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Journalism of Courage
On Sunday, Lesley Paterson won Best Adapted Screenplay at the BAFTA for ‘All Quiet on the Western Front”, an adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s anti-war novel of the same name published in 1929. The movie is nominated to the Oscars.
CNN wrote of Paterson: “A flash of inspiration can form the basis of her best ideas for film scripts. She counts among those the opening scenes of the Oscar-nominated “All Quiet on the Western Front.” The film begins in the trenches of the First World War, where much of the action is situated, before we are soon transported to a provincial town in Germany. There, Paul Bäumer – a young army recruit and the story’s protagonist – notices how his new military uniform carries the name tag of another solider. Unbeknownst to Bäumer, who is awkwardly told that the clothes were too small for their intended recipient, the soldier has apparently been killed in the war and his uniform recycled,” CNN wrote.
“It really sort of encapsulates the entire message of the film – that the uniform’s more important than the man,” Paterson told CNN Sport.
“It’s just one of those moments where you know it’s good and you think: ‘Oh my God … where did this come from?’ You feel so lucky that you’ve thought of it.”
The scene was first visualized on a run in the Scottish Highlands, and proved prescient when Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine complained of having to buy their own uniforms amid a shortage of basic equipment, according to CNN.
“If we can hold up a mirror to what’s going on to try and prevent more from happening, that truly is my goal as a storyteller – to effect change,” Paterson added to CNN.
The film looks at “tragedy and ruin of war, eschewing any notions of heroism or adventure,” CNN writes, focussing on the horrors of war in chilling detail. “Paterson, alongside writing partner Ian Stokell, got the option to the rights in 2006 but had to wait until 2020 before Netflix commissioned it as a German-language film.” It received a record-equaling 14 BAFTA nominations.
CNN describes Paterson as a “five-time world champion across two formats of off-road triathlon who relied on her sporting career as a source of income when it came to renewing the option contract each year, even to the extent that she forced herself to race through injury and acute pain.”
In 2016, Paterson fell off her bike and broke her shoulder the day of competition in Costa Rica. “With the help of her husband and her physio, she discovered she could still run and was able to ride her bike by propping her arm on the handlebars, leaving only the mile-long sea swim to consider,” CNN wrote.
“I do a lot of one-arm drills and was always really good at it and I’ve got a very strong leg kick. I practiced in the ocean and I was like: ‘Well, I can do one arm, let’s give this a shot.’”
After finishing the swim some 15 minutes behind the rest of the field, Paterson made up ground on the 40-kilometer mountain bike section before taking the lead on the 10-kilometer run.
“I don’t know if that’s the sort of Scottish underdog mentality or if it’s just truly I’m driven by a joy and passion and not so worried about outcomes,” she told CNN.
Paterson competed on the XTERRA cross-triathlon series – “all off-road and muddy and gritty and out in nature,” she told CNN – having previously missed out on qualifying for the Olympics with Great Britain at the start of her career.
She moved to California in her twenties to further her film studies, alongside competing in – and winning – races for a financial boost, particularly as she looked to get “All Quiet” off the ground.
“Every year we had to weigh up the option payment was incredibly stressful because it’s a lot of money.”
“Me doing well at racing was a huge piece of that because you could get a lump sum of money that wasn’t necessarily expected. A big way that we funded the film was me racing and doing well. It was a massive motivation.”
“I’ve always had these two simultaneous passions: the artist in me and the athlete in me.
“People think they are often very separate, but they’re actually very, very similar in terms of the skills you build and utilize and how one can help the other. I’d say that I truly am the athlete I am because I’m an artist and the artist I am because I’m an athlete.”
CNN writes she played rugby until the age of 12 – the only girl in a team of boys – and why she chose to tackle “All Quiet” at a time when war films were out of fashion in the industry. She still coaches triathlon but expects to devote more time to film in the future.
CNN quoted her mantra: “As long as you have incredible passion and focus and stop thinking about where you want to be and being in the moment with where you’re at … That’s where the beauty comes.”
