1917 Review

"1917" is less a war film than a drama, less epic and more intimate, then the action-extravaganzas one thinks of with that generalization. We follow two Lance Corporals, Tom (Dean-Charles Chapman) and Will (George MacKay) as they move to deliver a message to call off a French attack on German forces, as it's a trap. It's a picture about trying to stop a battle, not a war, and we spend almost all of the runtime with such a little cast.

Problem is we're promised one thing with Will and Tom at the start, but a keen eye will know the ads focus mostly on just one individual; draw your own conclusions here with what happens. I did, and was right.

But let's not dwell on plot, as it's an exaggeration on history and, well, it's a movie. But even that's not true- this is less a movie and more an experience, thanks to the entire film being one-shot. Of course it isn't, when characters crash into raging waters, or enter a pitch-black trench when the cheating of this effect being most noticeable, but it works. There is no time to waste on secondary or even tertiary characters. No unnecessary scenes; this is a lean 119 minute long flick with no fat.

It works on a level rarely touched in the theater, where you the viewer live vicariously through the action onscreen. You can only catch your breath when our characters can, and director Sam Mendes doesn't give you many instances. You grip the arm of your chair, you feel you need to remind yourself you need to blink, that's effective moviemaking, and it's a trick exploited here to its absolute fullest, teetering on the brink of being a video game, or even one of those 3D attractions at Universal Studios Florida.

Of course, with all this movie magic the heart of the picture is lost, the point, to help save troop's lives, is trivialized for pure visual, visceral stimulation. Do we need to commercialize the horrors of war with some new tricks just to make a buck? This is a wonderfully constructed piece of cinema, with a lot of heart behind the camera, but there is no heart onscreen.

When I first saw "Jurassic Park," I wanted to be a paleontologist. I doubt anyone will see "1917" and want to be a history major. Or a peaceworker. Or a solider. But they're probably want to be a movie maker.