Movie Review: 1917

• SA Engages

May 1, 2020

PLOT: 1917 is a must see for those of you out there who just love history or war movies. Having recently been released on December 9, 2019, this movie definitely holds its own in both of those categories. But for those of you who are still not convinced, 1917 goes beyond the genre of a typical war movie and is an excellent story of courage, friendship, and sacrifice. It opens during World War I with two boys, Lance Corporals William Schofield and Tom Blake, in Northern France in the year, you guessed it, 1917. Blake and Schofield, otherwise known as Sco, are presented with orders to traverse miles of trenches, across deadly no-man’s-land, through German territory, and back to the front lines to deliver a message calling off the next wave of attack. The Germans withdrew their troops in an unprecedented move to make the British think that they had them on the run. With British telephone lines cut, there would be no way to communicate with the men on the frontlines that they would be charging into a German trap where they would be shelled with artillery until there were no men left. The fate of 1,600 men on the frontlines, one of whom was Blake’s older brother, rested in the hands of two boys trying to make it across uncharted territory on foot. To make matters worse, they had to arrive by morning when the attacks would start.

For those of you who have not yet seen the film, I will refrain from spoiling large parts of the action and storyline. But some moments stood out among the rest and need to be discussed. 1917 does an excellent job of showing what day to day trench warfare was like during World War I. It distinguishes what the men on the frontlines had to go through every day as they were constantly bombarded by shells and ammunition. Those on the front did not even know what day it was as contrasted to men only a few hundred yards back who were just sitting around, smoking, talking, and shooting the breeze in indescribable trenches as they awaited further orders. In one gory scene, Sco, who had recently sliced his hand on barbed wire, accidentally plunges it into the stomach of a dead soldier next to him when he falls into a crater. The conditions that they were forced to live in were something that I’m sure no movie can even come close to depicting. The film shows how to the men had to do anything that they could to take their minds off of the current situation, that they would constantly be telling each other excellent stories to make their minds wander and help them feel at ease. In what was quite possibly one of the most powerful scenes in the film for me, Sco has just escaped some pursuing German soldiers and gets carried away in some river rapids. In a suspenseful scene, he narrowly survives and in order to get out of the water, he needs to climb over countless dead bodies of men floating on the surface. In a scene that can hardly be described, he is shown scrambling as best he can to get out of the river. When he finally succeeds, his emotions from his journey catch up to him and he begins to weep. The horrors of war finally overtook him in a powerful moment of a man sitting alone on the shore desperately crying and releasing a flood of emotions as deep as the river that he just narrowly escaped from.

FILMING: One of my favorite things about this film is that it seems to be shot in one continuous take. While this is not true, it was shot in multiple long takes that were cut together to give the real effect of time. I love this method and think that it is perfect for this movie because it makes the viewer really feel like they are in the battlefield as opposed to just watching it on the screen. I was on the edge of my seat the entire movie because the pacing made all of the shots seem so realistic. Everything seemed to happen as it would have in real life. One thing that should be said about 1917 is that although it depicts real World War I trench warfare, the plot is still fiction. This is not to say that something like this did not happen because in fact it did. The Germans really did push back their lines in hopes to trap the British. But beyond the many facts that make this movie realistic, it would be wise to keep in mind that it is still based off of stories that have been told. The whole film was directed, co-written, and produced by Sam Mendes, the grandson of war hero Alfred Mendes who told the story to Sam. I am sure that there are hundreds of stories just like this one that never got told, but this one especially does an excellent job at depicting a day in the life of a soldier out at war. I am impressed at how quickly the movie was filmed and then released. Filming began April 1, 2019 and wrapped up in June of the same year. The movie was then later released in December of 2019, eight months after they began filming.

RECAP: The movie ends the way that it began, with Schofield resting under a tree and enjoying a brief moment of quiet away from the trenches. He pulls out a photo of his wife and child back home and it is a reminder that this is not just a great story, but these men were really out fighting for their country and all had hopes of returning home to be with their loved ones. 1917 does an excellent job of showing the horrors of war, but also, how life goes on for the men that were there. It didn’t matter if they had just lost their brother fighting beside them or if they had lost their own limb, the war still raged on and nobody was there to wait for you. It was a grueling time to be alive and we have the many men that died to thank in part for the lives that we get to enjoy today.

Set aside some time this week and watch 1917 with your family or friends! Engage in some discussion about it and see what you learned from the movie. I hope that you enjoy it as much as I did

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1917_(2019_film)

https://www.npr.org/2020/01/15/796609685/1917-is-a-mind-boggling-technological-achievement-but-not-a-great-film

https://www.vulture.com/2020/01/1917-movie-ending-explained.html

---