1917

When I first saw 1917 during the week of Christmas 2019, I was certain I had just seen that year’s Academy Award Best Picture winner. I was so impressed with this World War I film with its impressive choice of cinematography and direction by the great Sam Mendes that I just knew no other film would or could surpass it that year. I felt the same way in 1998 with Saving Private Ryan, too, and was humbled on Oscar night. But unlike 1998, where I still stand by my feelings about that loss, I came across a film that did surpass it, Bong Joon-Ho’s Parasite. When I watched the 2020 Oscars ceremony, I knew Parasite would win and I moved on from 1917.

That change of opinion didn’t change when I loaded up my copy of 1917 into my 4K-UHD player and started watching it for the first time since theaters this morning. I was still impressed with the style of the film, the amazing shots, how Sam Mendes and his cinematographer, Roger Deakins, managed to hide all the seams and make their film appear to be all in a single shot, and how emotional the film got in the end. There is an absolutely stunning scene where our main character is running for dear life, determined to get word to the commander to stop an attack, all the while the soldiers are already starting their charge. It’s a visual that is unforgettable and is haunting. But the rest of the film leading up to this moment didn’t quite live up to that ending.

This scene works, as does other key moments of this film, but what it does lack is what ultimately pushed Parasite over the top and into the winners’ circle. In the end, the social commentary is nothing more than a critique on war and bloodshed and that is something that we have seen done before, many times, to better effect. This ultimately makes the film more style than substance. 

The date is April 6, 1917, and aerial reconnaissance has determined that the Imperial German Army, which was believed to be in retreat, has actually fallen back as a strategic withdrawal to the new Hindenburg line where they are waiting to overwhelm the British with artillery. Two young British lance corporals, William Schofield (George MacKay) and Thomas Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman), are ordered to hand-deliver this news, to carry a message to Colonel Mackenzie (Benedict Cumberbatch) of the 2nd Battalion, ordering him not to attack. 

The bulk of the film is therefore the journey across dangerous, enemy-controlled areas, in a desperate attempt to get the news to Mackenzie in time to prevent a massacre. Along the way, one of them will fall, the other will be beaten, shot at, and nearly die several times. By the time the remaining soldier finds the 2nd Battalion, the men there are preparing to charge, and it seems like he is too late to stop things. To make matters worse, Mackenzie is not a man easily persuaded to stand down once he has made a decision to attack. 

It has been said that it is not the destination but the journey that makes things worthwhile. That goes for movies, too. After all, where would a classic like National Lampoon’s Vacation be had the family taken a plane to California instead of making their legendary cross-country trip in their car? Likewise, most of 1917 is the journey, and though on paper it would seem like just a lot of walking and being shot at, the way it is presented shows that there is much more to it than just that. 

William and Thomas have been given a seemingly impossible task with over 1,600 lives at stake should they fail. This mission is highly dangerous and takes them through battlefields littered with the bloated and rotting corpses of soldiers left over from a recent battle. There is so much death and destruction left everywhere that it gives us an idea of just how much loss of life occurred because of this war. It’s harrowing to look at and Sam Mendes makes sure that we are seeing it up close and often, even throwing in a gross-out moment when Schofield puts his cut hand right into the cavity of a corpse. 

Instinctively we know that it only takes one person to deliver a message, meaning that the other is ultimately unnecessary. What we don’t know is who will end up being the one to fall and when. When that is finally answered, it is shocking because not only is the one we assumed would survive the one who ends up dead, it happens suddenly and off-screen, a direct result of an act of kindness. Like a key moment in Saving Private Ryan, an act of mercy brings with it the punishment of death. 

1917 is trying to be as compelling as Saving Private Ryan or Platoon but unfortunately there isn’t any real compelling story behind the horrors of war to drive the narrative. Instead, it is focusing so much on the technical side of things, convincing us that what we are seeing is one long shot, that it forgets to give us any really compelling characters. The one we instinctually like the best ends up being the one killed early on leaving us a mostly blank slate for a main character, someone we are supposed to root for for the next hour plus. While we are rooting for a successful mission simply because lives will be saved, our protagonist is giving us nothing to latch on to, personally. 

This liability is something that I didn’t really notice on my first view, watching it in a theater and immersed in the cinematography. But these weaknesses become more obvious on repeat viewings, and while I was never bored, I found myself wondering why little effort was made to make these characters more fleshed out. There were plenty of opportunities for Blake and Schofield to work off of each other and give us enough personal details about themselves to get us firmly on their sides. Consider the scene in Saving Private Ryan when Tom Hanks reveals what he was back home. This scene doesn’t really advance the plot any, but it humanizes the character and makes his death in the finale all the more emotional. 1917 lacks this depth and, therefore, as shocking as it is, when one of them is killed, all it has is the shock value.

Because this film is so concerned with the spectacle of filmmaking, it loses a lot of what made it interesting to watch in theaters. This doesn’t translate nearly as well on the small screen, forcing us to try and focus on the other things this film has to offer. That makes it less interesting to watch, especially on repeat viewings. It is a film that is trying to compete with better war films but not having the humanity that makes the best war film work. There are great moments here and there, but overall, it just doesn’t quite reach the levels of excellence needed to make such a film worth a second watch. 

Academy Award Nominations:

Best Picture: Sam Mendes, Pippa Harris, Jayne-Ann Tenggren, and Callum McDougal

Best Director: Sam Mendes

Best Original Screenplay: Sam Mendes and Krysty Wilson-Cairns

Best Cinematography: Roger Deakins (won)

Best Makeup and Hairstyling: Naomi Donne, Tristan Versluis, and Rebecca Cole

Best Original Score: Thomas Newman

Best Production Design: Dennis Gassner and Lee Sandales

Best Sound Editing: Oliver Tarney and Rachael Tate

Best Sound Mixing: Mark Taylor and Stuart Wilson (won)

Best Visual Effects: Guillaume Rocheron, Greg Butler, and Dominic Tuohy (won)

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Release Date: December 25, 2019

Running Time: 119 minutes

Rated R

Starring: George MacKay, Dean-Charles Chapman, Mark Strong, Andrew Scott, Richard Madden, Colin Firth, and Benedict Cumberbatch

Directed by: Sam Mendes