You saw 1917; should I see this in theaters?
Without a doubt, yes. If you are looking for a film that will take you on an epic journey that mirrors the ancient Greek mythologies, this is it. It’s a film peppered with both quiet tension and heart-pounding, adrenaline-pumping sequences of life-or-death action. A movie that will not just put you at the edge of your seat but provide sobering and reflective moments. If you want to see something new and epic but not bombastic, then this is the movie for you.
I especially recommend watching it in Imax. It’s pretty clearly the best way to witness such an odyssey, and well worth the extra money. If you decide to wait until it hits Redbox or streaming services, you will end up wishing you had watched it on the big screen. If you do manage to watch it on a normal theater screen, you’re going walk out thinking about how great it would be to have seen it in Imax.
What’s it about?
Its about two soldiers, William Schofield (George MacKay) & Tom Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman), being sent on a mission to deliver a letter to the commanding officer of the 2nd battalion. This letter is meant to stop the battalion from advancing against the opposing German army during WW1 since they have intel that they (2nd battalion) will be falling into a trap. Contributing to the urgency of the mission is the fact that Tom Blake’s older brother is among the 1600 soldiers unwittingly marching to their doom.
That’s it. A journey of a letter to stop an attack.
But I’m not into war movies, why would I want to watch it?
This is not a typical war movie that focuses on two opposing fronts and their ideologies or making political stances. This is a film about the journey. A journey about companionship, doubting oneself, overcoming obstacles, discovering oneself, committing to oneself to accomplish goals, and the pains and incessant struggle of rebirth, skillfully using war as a backdrop. Its easy to connect the journey to the myth of the Greek Hero Perseus, who in the tale was sent on a similar impossible task to slay the Gorgon Medusa. Throughout the tale Perseus doubts the task, he persists, he finds allies and attains weapons needed to defeat Medusa. Our heroes in 1917 are no different in this suicide mission of delivering a letter. Instead of a beast, though, they face the impossible task of passing through 6 miles of no-man’s land and previously occupied enemy territory in less than a single day.
The opposing army in the film is often shown as a shadowy figure for our characters to overcome, and the true expanse of the active battlefield is cleverly elided by the camera work. These shadowy figures can represent any hardship in our lives, such as a new job or relationship, a death in the family, or just dedicating to that diet. In our own lives we are constantly fighting against time to accomplish the tasks before the end of our days.
We are all going through a journey, and we all encounter hardships, hardships that are intended for us to overcome. Whatever the situation is, 1917 is more than just a war film, it’s about the human experience to persevere through hardships no matter what stands in our way.
Adding to the human story is how 1917 was filmed. It is intended to give you the illusion of the whole movie being one long take. A long take is essentially when the camera is focused on a scene for a significant amount of time with no scene transitions or fadeaways. Illusion is key, as it is not, in fact, a single take: various long takes were masterfully edited to immerse audiences and make them believe that we spend an unblinking two hours with our protagonists.
At times it feels like you are a third person on this journey with them. The moments when they are in the trenches you will feel claustrophobic and desperately waiting to be out in the open. It can be exhausting because you are not going to want to blink for fear of missing something.
Adding to the cinematography is the emotional resonance of the soundtrack. The music is not as bombastic or dramatic as most war film scores are, but rather eerily tense and occasionally hauntingly beautiful. The composer had to follow the long take format of the film and each musical piece constitutes a fuse that the audience feels is constantly burning.
Before you see it
This is not a movie you should go watch just because you feel like watching a film or you are having a bad day and want to take your mind off your troubles. The film demands your undivided attention and any pauses or bathroom breaks will interrupt the flow of the movie and may even ruin the experience. The rise and fall of tension are absolutely worth maintaining throughout the viewing. At times, it lets you breathe but you know that you cannot relax for long because our heroes have to deliver this letter as soon as possible. Fortunately, everything in the film was calculated perfectly for it all to not feel like it drags on too long. By the time it ends you are relieved and satisfied that you went throughout this journey and that it went by quickly.
