Four words: Two, Long, Continuous, Shots!
Okay, getting ahead of myself.
Ahem!
War films give us a glimpse (through entertainment-tinged glasses) a grim look at an even grimmer time, where the fighting never stops, and even if you’re the overall victor, the road is washed with blood, and you must weigh the losses with the price to truly understand if you were the winner. and most times, unfortunately, it’s not as clear-cut as one might think.
Take 1917, for example: in the latter half of World War One, a young soldier and his companion are called to carry out a desperate mission: to make it behind enemy lines and deliver a report to a battalion of British soldiers who are walking into a trap, which includes the brother of one of the two men sent on the message run.
Heart is something that I think all movies based in wartime have to have. It balances out the horrors of war, death, and fighting all around them, and allows the audience to connect with characters that are in a situation that most audience members would never be in. The two main characters’ banter between them on the way to the front line never feels forced; these two boys have seen war, and it has scared them to a point where you can feel them forcing themselves to look at it from a comedic perspective when they have the downtime. Camera work is the real kicker, though, with minimal edits to what is made to seem like two consecutive, long-running shots, making the whole film feel like it’s played in real-time.
If I was incredibly picky, the film has a few moments that some might feel tend to drag a bit, but it’s to be expected given how the film is shot, and the soundtrack, while simple and effective, originally came to of left-field, feeling more modern then vintage, but that’s not a horrible detraction from a great film.
1917 will make you laugh, cry, and feel feelings for these two good boys, and movie-buffs will love the technical aspects of the film, but for me, it’s a testament to the art that makes me actually connect with a time long-gone, where life was much harder than now, and shows that even in the worst of times, a good buddy to travel with is sometimes all you need to make your journey possible.
