It is super strange to think about just how little an amount of World War I movies we have had. It feels like we get two World War II movies a year but the first one is relatively ignored. It felt like an entire generation discovered it existed when Wonder Woman came out in 2017. Now we are getting 1917, a movie about the war itself told in a very innovative way. Can this film deliver us something we have never seen before? That is a rarity today in modern cinema, but wow does 1917 break that mold. This is one of the most riveting and visceral experiences I have had in a theater and a film that will be talked about for a long time.
1917 follows two soldiers, Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman) and Schofield (George MacKay) who are assigned a deadly mission during World War I to go deep into enemy territory and warn a group of 1,600 soldiers to not attack as they are walking into a trap. This film is on another level in terms of filmmaking that is going to be a gamechanger. The big selling point of this film is the fact that they shot it to look like the entire film is filmed in one take. Where you see no cuts or shifts in perspective, the camera just follows these soldiers through every step they take and all the obstacles they encounter. Cinematographer Roger Deakins and his entire camera crew should be celebrated for pulling off this accomplishment. This was done before with Birdman back in 2014 to look like one take but that was a man in a theater. Sam Mendes said let’s take that concept and put it into a war film. Something that should’ve been next to impossible to pull off but somehow someway they did it flawlessly.
What 1917 really nails beyond its technical achievement is the dirtiness of the aftermath of war. For much of this film, these two soldiers march further and further beyond what used to be enemy lines and you see the devastation of what this was has caused. There are rotting bodies lying around everywhere, rats running amuck, empty bullet shells, dead cows and dogs, and fields of mud with nothing but gore under the surface. One of the characters falls into a puddle at one point where his hand lands in the chest of a corpse that happened to be there. Just misery everywhere you turn. The amount of preparation and rehearsal that must’ve gone into this film is astonishing to say the least. You would think watching these two trudge their way forward would get old after a while, but it is anything but that. With every passing second, you can feel the tension mounting with each step closer to their ultimate destination. You know something has to happen at some point and as soon as it does, the film never lets you go. This combined with a score by Thomas Newman that just follows you as a dark cloud makes for a feeling that you are a part of the war.
With every war film, the key to truly locking in your audience is to have characters they want to root for. This was my huge gripe with Dunkirk back in 2017. A technically terrific film that had everything going for it but characters. I could not name a single one and ultimately did not care whether they lived or died. 1917 is the complete opposite. Two unknown actors in George MacKay and Dean-Charles Chapman are asked to carry this film and they are just spectacular. They feel like two soldiers who need to get their mission done even though they are terrified of what lies ahead. They work because the script gives them actual character development. Blake has a brother who is in danger of marching into a trap while Schofield wants to protect his friend at all costs. They are supported by well-known names who Mendes plants in the smallest of roles and leave an impact throughout. They include Colin Firth, Mark Strong, and Benedict Cumberbatch. Additionally, Richard Madden has one of these small roles but the one scene he does have just knocks you back in your seat and truly sits with you just how unforgiving war is.
1917 is going to be held in regard as one of the best war films ever made. It is right up there with the likes of Apocalypse Now and Saving Private Ryan. What Sam Mendes boldly set out to do should have been impossible to accomplish and to pull it off is nothing short of a masterwork. This film will leave you in utter disarray of what you just experienced and will firmly be in the Oscar discussion as a heavy contender for the win.
The Verdict