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'1917' Review With Casey

Courtesy of "1917" movie

Something about the genre of war films always seems to create a catalyst for exciting and different storytelling, and our latest example of this catalyst is 1917. Two young British soldiers make a dangerous journey into enemy territory during WWI to deliver a message that will stop their fellow fighters from entering an outnumbered battle.  

 

With mind-blowing editing and cinematography, the story is shown in one, unbroken, continuous shot from beginning to end. (Or at least it appears to to be shown in one, unbroken, continuous shot making the editing and cinematography look deceptively ordinary). This choice in visual storytelling is not revolutionary in film. It has been done with Birdman (2014), the horror film Silent House (2011), and Timecode (2000). But using this technique of a long, continuous, single-camera shot in a war film heightens every emotion in an otherwise simple story and offers a new way of enveloping you in this world. From excitement, to grief, to exhaustion, to fear, you feel everything that happens because it happens in real time, which makes it feel like it's happening in real life.   

Most of the film is fiction. But it has a core of reality, being loosely based on a story the director's grandfather told him, when the director was a boy, about the grandfather's own WWI experience. With 1917, director Sam Mendes has proven he can orchestrate sweeping action scenes (like in Skyfall, 2012) and intimate moments of friendship and reflection (like in Revolutionary Road, 2008) in the same film. 

Dunkirk (2017) is a great war film by mixing different simultaneous narratives, Sergeant York (1941) pioneered the biographical war film portraying the feats of one soldier, and Saving Private Ryan (1998) shows us unflinchingly raw violence. 1917 is another memorable addition to this genre by how it uses/shows the passage of time, evoking a gradual and realistic rise in immediacy and endurance. It's a brilliantly constant onslaught on all of your senses, especially your sense of urgency.   

Director Sam Mendes has won an Oscar before (for American Beauty, 1999). He might need to make more space on his awards shelf soon. 

 

 

Casey T. Allen is a native of Utah who graduated from Utah State University with a Bachelor's degree in English in 2007. He has worked in many capacities throughout USU campus and enjoys his time at UPR to continually exercise his writing.