1917 - A Visceral, Uncompromising Experience

The miracle of cinema is alive and well. It’s exceedingly rare for a film to deliver on practically every front, but 1917 is one such film. It is a masterwork of technical filmmaking, presenting its narrative in what’s meant to be single, real-time long take; an effect that works in fully immersing you into the story and renders you unable to take your eyes off of it. It’s also a riveting and deeply moving war drama on its own terms, showcasing the horrors and heroism of combat without ever glorifying it. For director Sam Mendes, a filmmaker with an already illustrious career behind him, it’s his best work yet, and it would probably take yet another miracle to top it.

Inspired by the written experiences of Mendes’ grandfather, 1917 follows, from start to finish, what amounts to a suicide mission given to two young British soldiers in the thick of World War I. Lance Corporal Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman) and Lance Corporal Schofield (George MacKay) are tasked with delivering a message to a battalion that is miles away and deep within enemy territory. The message is urgent. The battalion, which includes Blake’s older brother, is walking right into a deadly trap, and the lives of over 1,600 men are at stake. The two boys, who have no one to rely on except each other, only have one day to journey through No Man’s Land and deliver the message.

Master cinematographer Roger Deakins is at the forefront of this ambitious project - was there ever even a question of someone else attempting this? - so naturally, the camerawork is astonishing. He creates a sense of unbreakable immersion and unflinching portrayals of WWI trench warfare. The boys step over (and into) the corpses of soldiers and animals alike, as flies buzz all around and rats scurry every which way. Apocalyptic imagery greets them at every turn, and the audience is right there along with them; half of the time they’re sharing their line of sight. The film’s entire first half is set in the bleak, muddy, body-strewn trenches beneath a smoke-filled sky. As day gives way to night, fires and explosions light the ruins of a destroyed town, and shadows could easily be friend or foe. 

Thomas Newman’s bombastic score adds to the film enormous scale and ticking clock, creating the immense tension that the situation calls for. This is a stressful movie, one that quickly establishes that in war, no one is safe, anything can harm you, and death most often comes in the most unceremonious of ways. Like all great war films, 1917 suggests that there’s an ultimate futility to it all. Are these two boys actually saving the lives of these men, or are they just delaying the inevitable? What exactly are they fighting for, and in what way is it worth it? These are all questions that pass through the minds of both the characters and the audience, and the gruesome results of the pointless fighting are shown with little fanfare, as if they’re just simply a matter of fact. 

This is a film that’s clearly been made as meticulously as possible. Every minute detail seems to have been taken into account, and it’s what makes 1917 an outright feat and a triumph of storytelling. Everything from the acting, to the sets, the costumes, the enormous production design, the impeccable lighting, the choreography, the cinematography, the score, everything is going at one hundred percent. It’s impossible not to be wowed by it, and it acts as a visceral experience rather than just another movie you’re seeing. Like I said before, it’s a bloody miracle.

Some films simply have to be viewed in a movie theater, and this is certainly one of them. Bombs and gunshots are guaranteed to make you jump, planes flying overhead rattle the seats, and the sense of scale that the film conveys is best seen on the largest screen possible. The closest that any other movie has come to what Mendes has accomplished here would have to be Christopher Nolan’s excellent Dunkirk, if not only because both were filmed for IMAX. But where Dunkirk sought to show the courage of ordinary people, 1917 is determined to honor the bravery of good men that are thrust into the jaws of utmost danger and horror. What drives these two genuinely kind boys to continue this impossible mission? Is it duty? Glory? Perhaps they’re simply hoping that this will get them back home sooner, be it with a medal or in a box.