That war is hell is of course nothing new. We see it almost daily on the news and war movies and series also show the horrors. Whether that is Vietnam or the second world war. In recent years, the first world war has again become the subject or part of films. For example, Wonder Woman partially took place in this setting and last year Peter Jackson impressively succeeded in transforming the existing jerky black-and-white images into a smooth, colored and narrated document about how the soldiers’ lives in the trench war looked like. And with 1917, director Sam Mendes brings the First World War to the big screen in a way that has never been done before.
Two British soldiers (played by Dean-Charles Chapman and George MacKay) are given an impossible mission. They have to get through no man’s land to the front line to deliver a message that can save the lives of many soldiers. An extremely dangerous journey through a landscape strewn with barbed wire, fallen soldiers and much more.
1917 is not a movie that you watch, but that you experience. As a viewer you are the invisible third soldier who walks every meter the two soldiers travel. And that is literal, because the film is filmed so that it seems as if everything happens in one long shot, and that is impressive. Not only the idea that everything had to go well while filming, but also the huge sets, from trenches to destroyed areas full of soldiers, all show how much love has been spent on making this title. But not only on a technical level, this is a piece of art (the camera sometimes seems to move in impossible places), also the story and the acting performances impress. The new film decade starts strong with 1917. This is a film that you should not miss and should see on the biggest screen possible.
[score9]