting our essential facet to every minute of these scenes. Kammerer's work delivers this focal point, not as a shallow surrogate for the audience, but rather as a very powerful reflection of just what one normal man would look like facing the reality of war after having been bluntly ignorant of it. Kammerer's work is consistently incredible in every war sequence, as he's never in any sequence in such a simple way. Take even that opening night which quickly gets worse to the point where one of their friends dies so quickly after entering the war. Kammerer is able to express the immediacy of the fear of the situation that initially envelops him, while also showing in just a moment the heartbreak in just seeing his friend die. Kammerer captures the immediacy of the horror both in just a sense of personal fear and also in terms of seeing his friend die around him. This is a consistent factor throughout every action scene throughout the film, each that is that much more visceral and emotional because of how pointed Kammerer's work is. Every reaction speaks so much to the horror of it all, whether making one feel the horror of seeing friends die by flame thrower or just the gut "ah shit" reaction of seeing tanks headed his way. It is stellar work in terms of selling every sequence that much more via performance. 

Kammerer's work though is beautifully balanced in the scenes where we are not directly on the battlefield and are just among the other men trying to live in moments of relative peace. Kammerer's great as this quieter man in Paul yet never uses that to be dull within a scene. He develops a great sense of camaraderie with all the other students he had gone in and there is just a sense of that connection in his work that is wonderful. Take even the moment of listening to one of his friend's sexual success with a French local, Kammerer's reactions are again pitch perfect in creating the sense of appreciation for his friend, and even a wistful wish within his own lack of experience in that regard. Kammerer in all of these interactions grants the sense of men truly being comfortable with one another and getting what joy they can out of life. The most potent aspect of this relationship though is his interactions with the more experienced soldier Kat (Albrecht Schuch). Their chemistry together is absolutely amazing because we have such genuine progress between the two as Kat begins as this "fun uncle" as he shows Paul the ropes. Kammerer's manner towards Schuch is so striking though in the way Kammerer shows this sense of warmth towards the man, an admiration but also a sense of connection. Take the scene where Paul reads a letter from Kat's wife to Kat, although it is hard to take your eyes off Schuch in the scene, Kammerer is also great in the way he delivers the words in moments you see Paul also taking it in, such as Kat's son had died. Kammerer grants such a potent sense of empathy in his performance. The two together though are so good because no moment is singular. They are convincing in the moment of sharing their mutual heartbreak over their plight, but they are just as convincing in the moment of just this real love the men share, as they share their plight together. There is a sense of fun in the two together, in their misadventures of stealing from a farmer, and the two are absolutely convincing in crafting this relationship in a way that feels so tangible and so very poignant within all the horror. 

Although Paul is very much our entry point to the various aspects of experiencing the war, the overarching story of Paul is how he is changed throughout his experiences in the war. Kammerer brilliantly brings this to life in really every subsequent scene from the earliest moment of letting his friends pull him where he very much just has that naïve fresh-faced eagerness, to the first battle where the horror of it plunges that right out of him. In every successive scene, we see the contrast in Kammerer's performance where his face loses any sense of immediate naivety but also seemingly any hope in life. His delivery begins with that eagerness that quickly matures, not to a normal adult, but that of an innate exasperation of someone who has already seen too much in this life. Kammerer naturally embodies this state of immediate and intense maturation, as his face alone just wears differently in his performance from the fresh-faced boy to the grizzled soldier. There isn't any makeup or obvious choice in this, it is just Kammerer's performance that conveys this age. Although this is a process we see in his work throughout there is a fundamental change in two moments in particular. The first is one of the essential scenes of the original film and novel, where Paul stabs a French soldier alone in the trenches, a scene that differs in being almost silent in its execution. Kammerer is outstanding throughout the sequence as we see initially just the intensity of survival as he jumps and stabs the man. Kammerer's work is heartbreaking though as that intensity painfully loses itself to this moment of realization we see on his brow and he suddenly sees the enemy soldier for what he is, a fellow man. Kammerer's sudden rush of feeling and attempted hospitality of trying to give the man what medical help he can is devastating. Kammerer's making this shift from being the blunt instrument of war to the man realizing that he has murdered so painful and so tangible as every action feels so filled with regret with such a tremendous sense of pathos in his eyes. The other fundamental shift comes when Kat gets shot by a local farm boy for their thievery of food, which begins as the two barely seem to recognize the seriousness. Kammerer's reactions are again great as he slowly is filled with desperation as it becomes more apparent the need for medical help is for Kat, though he doesn't take it fully in until when he gets Kat to the hospital who has already died from blood poisoning. Kammerer's work again makes you feel every moment of their previously loving relationship in their anguish that he presents as something that goes to the bone, as it doesn't feel like the first time but rather the pain is of so many losses of this ilk. And the man we see after this point is now really just a husk, his eyes now fashioning the thousand-yard stare really lost within his trauma, and even in the pointless final battle we see a man just going through the motions of life because he honestly died in spirit with Kat. This is an amazing performance by Felix Kammerer that gives us the full journey of a soldier that isn't all about death, in fact there is so much life in his portrait however what we then see is the true tragedy of it via the slow removal of that through the machinery of war.