1917 (2019) dir. Sam Mendes
Dateline: April 6, 1917, somewhere on the Western Front in France. Lance Corporal Blake (Dean Charles Chapman) has been chosen for a special mission, and he has picked his friend Lance Corporal Schofield (George MacKay to accompany him. Unfortunately it’s not the supply run Blake was expecting to go on. The German forces have suddenly retreated, making it look like they’re on the run. In reality, they’ve just moved back to new, more formidable fortifications and trenches. A Devonshire regiment, of whom Blake’s brother is one, is marching into a trap. The regular lines of communication are down, so messengers must be sent. Can the two couriers get to Colonel Mackenzie (Benedict Cumberbatch) and get the attack called off in time?
This movie is, first, technically spectacular, designed to flow from scene to scene as though it’s happening in real time in continuous shots. This builds audience identification with Blake and Schofield as they move from place to place. Other soldiers (and one or two surprises) appear, but only briefly before our protagonists must move on. It also plays well to convey the urgency–every lost moment feels real.
The acting is top-notch, and the sets well-made. Blake and Schofield pick their way across hellish landscapes littered with corpses, interspersed with peaceful-seeming countryside (also littered with corpses.)
There’s a little fiddling with timelines to let there be black soldiers in the background and a bit with Indian Sepoy Jondalar (Nabhaan Rizwan), but like a couple of other historical discrepancies (trigger discipline was not a British Army thing in World War One) excusable for a good movie.
The music’s also good, with a fine rendition of “I Am a Poor Wayfaring Stranger.”
Content note: This is, after all, a war movie. People die violently and unfairly. Corpses are abundant, and many gory wounds. (Still toned down from actual WWI injuries which might have made the film unwatchable.)
Overall: This is an Oscar-winning movie, all right. Like director/producer/co-writer Sam Mendes, my grandfather was in the war, so I was very much emotionally involved. Also check out the making of features, because wow.
