1917

"Director Sam Mendes employs distinctive but extraordinary shots in the first person during the two-hour footage, which makes the production work in many different ways. Although it sometimes results too shaky, it is thanks to George MacKay and Dean-Charles Chapman's performances that 1917 preserves both sombre but optimistic tones throughout the montage. In short, this is an exceptional approach to memorialise the hundredth anniversary of the end of the First World War". We are somewhere in France during the Trench Warfare [1915 - 1917] with a depleted British Army; the atmosphere, alongside with the dialogues, can define by itself how was life at the front: scarce water and food, despair between soldiers to go home, endless weapons and corpses scattered on the floor, and so forth. Corporals Blake and Schofield are told to attain a severe/impossible mission despite not having any reinforcements. Before achieving this goal in sending General MacKenzie [Bennedict Cumberbatch] the infamous fallback letter, both privates must penetrate the frightful No Man's Land and experience horrendous life-and-death encounters in many places. Regardless of the silent second half, the absence of preeminent performers and the woozy experience of watching the film in one sole perspective director Sam Mendes and executive producers deliver an eloquent portrayal about surprising facts of the four-year global conflict. For example, both soldiers are bewildered by the superiority of the German trenches in proportions and in quality considering that historically they were far better equipped than the Allied ones which allow the audience the opportunity of a lifetime to analyse the condition millions of innocent citizens were facing. The result improves with some accurate shots at landscapes, underground warfare channels, entire villages pulverised, etcetera. I must acknowledge the last fifteen minutes of the film; it has been a long time since I spotted such an imposing ending. Countless emotions appear regardless of having reached the climax. What a masterpiece ladies and gentlemen! What amazes me the most is that despite being a World War film, 1917 does not give the impression in duplicating the ordinary details of previous same-genre releases such as Hacksaw Ridge [2017]. Once Mr Gibson introduced a brief biography of Desmond Doss [the main character] he began recording some ultraviolent scenes as though you were spotting the most savage state of humankind. As an alternative, 1917 delivers some innovative procedures in creating a war film without increasing the brutal strength of instant classics as Saving Private Ryan. Congratulations! [80/100]