1917 (2019)

1917 takes place in Northern France amid the Great War. Lance Corporals Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman) and Schofield (George MacKay) are two British soldiers commanded to carry orders from their General (Colin Firth) across No Man’s Land then behind German-occupied enemy lines. The mission-critical orders are for a battalion of 1600 British soldiers, including Blake’s brother, to stand down from their planned raid the next morning against the Germans who are setting them up for a massive ambush. Through trenches, decimated towns, and bombed-out structures, the duo traverses, cautiously but expeditiously, to save the lives of their fellow soldiers.

Stunning camerawork is among the top highlights of 1917, with director and co-writer Sam Mendes working for the fourth time with the legendary Roger Deakins. They deliver the immersive war experience across a wide variety of challenging terrains. The hook here is that it looks as if done all in one take (it is several takes that are seamlessly stitched together by tech wizards using the latest technology). Mendes dabbled with a lengthy one-take sequence during the eight-minute opening sequence to his second James Bond flick, Spectre. With a roving outdoor camera, there wasn’t a chance for the usual filmmaking staples like lighting and off-camera crew. Matching shots required waiting for similar natural light conditions to occur, waiting patiently for windows of opportunity when clouds would block the sunlight.

For Mendes, it’s a labor of love. The script, co-written by “Penny Dreadful” writer Krysty Wilson-Cairns, is based on stories his elderly grandfather told him about his days as a soldier in World War I. 1917 marks the first screenplay credit for the director. Mendes also provided a supplemental script full of schematics of the locales, with maps of the area and diagrams of the buildings and other structures.  They built the sets specific ways for the camera and its operators and grips. The mobile crew had to maneuver 360-degrees in and out without any indication of how they are there. These schematics were essential to have in mind so they could figure out where to stop for dialogue or to breeze through for a nail-biting action sequence.

The decision to do the film in one take was from Mendes. He wrote the movie with Deakins in mind, especially in the manner that the cinematographer works with lots of storyboarding and breaking down every element of that he is going to shoot beforehand. Mendes felt it would be necessary for the story to get us in the trenches for most of it, and to do it in real-time. However, they wanted the story and its characters to be at the forefront rather than the technique; if audiences experienced the film only looking at the single-take elements of the cinematography, it would be a failure of the reason Mendes wanted to do it this way. They wanted people to experience the film without seeming like there is a camera there; the key is to make people forget it exists. You should be in the moment, not trying to decipher if what we are seeing is done by Steadicam, crane, or zipping on a wire.

To some younger viewers, the way that the action tends to follow one or two men walking, running, or jumping across a variety of landscapes will remind them of the immersive nature of video games. It gets you into the action in a manner that sometimes plays like an expansive war film, a tense action thriller, or a claustrophobic horror movie, sometimes all at once. It’s a rare film that is both epic and utterly intimate.

Although the film is immersive and with requisite tension, the one-take premise does hamper it on occasion. If this were a film shot with conventional editing, editors would take out several sequences that take more time than they are worth to keep a narrative flow. The truck scene, for instance, is extended with dialogue that doesn’t quite push forward the story and goes on for some time before the truck gets stuck in a bit of mud. The technical aspects of this scene are jaw-dropping, but audiences are more likely to be riveted in how they did this sequence in one take more so than feel the tension of the moment. As a result, most viewers will likely bounce back and forth between being involved in the movie for its story and admiring the way it is presented from a more distant vantage point, muting the emotional elements the story strives to achieve.

1917 delivers an understated antiwar message underneath the realistic recreation of life in the trenches. It is Hell, and it takes you into some of the worst of it. However, as the story must always keep moving, the thematic elements of the piece are not fleshed out to deliver any powerhouse messages other than observing how terrible the conditions must be for soldiers on the front lines. Mendes ends the film with a dedication to his grandfather, who told him the war stories. It’s a potent reminder as we walk out of the theater to our comfortable lives again that real-life men experienced such horrors in the theater of war, and not just for a few hours.

1917  is often a riveting and a unique way to pull off a full-scale war movie, and to do it in a way that the theatrical experience is essential. There isn’t a place to adequately pause the film because the action is always moving. It might be more of a cinematic experience than it is good storytelling. Still, as an example of the continuing power of motion pictures, it’s a solid reminder of the importance of visionary filmmaking.

Qwipster’s rating: A

MPAA Rated: R for violence, some disturbing images, and language
Run time: 119 min.


Cast: George MacKay, Dean-Charles Chapman, Colin Firth, Mark Strong, Benedict Cumberbatch, Andrew Scott, Richard Madden
Director: Sam Mendes
Screenplay: Sam Mendes, Krysty Wilson-Cairns

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