Der Weltkrieg, 2. Teil Review: A very dusty, very sad history lesson

If you are looking for a fun night with popcorn, stay far away from Der Weltkrieg, 2. Teil - Des Volkes Not. This is not that kind of movie. Honestly, it is barely a 'movie' in the way we think of them now, but if you are a history nerd or someone who likes seeing how the world used to look before everything got HD and fake, it is worth a look.

It is mostly for people who don't mind reading a lot of intertitles and staring at scratchy black-and-white footage of people looking very tired. If you hate slow, silent films that feel like a museum exhibit, you will probably be bored to tears within ten minutes.

I watched this on a Tuesday night when I couldn't sleep, and man, it is heavy. You can really tell it was made in 1927 because the pain of the war still feels like it happened yesterday to the people on screen. It is the second part of a series, focusing on 'the people's need,' which basically means everyone was hungry and miserable.

The footage of the bread lines is what got me. There is this one shot of an old woman holding a basket, and she just looks... empty. It is not like the acting in Puppy Love or those other lighthearted silents from the same time. This feels raw and uncomfortably real.

Director Léo Lasko uses a lot of maps. So many maps. Sometimes the screen is just a giant drawing of Europe with arrows moving around to show troop movements. It gets a bit tedious after a while, and I found myself checking my phone during the third map sequence. It feels like the movie is trying to be a textbook and a drama at the same time, and it doesn't always work.

But then it cuts back to the streets of Berlin or some muddy field, and you're sucked back in. There is a specific moment where a soldier is writing a letter, and the way his hands shake slightly—I don't know if that was acting or if the guy was just cold, but it felt right. It is those tiny, unimportant details that make these old films stick in your brain.

Compared to something like The Open Road, which is all about the beauty of the landscape, this is much more gray and oppressive. The flickering of the film reel actually adds to the vibe here. It makes the world look like it is vibrating with anxiety.

I noticed that the kids in the background of some scenes are staring directly at the camera. It reminds you that back then, a film crew was a huge deal. They probably had no idea they were being filmed for a massive documentary about the 'Great War.' They just saw a weird man with a big wooden box on a tripod.

There is no music in the version I saw, just silence. It makes the explosions in the combat re-enactments feel oddly quiet, which is weirdly more scary than if they had big orchestral booms. You just see the dirt flying up and then nothing. It's ghostly.

The pacing is a mess, to be fair. It stays on some scenes for way too long, like a shot of a train leaving a station that goes on for nearly a full minute. I think they just didn't want to waste any footage they had. It makes the movie feel clunky and a bit uneven.

I kept thinking about The Sawmill while watching this, mostly because it's the exact opposite of this film's mood. While American studios were making gags and slapstick, these German filmmakers were trying to process a national trauma. It’s a weird contrast to keep in your head.

Is it propaganda? Yeah, probably a little bit. It wants you to feel bad for Germany at the end of the war. But even if you don't care about the politics, the human faces are what matter. You see people who have clearly lost everything, and that doesn't need a translation or a political stance to understand.

One scene shows a group of men sitting around a small fire, and one of them tries to light a cigarette with a shaking match. He fails twice. The camera just stays on him. It’s such a small, pathetic moment, but it felt more honest than any of the big battle scenes they tried to stage later on.

The ending is a bit abrupt. It sort of just... stops. There is no big wrap-up or emotional payoff. It just fades to black, leaving you sitting there in the dark feeling a bit cold. It’s not a 'good' movie in the sense that it’s entertaining, but it’s a significant piece of film to sit through if you have the patience.

I wouldn't watch it twice. But I'm glad I watched it once. It makes you realize how lucky we are that we don't have to stand in line for hours just for a piece of gray bread. Anyway, if you find a copy, maybe watch it with a coffee so you don't nod off during the map parts. 📽️