1917

War movies need to handle with an element of extreme care. Ignoring to address the ethical issues that come with such a barbaric situation that cost the lives of hundreds on both sides of the conflict would been seen as insensitive or even just unrealistic from a viewer’s perspective, and a film can usually come across as too preachy, overly fabricated, bias or just slightly generic and mindless if not given the right amount of tact and intelligence. With how many films have been created that highlight such a tragedy (with a specific focus going to World War I) it becomes a little hard to find variety amongst all the options. When 1917 came out in 2019 and was given strong buzz around Oscar season (even being nominated for a lot of the big categories), it gave off the impression that it was attractive to those in the critical and cinephile space, but one that wouldn’t resonate with most casual audiences with even the trailers presenting something that looked visually impressive, but not too dissimilar to others before it.  That’s why it was a delightful surprise to discover that the film actually did warrant all of its hype by presenting a done-before idea in a unique enough manner to make it really work. Nearing the end of the first World War, two young British lance corporals, Thomas Blake, and William Schofiled (played by Dean-Charles Chapman and George MacKay) are assigned by General Erinmore (played by Colin Firth) to deliver a message to a neighboring squadron to call off an advance that will lead them into a trap and put the lives of over a thousand men in jeopardy. Discovering that Blake’s brother, Joseph (played by Richard Madden) is in this very squadron, the two are forced to cross no man’s land and have to traverse all forms of terrible danger and life-threatening situations in order to reach their location before it’s too late. Being a critical and box office success as well as taking home three wins at the year’s Academy Awards, 1917 in many ways is a perfect representation of what it sets out to achieve. Instead of being a typical gore-sploitation film that glorifies one of the darkest periods of human history in either an overly sentimental or overly graphic manner, it is a pleasantly real experience that takes a straightforward story and combines it with perfect acting, violence that isn’t overblown but is still gruesome in many ways, mostly engaging cinematography, and a punchy score to produce one heck of a memorable experience.

One of the best aspects of this film is just how subdued and even small-scale the picture is, as there are no showcases of any intense battles, graphic imagery, or even the usual cliches that come with this journey of film, it’s really just two guys walking across a barren wasteland in order to get from one place to the other. Adopting a format that almost feels like a ”road-trip” movie, those types of films thrive and live-and-die by their characters, a sense of development, and connectivity and relatability with their audience, and there is arguably nothing more connectable than a soldier in the war. The premise for this film written by director Sam Mendes and writer Krysty Wilson-Cairns is pretty straightforward and very easy to quickly grasp and understand, which immediately grabs the audience’s attention and holds onto them throughout its entire running time. The human connection and minimal dialogue allow the focus of the story to remain intake and come from a relatable place, and the harshness that these characters endure make the eventual outcome all the more rewarding and satisfying. It’s not a film that gets caught up with distractions like sub-plots, other characters, deep messaging or even that complex a narrative, it knows what’s important and it captures the environment and emotional struggle very well through its visuals, acting, writing, and directing. Sam Mendes pulls from the stories told to him by his grandfather about his services during World War I to not only convey the realism of the situation without much issue, but also the unbearable stress that the situation put on everyone, constructing the story to have this overwhelming feeling of being beaten down and constantly having to keep trudging on through scary situations, but is balanced out with just enough sombre and quiet moments to allow the audience a chance to breath and fully take in the situation, it’s a very well-paced out story. While something like Saving Private Ryan is known as the staple for this genre and type of film, it came with its fair share of corny hoaky elements that kept it from feeling truly authentic, whereas this film may have less content from a cinematic standpoint but feels totally authentic and creates for a truly gripping experience. Another habit of Mendes’ style of directing is producing something that can feel a bit preachy in parts, and that element can be felt sometimes throughout this movie (particularly during a song sequence at the end), but it feels like its earned and provides a sense of tranquil peace in a situation that desperately needs it.

