1917: A Film-making Triumph

I remember first watching the trailer for 1917. It was a Saturday morning and I had groggily woken up. Like usual, I went to Twitter to see if had missed any announcements. On my timeline appeared a trailer for an upcoming world war 1 film. I hadn't heard of it before, so I decided to watch it. I was immediately pulled in. There was something about it that fascinated me and I eagerly wanted to see the film. In the coming weeks, it was revealed that the movie was edited to look like one shot. I had to see this movie. As you could probably tell from the title of this review, the movie did not disappoint.

1917 is directed by Sam Mendes and stars Dean-Charles Chapman, George MacKay, Colin Firth, Mark Strong, Benedict Cumberbatch. 1,600 men are about to walk right into a German trap and they don't know about. Two young British soldiers are ordered to go and deliver a message calling off the attack, saving the men and one of the soldier's brothers. With that out of the way, let's dive into the review!

I loved this movie. I had been waiting to see it ever since that first trailer came out and, boy, was it worth it. It's a triumph in film-making. The main thing that's known about this movie is that it's filmed to look like one take. That means there are no cuts or scene transitions. That's one of the things I love about this movie. It adds a lot of tension because you feel like you are there with these two soldiers. You genuinely don't know what's going to happen next since there are no cuts to other troops. We're learning things with these characters. It gives the film a very tense atmosphere. We don't know what's behind a building or hiding in a house. I was on-edge for most of the film and I loved the movie for that. Even though there are a few noticeable cuts in some scenes (one obvious one comes to mind) the film is still an achievement in storytelling. I really want to know how it was done. Luckily there's other great things about this movie besides the editing. The characters are great. We mainly follow two young soldiers: Lance Corporal Schofield (MacKay) and Lance Corporal Blake (Chapman), whose brother is one of the 1,600 men about to walk into a trap. They are fantastic in this movie. They bounce off each other very well and felt like genuine soldiers. Their banter sort of reminded of the back-and-forth from Saving Private Ryan. This movie isn't afraid to show that these guys are young and, as a result, pretty scared of some of the stuff they have to deal with. I really hope to see more from these actors in the future. The cinematography is absolutely gorgeous. Roger Deakins is the cinematographer and I've heard he's one of the best (I don't think I've seen a lot of his other films). This movie proves that he is. There are scenes in here that still stick with me and should be framed. Even though it's a war movie, many of the shots are just breathtaking. Another thing I loved about this movie was the score by Thomas Newman. It's beautiful. One sequence towards the end of the film (no spoilers) gave me goosebumps and no doubt that was because of the music. I really need to download it. The sound design was top notch. I felt like I was getting attacked with the soldiers. It was very realistic.

There's not many negatives I can think of for 1917. It's a superbly made film. If anything, I wish it were a little longer, but that's just me not wanting the movie to end. Many of the actors I mentioned in the starring portion of the review (particularly Firth and Cumberbatch) aren't in the movie for that long, but that's understandable since it's not about them. These are just very minor gripes to a superb film.

1917 is a phenomenal piece of film-making. The one-shot aspect really adds a lot to the film. the actors do a great job, the cinematography is stunning, the score is beautiful, and the sound design is very well-done. I only wish the movie were a little longer (even though it's about two hours). If you're expecting a lot of screen-time with the well-known actors, you might be a little disappointed. Again these are very small gripes. I really hope this movie does well at the Oscars (even though I don't care for them that much) and I encourage you to see this movie if you can. It's unlike anything I've ever seen before. If I were to rate it, I'd give 1917 a 10/10. I really want to go watch it again!