1917 (2020) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

1917 (2020) movie

Genre              |   War Thriller

Classification   |   M

Running time   |   119 minutes

Released         |   9 January 2020

cast

Dean-Charles Chapman ... Lance Corporal Blake
George MacKay ... Lance Corporal Schofield
Daniel Mays ... Sergeant Sanders
Colin Firth ... General Erinmore
Andrew Scott ... Lieutenant Leslie
Mark Strong ... Captain Smith
Benedict Cumberbatch ... Colonel MacKenzie
​Richard Madden ... Lieutenant Joseph Blake

director

​Sam Mendes

writer

Sam Mendes ... (written by) &
Krysty Wilson-Cairns ... (written by)

cinematographer

​​Roger Deakins

music

Thomas Newman ​

film editor

​Lee Smith

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box office result

Worldwide               $100 million

Australia                 $? million

North America        $? million

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movie minutiae

​Sections of the film were shot in and around Low Force, on the River Tees, Teesdale in June 2019. The production staff had to install signs warning walkers in the area not be alarmed by the bodies strewn around the site as they were prosthetic.

This is Universal Pictures' second film to be Specially Formatted For IMAX in the expanded aspect ratio of 1.90:1, entirely, since Oblivion (2013) (although its flashback sequences were letterboxed in 2.39:1) and is Sam Mendes's second film to be Specially Formatted For IMAX in the expanded aspect ratio of 1.90:1 since SKYFALL (2012), which was also shot by Roger Deakins

​Shot and edited to appear as a single long take that takes place in real time.

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1917 (2020) MOVIE IMAGES

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1917 (2020) STORY SYNOPSIS

​At the height of the First World War, two young British soldiers, Schofield (Captain Fantastic’s George MacKay) and Blake (Game of Thrones’ Dean-Charles Chapman) are given a seemingly impossible mission. In a race against time, they must cross enemy territory and deliver a message that will stop a deadly attack on hundreds of soldiers—Blake’s own brother among them. 

1917 (2020) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty   |   Review date 5 January 2020

Pop ​Movee Rating

1917 is a visually stunning film that demonstrates how the challenge of combat situations force otherwise ordinary people to compartmentalise not just their emotions or even life, but their very existence in an attempt just to survive the ordeals they are confronted with on an all too regular frequency in the horror show that is “War”.

Sam Mendes and Roger Deakins, the film’s cinematographer, have delivered an outstanding piece of cinema. 1917 is not entirely ground-breaking, but the filmmakers insistence on a first-person, almost continuous real-time sequence is a technical achievement that will see the film garner broad interest from the movie-going public, as well as those responsible for bestowing the various film awards for filmmaking disciplines such as cinematography, editing, sound and overall production design.

What some may miss in the rush to praise the technical accomplishments of the film is the emotional impact Mendes and co-writer Krysty Wilson-Cairns extract from the film’s simple plot. 

Emboldened by a mass retreat of German forces, Colonel MacKenzie (Benedict Cumberbatch) is marshalling his troops for an all-out assault to drive home the British advantage. The situation, however, is not so straight forward. The Germans has fallen back and have consolidated their forces to create a new, heavily reinforced frontline. MacKenzie’s plan to press ahead is a suicide mission and will result in the unnecessary death of thousands of men.

General Erinmore (Colin Firth) has received intelligence about the massing German Army and orders a team of runners to go through “No Man’s Land” (the area between the British and German front lines), into the abandoned German front line and on past the war-ravaged French village of Ecoust-Saint-Mein to deliver orders to Colonel MacKenzie not to proceed with his attack.

Enter Lieutenant Corporal Blake (Dean Charles-Chapman) and Lance Corporal Schofield (George MacKay)...

The film’s opening scene shows Blake being selected for the mission and being asked by a superior officer to choose a partner. He selects his friend Schofield, unaware of the danger they are about to be ordered into.

