Madeline
The movie, 1917, is INSANE! I don’t even know where to start. I white knuckled through the entire 117 minutes of this movie. What is great about this movie? The plot is great. The costumes and makeup are great. The lighting is great. The visual effects is great. The sets are fantastic. The acting is unbelievable. The filming is out of this world.
The Movie Making Amazingness
Every once in awhile I took myself out of the story and thought “How the hell did they do that?” The movie is made out of a handful of thirty minute or so clips. Meaning there are very few cuts. This also means that every detail, every line, every gun shot needs to be perfect. If it is not perfect it can screw up the entire shot. And due to the complexity of some of the sets, I can only imagine how long and what must go into resetting some of these sets.
All the shots need to be a perfectly choreographed dance between all departments. There is no stitching the best of each together after the fact. The editors cannot hide the mistakes.
Premise of 1917
The plot of 1917 is incredibly intense. The basic idea: two young men in World War I are sent on a mission to tell a battalion of 1600 men that the attack they are planning is a trap set by the Germans. And this trap will cause the fatality of all 1600 men including one of the brothers of the men sent on the mission.
So, how do they need to get there? They will need to cross through the war zone they which they have been fighting. Then go through the bunker of the enemy, which is rumored to be empty, but no one can say for sure. Go through an occupied city and they should find the bunker of this batalian. They then need to find the correct person, who has no clue who they are, and give him a letter that hopefully persuades him to stop the attack.
While going on this journey with these men, there is no saying when the enemy will appear and snatch their lives before they reach their destination. Although, the viewer is ultimately routing on the two men to survive, their survival also means the survival of 1,600 others including one of their brothers. Making their survival even more dire.
The Staging of 1917
I knew I liked this movie the second they stepped out of the front lines and into the danger zone. By then, In about two shots, the movie went from safety in grassy fields, to the trenches with strategic lighting, to a war zone of nothing but ash and dead bodies. Every movement choreographed. Every moment building from the previous one. The tone changed so quickly and yet so elegantly.
I am not saying the acting was bad, but that was clearly not the focus of the movie. If anything, the acting elevated everything that was going on around them. There were so many factors that made this movie amazing. Some over shadowed others, but it all came together in perfection. All of the makings of this movie has made it as great as it is.
Final Thoughts
Never ask me to watch a war movie. The genre is not for me. 1917 on the other hand, one of my favorite movies of 2019, if not, of all time. This movie deserves all the awards, all of the watches, and all of the love possible. It is truly an amazing film that everyone needs to watch.
