Director - Sam Mendes
Cast - George MacKay, Dean Charles Chapman, Richard Madden, Benedict Cumberbatch, Andrew Scott, Colin Firth, Mark Strong
Genre - War/Drama
Streaming On - Amazon Prime Video & Apple TV
"There is only one way this war ends, last man standing"
'1917' is a 2019 British war film directed, co-written, and produced by Sam Mendes. The movie is a period drama set in World War I, the story revolves around two British soldiers; Lance Corporal Schofield and Lance Corporal Blake. They receive seemingly impossible orders of delivering a message behind enemy lines. In a race against time, they must cross over into enemy territory to deliver a message that could potentially save 1,600 of their fellow comrades.
This war drama is one of Sam Mendes` most captivating and thrilling film. '1917' is a period drama showing World War I like never before, instead of showcasing any particular battle or story, it shows a first person account of war in a truly mesmerizing way. The cinematography is honestly breathtaking, the picturization of a horrific war in such an awe inspiring way speaks volumes about the brilliance of this enchanting yet horrifying film. George MacKay gives an extraordinary performance, a role that he will always be remembered for! The movie has small but worthy cameo`s from Richard Madden, Benedict Cumberbatch, Andrew Scott, Colin Firth and Mark Strong, all of whom add to the brilliance of this cinematic masterpiece. From the perspective of the filmmaking trade, its an absolute masterpiece. Its a viscious, tense and unforgiving film that achieves staggering technical feats in filmmaking that takes your mind off from the horrors of the trench warfare shown in a pure and unadulterated way.
This visual feast of a film achieves so much, but even with all its brilliance, it fails to showcase the plight of the soldiers in full scale, the movie shows a lot of dreadful sights and opens the pandora`s box to the meaning of war and then leaves all of this sentiment unattended. This is where this world war I epic loses its shine.
JRating: 9/10
JRev: A truly breathtaking cinematic experience knit with a uniquely brilliant script!
Trivia -
1917 is based on Sam Mendes` Grandfather`s experiences in World War I. He was sent to fight in World War I as a Lance Corporal at the age of 17 in 1916 and had to carry messages across the no man’s land, much like Schofield and Blake are asked to do in the movie. The story isn’t directly a true story, but the script was pieced together from stories that the elder Mendes told his grandson when he was a child.