In a SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (1998) plot twist, Blake’s involvement in the mission is personal. His older brother Joseph (Richard Madden) is an officer under MacKenzie’s command.

From the moment Blake and Schofield head toward General Erinmore’s Command Bunker, just a minute or so into the film, it’s apparent 1917 is going to be something more than just another film about soldiers in a war. 1917 is a genuine cinematic experience.

From the outset, Mendes gets the camera at eye-level so the viewer is seeing almost exactly what the characters are seeing. Sometimes the view is from behind, sometimes from the side and sometimes from the front, but it’s always present just far enough from Blake and Schofield, but not too far. The critical piece of information to understand is that the camera is like a silent “third person” on Blake and Schofield’s mission.

The proximity of the camera is also enhanced by the decision to set the action in real-time.

Along the way, Blake and Schofield have significant encounters with the film’s supporting players.

Andrew Scott plays the memorable Lieutenant Leslie, an officer who has spent far too much time on the front line. In just a couple of minutes of screen time, Scott impresses, playing Leslie as a battle-weary but sarcastic character who thinks he’s seen just about everything a man can see until he sees the next thing and is, yet again, staggered by the stupidity of the war.

Sending two young men over the top into “No Man’s Land” on a mission behind enemy lines is not Leslie’s idea of a good time and he lets Blake and Schofield know exactly what he thinks. In spite of the seriousness of what is happening, Lieutenant Leslie turns out to be scathingly funny and provides one of the few moments of humour the film has to offer.

Crossing over to German held territory allows Mendes to open up the scope of the film. 

As Blake and Schofield approach the German trenches, the camera moves into and away from them, as if walking its own path to avoid any threats left behind by the enemy.

This section of the film also provides the film’s biggest set-piece. Blake and Schofield escape with their lives, but only just.

Mark Strong’s Captain Smith plays a crucial part in the film’s Second Act, warning that Colonel MacKenzie loves “the battle” and Erinmore’s orders will need to be delivered with other officers present if his plan to attack the Germans is to be prevented. It’s a warning that sets up the imperative of the mission for the film’s second half.

An extended night sequence in the French village of Ecoust-Saint-Mein is the film’s most ambitious sequence. Not only does the camera continue to track as a “third person” but Mendes and Deakins decide to indulge in a breath-taking light show, relying upon explosions, fires and gun-fire to illuminate the threat that German soldiers still present.

For cinephiles, the Ecoust-Saint-Mein sequence has the look and feel of Stanley Kubrick’s “Battle of Hue” finale from FULL METAL JACKET (1987). While Kubrick’s film is set in Vietnam, the battle scenes were filmed in England and the “destroyed village” atmosphere of that film appears, whether intentional or not, to have informed the look of the village in 1917.

With the understanding that Colonel MacKenzie may not necessarily obey orders, the film’s second half also parallels another masterpiece of “War” filmmaking: APOCALYPSE NOW (1979).

The further the mission proceeds, the more surreal it becomes.

Ecoust-Saint-Mein. An escape down river. A strange concert in the forest. A race above the trenches to get to MacKenzie’s Command Bunker.

In its own way, 1917 is the World War One version of Francis Ford Coppola’s film. Where Coppola opted to “Go Big” and stage his film like an opera, 1917 is much more intimate. The film has its share of set-pieces, but they’re not what the film is about. They help to inform but don’t dominate. 

1917 is a story about survival. 

Using one of the best realised recreations of World War One French battlefields, Sam Mendes has delivered a powerful story about the power of the greater good within humanity even when confronted with the worst kind of destruction imaginable. 1917 will be recognised for its technical accomplishments, but the emotional impact of its story lifts it into the upper echelon of films that are less concerned about the action and more focussed on the lasting impact of the terrible endeavour that is War.

1917 MOVIE (2020) USEFUL LINKS

1917 (2019 film) - Wikipedia
​1917 (2019) - IMDb
​​1917 (2020) - Rotten Tomatoes

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