1917 (2019)
Time is the enemy.
Enough comedy for a bit, it’s time to get serious! Take a trip in the time machine back to the days where color wasn’t fully invented yet, and Europe was having a bit off a tiff that would draw in the world around it. Tonight’s movie looked alright in the trailers - nothing perhaps that stand out to me, hence me waiting till now to see it - but what changed to make me interested? Well, I hear this entire movie is set up as though it’s one big long take, similar to Silent House that we looked at forever ago. Well, I’m a sucker for some smooth movie tricks, so it’s time to get the old metal helmets out and get those feet ready for some nasty trenches, tonight we go back to 1917.
The story here is a mission. Look, I’ve all but given up on what movies are a true story and what aren’t - and if I spent time researching it for every movie I watched, I’d have to knock the reviews down to once a month for sanity, which wouldn’t really jive with the weekly movie night, you know? Still, regardless of how much of it is truth or fiction, gussied up for movie consumption or propaganda fed patriotism, it doesn’t really matter as far as the movie goes. We are back in the first of the big wars, following two soldiers tasked with a mission. Over the course of the day, they have to break through German lines (at least some of which are supposedly no longer there) to get to another company and stop them from launching an attack straight into the awaiting maws of a German trap. Should they fail, a lot of lives are going to be lost - including the brother of one of the two soldiers given the mission! It’s a race against time, will they be the heroes?
There’s a lot of events in the movie, set up like scenes and obstacles. Plenty of action exists, but it’s not all - in fact mostly not - gun fights and war action. A lot of it is quite small scale, things like barbed wire fences, or a single enemy soldier. This is certainly more in tune with the drama genre tag it’s been given then the initial action movie one would expect when seeing a trailer for a WW1 movie. Particularly the one given for this one, which makes it look like there’s perhaps a bit more action to be had then really is. The movie isn’t without it’s tensions and chaotic war moments - but it’s much more a small scale quest story set with a war as a backdrop - similar to if Lord of the Rings had only followed Sam and Frodo instead of showing us the other characters at all. Still, each little scene sets up it’s own challenge and tension, and will absolutely manhandle a character just to make sure you don’t fully believe any one given person is fully protected by plot armor as you initially expect. Plenty of other characters will come and go on the screen, but most of our time is spent with the two man team on the quest - so despite there being moments where someone can show off that there might be more depth to the character as a human, it’s usually brief and a passage to the next section.
My sense of flow here was somewhat interrupted - things kept coming up over the course of me trying to watch this movie, and instead of the just-under two hour runtime, it actually took me roughly three and a half to get through it. As such, perhaps my normal intentions of labeling how well or off the pacing is will be effected - but I didn’t feel it was that bad. Fact of the matter is, even during most slow scenes something is happening. When one of the soldiers briefly hides out with a woman and a child from some opposing soldiers, the point is to flesh the character out a little bit more and show some more of how devoted he is to the mission when he leaves. Is it totally necessary? Not really for most, but on the drama side of things it’s something that would be done to add more human elements to it. When we get a break from everything going on to see a bunch of soldiers gathered around one of their own for a bit of a song morale booster, it’s so the camera can pan around and really drive home just how worn out and (above all else) young these soldiers were. Of course, perhaps I’m wrong about all these things, but if you can get something out of the scene it’s not entirely that wasted, and with the pace of some of the other scenes watchers could probably use the down time to relax a little from the more tense moments.
Down in the trenches.
Being a period setting of 1917, as the title would imply, and specifically set in the war, various departments have a lot to work with here. Costumes all look good, everything has a feel of authenticity about it. Set work is great, and not as static as one would think - we go from the dirty trenches across the death filled no man’s land. We get out of the burnt ravages of war to far more colorful and bright countryside - even if it’s still littered with the taint of war. We drive off to a war-ravaged town or city, buildings smashed and destroyed by powerful bombs and shells. Heck, we even take a trip down a river to the woods. It’s colorful when it wants it to be, really holding off on overusing filters. Casting isn’t something that I normally think too much upon - I might recognize a few actors here and there, but in all honesty I’m terrible at remembering people and the varied amount of quality upon any actors resume has mostly prevented me from ever forcing a watch (outside of Kurt Russel). Still, as previously alluded to, there are scenes where it straight up looks like they just got a bunch of kids straight in High School, slapped a kit on them, threw them a Lee Enfield rifle (which I do love oh so much, I even own one myself) and gave them some instructions. It helps with the immersion, and also gives it a certain edge of tragedy that sending the young essentially to their deaths usually carries with it.
Of course, costume and sets also usually ties into my lines about the effects department, all things I consider visual aids to the betterment or detriment of the movie. Some gunshots, some stabs, plenty of violence associated with war movies - although also largely the amount of on-screen murder is smaller than one would think. Most the carnage we see is actually after the fact in the form of corpses or in the final act. Still, it doesn’t stop it from trying to make things look painful, without quite going to the extremes of having limbs laying all over the place. Bullet impacts and bombed out buildings are one thing as well, but they don’t stop the thought paths there. Some of the shots (camera wise) in this movie are pretty darn amazing to look at! The fact they have the entire thing stitched together as one big take is just a bit of icing on there, and they do a wonderful job of filling in the cuts in manners that really keep it hidden. Had I not seen a video on how they did some of it with virtual doubles of actors, I wouldn’t honestly have even thought there was digital doubles floating climbing out of holes in some of the shots.
Of course, it’s not all amazing. I mean, it’s pretty amazing to at least look at - but there’s some moments in there that could take you out of it. Every now and then you have some real questionable decisions being made. Sometimes, people seem to be conveniently bad at soldering. Sometimes they do try and explain it - maybe drinking, maybe concussions, maybe it’s just an age thing - but it does sort of allow for moments a person can be taken out of whats happening. Of course, the very nature of it feels like a lot of things are stitched together because we don’t spend too much time in any given moment, but that part isn’t really all that bad. Audio is balanced mostly well, although I will admit there was a string or two of moments where audio volume combined with some accents made it hard to hear what a person was trying to say.
Really drives home the point how young a lot of the soldiers were, doesn’t it?
This was a good movie to look at. It might not be super impressive in weaving some real emotional characters or an interesting plot, but looks and pacing are both pretty good. Visually it’s actually quite impressive, and the fact it’s all stitched together like it’s one continuous take does help with some of the immersive qualities of making it seem like we are following these soldiers through their adventure real-time. It doesn’t overstay it’s welcome, and the acting is pretty well done as well. If you like war movies that don’t necessarily focus heavily on the action elements of it, you might like this one. There’s a nice variety of moments and plenty of them have good tensions to them.