I Was a Little Late for 1917, But Not Too Late
By George Robbins
[usr 4.9]
Although I am a little late to the party when it comes to seeing ‘1917,’ I finally managed to go see the movie. Let me just say right off the bat that I thought that the movie was fantastic and deserves the praise that it gets. There is not a doubt in my mind that the film was something that a large number of people put their hearts into. Later in this review of the movie there are sure to spoilers, so be on the lookout.
‘1917’ is a film that does more than show us the grittiness of WWI, it shows the reality of what the war was like. For instance, in the movie, we see the two main characters played by George MacKay and Dean-Charles Chapman fighting their way through the battlefield, but most of the time all is quiet. There are only a few moments throughout the movie where there is actual fighting, but the rest is eerily familiar in a sense. Throughout the movie, there are a lot of quiet moments that are accentuated by the loud ones.
The thing about this film that I found most impressive is the fact that the movie is done in entirely one shot. The only exception to this is the part when the main character, played by MacKray, is knocked out while in a gunfight with a German soldier. The remainder of ‘1917,’ however, is done entirely in one shot. Not only is it stunning for that reason, but the movie has other visually stunning moments involving the music.
The film has a scene that takes place after the fight with the German soldier in a destroyed town, and the scene itself is a marvel. Simply put, the lighting for the scene is done masterfully through the use of flares. On top of that, the score for the scene is epic, yet eerie to reflect the fear in the main character and the importance of the mission he is on. Not long after that seen, we get to see another scene where he finds the battalion he is searching for in the woods and due to the music, we get to feel the same relief that he did in that moment. All of these things come together to give us an emotionally impactful movie that has us watching at the edge of our seats to see what happens next. I, simply put, loved the movie, and I hope others who saw it do too. If you haven’t seen it, then go watch it immediately.