1917 Review

Sam Mendes’ World War One film 1917 is seen as one of the leading contenders for the 2020 award season, and for good reason.

Lance Corporal Tom Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman) and Lance Corporal Will Schofield (George MacKay) are two British soldiers fighting on the front lines in France. They’re given a mission by General Erinmore (Colin Firth) to travel through enemy territory to deliver a message to cancel an attack. They meet friends and foes on their journey as they race to stop a Battalion from launching a doomed offensive.

1917 was a marvel to behold and it will quickly be seen as one of the best war films ever made. One of 1917’s biggest selling points was the technical aspects. The film was made to look like one long contentious shot: similar to what happened in films like Rope and Birdman. This alone makes 1917 a strong contender to win Oscars for Best Director and Best Cinematography because of the amount of coordination that was required. It was something to behold as environments change from green meadows to the mud of the trenches, and the desolate landscapes of No Man’s Land. It is essentially the Dunkirk scene from Atonement, done as a feature-length film.

1917 was more than a technical marvel because it tells a compelling narrative. The story itself is simple – two soldiers need to get from A-to-B. Some people have jokingly called this film Saving Private Ryan: World War One Edition, but that is a disservice to 1917. Sam Mendes used the journey of the soldiers to show different aspects of the war on the Western Front. The soldiers had to go through No Man’s Land, see urban warfare in ruined towns, experience mine warfare, booby traps, aerial warfare, and shell shock.

Mendes and his co-writer Krysty Wilson-Cairns were influenced by some great war films. There was a lot of Apocalypse Now in 1917 due to the soldiers being given a mission to find an isolated senior officer. Like Apocalypse Now, 1917 was about the journey and the people the soldiers meet. The world portrayed in 1917 was apocalyptic – there were corpses rotting in No Man’s Land, farms were abandoned, and a French town was nothing but ruins. The Apocalypse Now also comes in a short moment when the soldiers are warned that the Colonel might be seeking glory despite his orders.

Another influence was the Soviet film Come and See due to the character journeys. Come and See was about a teenage boy who joined a Partisan force during the Second World War and gets physically and mentally destroyed by the war. This happens to the main characters in 1917 as they suffered hard on their journey. The main character goes through the wringer as does everything he can to complete the mission.

There were elements of another Alejandro González Iñárritu film, The Revenant, in 1917. The Revenant was a survival Western where a man has to fight the elements as well as hostile forces so he can get revenge. One of the features of The Revenant was the long takes and the survival scenes in 1917 matched them – especially a scene where one of the soldiers jumps into a river to escape the Germans.

1917 had two excellent young actors who should have great careers ahead of them. Mackay particularly impressed as his character is dragged onto the mission and has to continue it. He starts off as the voice of caution and ends up having to force himself to continue the mission. One of the most powerful scenes in the film was just after the soldiers witness a plane crash.

Mendes followed Christopher Nolan’s example in Dunkirk by casting some big-name actors in supporting roles to add some gravitas. Actors like Mark Strong, Richard Madden, Andrew Scott, and Benedict Cumberbatch stand out in their brief appearances.

Whilst 1917 was a dark film there were moments of lightness. Despite the horrors of war the characters still joked and told stories to each other. When they end up in the back of a lorry the soldiers were all joking, making fun with each other, and were basically acting like lads. These scenes added to a sense of realism and made the characters and world believable.

1917 was a fantastic film because of its mastery of acting, cinematography, and re-creation of the First World War, making it one of the unique recent offerings in the war film genre.