Positive endings!
That is the psychological thumb-rule that drives our decision to either watch a movie or read a novel, almost all the time. Why would we waste our time on something we know is gonna make us unhappy at the end?
Not that we don’t wanna see the struggles, the tribulations, and the fight for survival. In fact, we do wanna see all of them… and, much more. More the edge-of-the-seat experience, the better! ‘Cos, that’s where lies the thrill. Without all of it, it will be so boring. But, it should all end well.
That’s how we approach our life itself. We encounter lots of challenges only on the hope that we’ll reach where we wanna be, at the end of it all.
That is the very design of life. Hope and happiness!
But, there’s a starker and darker side to life. A life where there’s absolutely no hope. What drives one forward is only the barking commands from behind and the bestial instinct to survive the brutality of bullets that whiz past. The war!
Fortunately, most of us don’t even know what it is to be on a war-field. Hearing, seeing and reading news of war scenarios isn’t the same as being in one. So, we are blissfully unaware of the gore of war.
But, what if we wanna experience the war at least vicariously? Feel how it will be to be on the field?
Get set for such an experience, the last thing we expect to see is, chirpy moments and happy endings. Isn’t for the weak-hearted, definitely… ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT.
Made with a steely-resolve to make it look nothing short of real, the Netflix movie has the director, his crew (especially that of art direction) and the artists going to unimaginable lengths to churn some brutally stunning stuff. And, for once, the movie that ends on a negative note, doesn’t make us feel we have wasted our time watching it.
In fact, it makes us feel enlightened… it wakes our senses to something scarily real… and, it makes us feel blessed that we are safe in some corner of the world.
And, it makes us clap our hands in deep appreciation of how it is made and presented… the art of war gore!
SAINT MAVERICK 