1917 | Film Review

War is not a recent invention. Humans have been killing each other en masse since the time the first stone knife was chipped. The 20th century was certainly no exception. It saw the bloodiest, most prolonged conflicts in human history, and it began with the “Great War”: World War I. Termed “The War to End All Wars” (what a quaint notion), WWI introduced the concept of impersonal mechanized warfare to a society that was wholly unprepared for it. Oddly, this conflict has been largely ignored by Hollywood.  There have been a few great films that focus on this time period; All Quiet on the Western Front being the title that immediately springs to mind. More recently films like War Horse and the incredible documentary They Shall Not Grow Old have also shed some light on a war that, to today’s generations, took place an unfathomably long time ago.  With 1917, director Sam Mendes has eclipsed them all.

1917 tells the story of two British soldiers (Dean-Charles Chapman and George MacKay) tasked with a harrowing mission to deliver a message across miles of no-man’s land calling off an attack that will doom an entire regiment of allied troops. The colonel leading the attack (Benedict Cumberbatch) believes the Germans to be in full retreat, when in fact they have merely pulled back to lure the allied troops into a massive ambush. Adding urgency to an already tense situation, one of the men carrying the message has an older brother serving in the regiment who is about to be massacred. 1917 leaves no doubt that the fate of 1600 men lies with two grunts and an envelope carrying the order to stand down.  If they fail in their mission, those men WILL die. All of them. The weight created by that underlying fact sets the tone for every tension-filled second of this film. Make no mistake, it is a nail-biter from beginning to end. While some war films focus on the “glory” of war, or the brutality of it, 1917 conveys both the hopelessness and the humanity of the soldiers who fight. For these two men, the desire to save their comrades goes beyond simply completing their mission. It becomes an obsession, and one that the entire audience shares.

1917′s stunning achievement in filmmaking is told in essentially real time and appears to be one seamless continuous take. The editing success in pulling off that effect defies belief, requiring research to ensure that the film wasn’t actually shot in a single take. While there actually are cuts in the film, they were set up as to be invisible, and single takes of 8-10 minutes were the standard for producing the finished film. This method required new mechanical innovations in camera work, precise timing of shots over days to replicate sun angle and cloud cover (the filming for most of the daylight scenes were shot exclusively on overcast days to aid in this), and an almost superhuman effort on the part of the camera operators. The result of all this effort is that the viewer follows the two soldiers through their mission as if they are actually there with them.  No other war movie has ever pulled off that feeling of “being there” for the audience, if any have even tried.

The cinematography and attention to detail of 1917 is impeccable. The French countryside is shown in vibrant color, which enhances the scenes of devastation wrought by warfare on this massive scale. It’s evident there was an incredible amount of historical research that had to go into the production of this film. From the soldiers’ uniforms and the equipment they use, to the construction and layout of the trenches they fight from, everything is absolutely perfect. Even the tactics used in combat are historically accurate. Just as Saving Private Ryan gave viewers a glimpse into the horrors of the mobile, fast-moving combat of WWII, 1917 shows exactly what kind of meat grinder the trench warfare of WWI was.

Visually, this film was less about combat, and more about the aftermath of that combat. Rather than being policed up by graves details as they were in WWII, in this war soldiers were left to rot where they fell.  The vision of no-man’s land shown here is truly horrifying in that regard and is probably the most accurate depiction ever filmed.

Deserving of accolades in every category, the casting in 1917 is absolutely spot-on.  Every character is played by an actor who perfectly conveys the personality required. While there are some fairly big name actors in the cast, they are relegated to “minor” roles in terms of screen time. Surprisingly, the appearance of recognizable actors such as Benedict Cumberbatch, Colin Firth, and Mark Strong don’t distract from the performances of the lesser known cast. They compliment them perfectly. This movie isn’t about them – it is about two men trying to survive long enough to save 1600 others. Period.

I tried very hard to find some flaw in this film that I could talk about and I had to be VERY picky to come up with one. While I was completely captivated in every scene by what was happening on screen, there are one or two parts where pacing became an issue. One scene in particular, that takes place after nightfall in a basement, could have been removed completely to shave a couple of minutes off the runtime.

The only other issue that even comes close to being a (very minor) problem is that viewers might want to spend some time acclimating themselves to the British accents. Very occasionally, the dialogue became somewhat challenging to follow due to either heavy accents or the heavy use of British slang. While I had no trouble following it, other viewers might. Beyond those two exceptionally minor flaws, this movie was, for me, perfect from beginning to end.

Due to an almost pathological love of history, 1917 was by far my most anticipated movie of the year, and I was certainly not disappointed. Mendes and crew brought a distant, black-and-white world to life in a way that exceeded my every expectation.  If it does not win, at a minimum, the Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Film Editing, then there truly is no justice in Hollywood. It is THAT good.