1917, the new movie directed Sam Mendez, is a cinematic masterpiece and nothing less. The directing’s perfect, the acting’s perfect, the sound design is perfect, the cinematography is perfect, the script is, well the script is perfectly fine. It’s intense, it’s emotional, it’s stunning, it’s horrific, it’s a much-watch for everyone who exists. As you may or may not know, the whole movie is shot to feel like one take and it all serves to make you feel like you’re really down in the trenches with them. Everything is almost always in motion so the plot also always has forward momentum. There’s really not a single dull moment in this movie. It’s a treat to watch from beginning to end.
A lot of reviews I’ve read so far have praised the technical ingenuity of this film and I won’t go into that because they’ve all said it better than I could. Suffice to say, check out all of the behind the scenes stuff you can find because it’s almost as interesting as the movie. But one thing I really haven’t heard a lot about is the sheer brutalness of it all. The protagonists will be crawling through no-man’s land and you’ll see the corpses buried in the mud with ghastly holes in their bodies and an entire ecosystem feeding off of them. This movie is not for the squeamish. That’s not to say they shouldn’t watch it. In an industry all to preoccupied now with cramming fan-service and nostalgia down your throat or beating you over the head with a message or both (not that either are particularly bad things, I personally just feel like they’re over-played) It’s nice to see a film that just lets the story speak for itself. It doesn’t need Captain America wielding Mjolnir and it doesn’t need to scream at you war is bad, it just has to exist and it says everything it needs to and it keeps you engaged the whole way through.
Speaking of it’s anti-war message, that kinda leads to my one nitpick about the film. At one point, about halfway through, a character gives the protagonist a warning about his message that just kinda turns out to be nothing to worry about. That little scene felt like it was a remnant of a draft that was more explicit about it’s message and it just was never cut. Other than that the message works really well. The whole central conflict almost feels pointless (that’s not a knock against the movie, that’s a knock against WWI), and it really shows just how meaningless the war really was. There was one scene where the protagonists do a good deed and I quietly thought to myself, “Oh, here’s the scene that shows how great the British are” but no! The protagonists get punished for trying to be good people! And that’s the movie, it’s both nihilistic and optimistic in some crazy way. It’s literally shot so it looks like the protagonist got back to where he started! And yet, it also feels like some good came out of this. It feels like the protagonists helped people that otherwise would not have been helped and that even through the craziness of war there are still god people. It’s almost a shame that the technical aspects are so great because it means that not enough people are talking about the fantastic way it handles its themes.
The other aspect of the movie that is not talked enough about is the cleverness of how it resolves tension. It’s hard to get into specifics without giving spoilers, but basically the movie has its protagonist go through one stressful scenario that makes you worry about one thing, for example at one point early one they go through what they think is an abandoned German trench and the audience is on the edge of their seat waiting for the German army to pop up, only for the tension to be resolved in a completely unexpected way. It’s never clear until the very end if the protagonists are going to succeed on their goal because the movie throws so many wrenches, some little, some big, into what would otherwise be a very straight-forward plot into a riveting ride where you’re never sure what’s going to happen next.
The acting is also great. Dean-Charles Chapman and George MacKay were relative unknowns going into this but they are astounding in this. Their relative anonymity really makes them feel like actual soldiers and you’re not thinking of them as the actors, you’re thinking of them as young men in over their heads. In addition, the celebrity pop-ins, including the likes of: Colin Firth, Benedict Cumberbatch, Andrew Scott, Mark Strong and Richard Madden are all excellent. Most likely they were not getting paid a lot to do this and you can really tell watching them that they all really want to act in this movie. Nobody is holding anything back and nobody looks like their phoning it in. But HOLY SHIT Richard Madden! It’s one thing to not phone a performance in and it’s another thing entirely to own the movie with like two minutes of screen time. He probably was on set for like, half a day max, and he kills it. Like, whatever it is, he absolutely slaughtered it. He goes from excited and happy to absolutely devastated in just a couple seconds and he absolutely nails it. That one short scene has really cemented Richard Madden as a great actor and one that I excitedly anticipate following his career in the future.
But back to 1917. 1917 is a fantastic movie and definitely deserves the Best Picture nomination and would deserve to win it too if it can manage that. I walked out of that movie, my head spinning and my brain not working quite right. No other media has ever had that affect on me. So yeah, I mentioned before that this movie is not for the squeamish, but the squeamish should still watch it anyway. 1917 is not just a movie, it’s an experience, and it’s one that as many people should feel as possible. 1917 is a masterpiece.
P.S. This movie also has one of the most triumphant climaxes ever. Like, I found it more effective than Endgame’s massive CGI battle. Because it’s not about fictional superhero’s punching things. It’s about actual human beings pushing themselves to the limit and pervading against all odds.
Personal Rating: 10/10
Entertainment: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Story: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Depth: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Comedy: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ ☆ ☆
Tension: 💫💫💫💫💫
Directing: 💫💫💫💫💫
Acting: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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