1917
Directing: A-
Acting: B+
Writing: B+
Cinematography: A-
Editing: A
Special Effects: A
When 1917 begins, it feels pretty standard. The camera opens to a green, flowery field, until we pull back and immediately meet our two principal characters: Lance Corporal Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman) and Lance Corporal Schofield (George MacKay), taking a breather near the front lines in the third year of World War I. Blake is approached by another soldier, told to “choose someone” and to report to their captain; he chooses Schofield, evidently because he happens to be closest, and they head on over.
The camera follows them, making occasional turns to the right or left, without any discernible cuts. And that, really, is the hook of the entire movie for 1917. Much has been made of this film, if not actually being, then appearing to be “one single long take,” and a minor source of irritation, after seeing it, is that this description is not quite accurate. Just as happened in the similarly shot—and similarly exhilarating—Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014), it actually has the appearance of just two single, long takes. There is a moment when Schofield gets knocked out cold, and the screen goes black for several seconds. When he comes to and the picture comes back, several hours have passed and it is almost morning. Clearly that does not count as the entire movie being shot in “real time.” But, it’s close. It has two sections that are shot in real time, and just to be clear, that brief pause has no detrimental effect on the film’s narrative flow. I’m just a stickler for accuracy.
And, make no mistake: 1917 is a technical marvel, a thing to behold, something not to be missed, and absolutely best seen on the big screen. I truly have not been this impressed by production design and cinematography since Children of Men (2006), which was similarly jaw-dropping in its visual execution, if also far less plausible in futuristic concept, in contrast to this film’s uber-realistic historical one. I feel compelled also to mention the special effects. This is not a “special effects movie,” but the fact that you never think about visual effects while watching it, and yet there’s a couple hundred credits on its effects team, underscores how impressive it really is.
It takes a while even to notice the camera work. Somewhat in contrast to Birdman, this film is far more successful at not calling attention to the stunningly long takes. Quite a lot of the film goes by before it even begins to dawn on you, because you are so engrossed in what these two soldiers are doing, whether they are winding their way through trenches, crossing “no-man’s land,” or rushing over vast fields.
The cumulative technical achievements are so high with this movie that it’s easy to overlook the performances, which is too bad: Dean-Charles Chapman and George MacKay are both excellent, and they are unlikely to get the recognition they deserve beyond mentions in reviews like this one. The fact that you forget that they are even acting is testament to their skill. That said, there are brief appearances by Colin Firth, Benedict Cumberbatch, Mark Strong, Richard Madden, and even Flabag’s “hot priest” Andrew Scott, their varying levels of fame creating varying levels of distraction in a film where it’s really best if the actors are unrecognizable enough to disappear into their characters. That is the most minor of minor quibbles, though.
1917 is engrossing from the start, but the “how in the world did they do that?” moments don’t start until about halfway through the film. I found myself wondering, first of all, how massive the sets must have been, to accommodate these actors traversing such large distances in real time. Then there are two sequences, one a chase through a decimated French town and then into a river, the other a run across an attack over a battlefield (a glimpse of which is seen in the trailer), which are genuinely stunning.
And while the takes are objectively long either way, they could not possibly have actually been only two genuine takes, which makes the editing arguably the most impressive achievement. I can think of only one moment, when the camera follows the two soldiers into a trench tunnel and the screen goes dark for a split second, when I thought about how there could have been an easily imperceptible cut. Wherever else there are cuts in the film, effects work must have been incorporated—and seamlessly so.
The story is an incredibly simple one, already made clear in the trailer: Blake is informed that his brother is part of another company that is about to launch an attack on German forces that is actually a trap, and their attack must be called off. When they were told they had something like eight hours to get to their destination on foot, I immediately wondered how director (and co-writer) Sam Mendes was going to accommodate that expectation with the “single shot” concept: he easily took care of that with the moment when Schofield is knocked out for several hours. Schofield does hitch a ride on the back of a truck at one point, but for all of five minutes, so upon further reflection, crossing that expectation of distance in the space of two hours is clearly implausible, but 1917 is otherwise so astonishing and great that it’s easy to forgive. It’s still a movie!
And a fantastically suspenseful, compelling and often tense one, at that. Maybe once a decade a movie comes along that pushes the technical limits of filmmaking forward, without sacrificing the sanctity of storytelling. This is one of those movies.
A brief pause for reflection on a cinematic roller coster.
Overall: A-