Thoughts on 1917

1917

This was incredible film that had my attention from the very start.

I never expected a film designed to appear like there’s no cuts to work so flawlessly, especially when it came to the passage of time.

I was amazed by how natural it felt as the sun set and rose, even though realistically we had only been watching this man journey for a couple of hours, and we had seen the entire thing without any noticeable cuts to indicate a day had passed. How they were able to make it so believable that the journey had taken all night is beyond me.

The set alone had me completely enthralled. I felt and believed every bit of this movie. The trenches, all the ultra realistic bodies, all the mud and gunk they had to crawl through, the burning church set and it’s incredible lighting. That scene in particular felt so surreal to me, and yet that’s what made it all the more realistic. It felt like one of those moments where you realize in the midst that you’ll only experience this once in your life, and you’ll never be able to do it justice if you try to describe it to someone else. One of those times when everything lines up and life suddenly feels like a dream, or a nightmare, and you’re trying to wrap your head around the fact that this is real.

Being all alone, surrounded by the remnants of crumbling buildings, the powerful intimidating presence of flames five stories high, which are also your only source of light in the engulfing darkness, and knowing any other sign of life near by will probably be a death sentence.

This entire movie, especially the town of fire scene, felt so much more like a memory than anything else. I’ve never seen a movie do this better.

After watching the film it feels like I have a better understanding of the realities of war, which is something I’ve never gotten from any other movie.

Simply because of the fact that there were no visible cuts we got to see things that would normally be left out, skimmed over, or assumed, like our lead character having to walk though the crowds of all the other soldiers, and how long it takes a man to die of a stab wound. All the in between and the longer moments are what really built the connection for me.

Another thing I found awesome was how surprisingly well this held tension, and this had everything to do with how close to reality it felt.

It didn’t need to use cliches to stay interesting. It felt like I really didn’t know what was going to happen just because that’s the nature of reality and war. It was very possible that nothing at all was going to happen, and that’s what happened a lot of the time, and yet it never felt boring. One camera angle in particular really pointed out to me just how predictable the average movie usually is. In the same scene where they discover the cows milk, there’s a shot of one man inside the building, and the other man seen outside through the window. It’s a picturesque shot, but I found myself thinking that the only reason they were showing him out the window in the background was because something bad was about to happen to him, and then nothing happened. In that moment I realized this movie was actually unpredictable, and that I had gotten too used to the formula I’m continually exposed to in most films. They weren’t using this shot for the same reason that other movies would. On that same note, I also LOVED that Lance Corporal Blake was stabbed off screen. You were with William. He didn’t see it, so you didn’t see it. This felt like such a new experience. It was never made obvious what was going to happen next.

Strangely, there were also moments that made me laugh.

Though most of the time things felt serious, I also found some moments of comedic pity that I really enjoyed.

Especially from an actor’s point of view, I was finding it hilarious what Lance Corporal William was having to go through. This poor guy was just being drug around, and continuously getting the short end of the stick early in the film. He gets blown up, covered in rubble, mouth and eyes filled with dirt and just keeps getting drug along. In that particular scene, I also kept thinking about how this actor really had to have dust in his mouth and eyes, and then be coerced to hop over a gap blind, and it was cracking me up. His coughing also seemed very real after that, and I can’t help but believe that’s because it was. The “Battlefield Run” scene where he decides to crawl out of the trench and run against the flow of soldiers, continuously running into them and knocking them and himself over, was also very funny despite it not being intended to be.

From start to finish this movie was just filled with gems and such an experience. I can’t wait to see more film makers attempt the appearance of one consecutive shot in the future.