Characters in war are often very easy to make sympathetic, as seeing a person struggle through a truly disturbing situation that puts them in constant life-threatening peril will make you fear for them quite easily. As previously stated, the movie is smart to keep the scale of this story pretty intimate and minute, and the focus on two singular soldiers traveling from one trench to the other works wonders with this presentation. The destination and goal are very much seeped in a human desire to protect something, so that already helps draw people in more to want them to succeed, but it also works because of how well these two leads are handled. While both characters are given names and hints of a backstory, you can tell that there wasn’t a focus on making them defined characters, but instead on making them just feel like people. While that element can feel a little lame at times and almost an excuse to not include depth to a role in these situation, it feels like it works well here due to the circumstances at hand and the fact that both of them do still stand as memorable people, just from a more streamlined basis. Both Dean-Charles Chapman and George MacKay are perfect at playing these under-stated but still very likeable people, with every second of urgency and panic feeling really believable and the minimal dialogue still gets across a lot without having to say much, its well-handled. While the film technically throws a twist around the beginning of the halfway point that is honestly not surprising at all if you’d seen the trailer, it doesn’t affect the movie too harshly as the emotions and atmosphere just become more harrowing and fearful.  The minimal supporting cast features some pretty famous names like Colin Firth, Benedict Cumberbatch, Andrew Scott, Richard Madden and Mark Strong but they don’t really add much or are given much screen time, so it feels like they’re included just to feature some B-list talent.

The biggest marketing tools and quality that was heavily praised was the film’s attempt, or at the very least giving off the illusion of an attempt, to film the entire movie in single shot. When you properly dissect this thought, you’d realized it would be near impossible and just borderline ridiculous to film an entire movie in one shot, but what’s entertaining about this trick is not believing that is done in one go, but rather appreciating the effort the team put into making it look like its achieving this and trying to comb through the whole movie to see where they tried to hide an edit or cut. While this idea can very easily come across as a gimmick solely as a means of standing out as unique when in actuality it would just be smarter and more effective to just produce it like a regular film, but it does feel like it’s used effectively and to its highest advantage by cinematographer Roger Deakins and editor Lee Smith. It has the obvious positive that it provides a sense of close proximity with the characters that feels more ground-level and honest in its imperfections, it leads to some very nice environment shot through several impressive panning shots, and it is genuinely hard to notice the edits unless you look really hard, but what this tool excels at the best is turning the mundane into something interesting. The environments in this film are not the most interesting to look at from a cinematic viewpoint as they have too much wide space, they are colorless and generic looking, and they start to look alike with each passing scene, so it would be hard to get a good movie-quality angle on them, but the film’s non-typical presentation actually turns this problem. The over-the-shoulder slow pans into these new part of no man’s land feels like discovering a new location in a video game; where you’ve travelled a long way to find something different, even if what you found isn’t that unique, it creates a new feeling that emphasizes the time taken to reach each point and makes the journey feel longer and more impactful, as a cut could’ve indicated a passage of time that would’ve broken the flow of the film and made the journey not feel as strong as it was portrayed as. The score by Thomas Newman is a nice triumphant piece with the injections of tragedy adding nice layers to it, providing something that can be as equally effective in the intense situations as it is the morose situations.

1917 may seem like an Oscar-bait one-trick pony from the outside, but actually viewing it will show that it actually does deserve a lot of the praise that it receives Even if the direction the film takes isn’t what someone is looking for, it’s hard to ignore that everything this movie does seems pretty close to perfect for what its hoping to achieve, from the direction, story, acting, pacing, camera work, and music, it flows so nicely together. With that said, it’s not a movie that works for everyone and much like most war movies, after the experience has been felt and the dust settles, the second viewing may not be as wowing even if all the elements still really work, but that’s more of a fault of the genre itself rather than the film as a whole. The film still features great acting, very nicely composed shots, a more emotional driven story and a great lack of any strong violence or typical components of this kind of story. Even if you are not a war buff, this movie may surprise you with what it has to offer. Check it out for yourselves and see this real-world event come to the big screen.