1917
5 stars
Director: Sam Mendes
Stars: Dean-Charles Chapman, George MacKay, Daniel Mays, Colin Firth, Pip Cater, Andy Apollo
Duration: 110 mins
Class: 15
KRS Releasing Ltd
I enjoy this time of year, when we get to see what many studios consider to be awards-worthy fare. Granted, they don’t always hit the mark, however 1917 is definitely one of the must-see movies of the new year.
Director Sam Mendes has described making 1917 as the most exciting job of his career. This from the Oscar-winning director of two James Bond films (Skyfall and Spectre) and the luscious American Beauty.
Despite its war setting, 1917 is not an action film per se ‒ although the film does serve up its fair share of harrowing moments. Mendes’s screenplay, which he co-wrote with Krysty Wilson-Cairns, was inspired by the stories his grandfather told him about his experiences in the World War I. Neither is it a biographical film, but one which Mendes hopes has captured the spirit of men like his grandad ‒ what they went through, the sacrifices they made, and “the sense of believing in something greater than themselves.” I can say that he has succeeded.
Mendes’s grandfather Alfred was 19 years old when he enlisted in the British Army. Due to his five-foot-four-inch stature, he was chosen to be a messenger on the Western Front ‒ specifically ‘No Man’s Land’, the unclaimed land between Allied and enemy trenches on the front lines. The young soldier literally sprinted from one post to another carrying messages; and his height meant he was not visible to the enemy as he darted through the heavy mist that hung over the area.
Alfred Mendes’s highly dangerous job inspired the story at the heart of Sam Mendes’s film. The two main characters, Lance Corporals Schofield (George MacKay) and Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman) of the eighth battalion, are very close friends and together are tasked with a dangerous mission.
They must cross enemy territory to deliver a message that could potentially save 1,600 of their fellow soldiers from marching into a deadly trap set by the Germans. And they only have a few hours in which to get there.
The brave façade they muster as they go on their way and the horror they encounter on their treacherous journey are palpable every moment
Unlike other similarly successful films which told the stories of armies of soldiers in war scenarios, in focusing the film on just two soldiers, Mendes immediately brings home their personal agony and great sacrifice. And in MacKay and Chapman he has cast the roles perfectly. The fear etched on their faces as they are given their seemingly impossible task, the brave façade they muster as they go on their way, and the horror they encounter on their treacherous journey are palpable every moment, and I only found myself able to breathe properly once the credits rolled.
The environment is disquietingly quiet as the two soldiers cross No Man’s Land – a dank, muddy terrain with hidden dangers in the form of barbed wire and landmines, and obvious distress as they come upon dozens upon dozens of rotting corpses, mostly young men like themselves whose lives were so hopelessly cut short.
It is a long, menacing journey, the quiet and solitude our two heroes experience is punctured by harrowing experiences ‒ a plane crashing mere metres away from them, literally out of the blue; the smouldering ruins of a once pretty countryside village with the enemy possibly hiding behind its walls – and some human ones, as they encounter a handful of survivors along the way each with their own moving story to tell.
Mackay and Chapman are joined by household names Colin Firth, Andrew Scott, Mark Strong and Benedict Cumberbatch, but it is the young actors who truly make an impact. Although relatively unknown, Mackay is a young actor who has already amassed a pretty impressive résumé. That he has a classic, innocent face really helps him look the part of the young, sensitive yet already experienced soldier who understands immediately the impossibility and danger of the task ahead; unlike Chapman’s more boisterous Blake, whose eagerness to please and do the right thing only serves to highlight his immaturity.
Much has been said of Mendes, his cinematographer Roger Deakins, and editor Lee Smith’s presenting the film as though it was shot in one take. But this is no gimmick – with its extraordinary long takes and constant focus on the protagonists, it allows the viewers to become even more immersed in the action, inviting total emotional engagement which never lets up.
The experience is enhanced by production designer Dennis Gassner’s atmospheric rendering of the backdrop of this particular theatre of war, making for a beautifully haunting film that deservedly walked away with two Golden Globes (for Best film, drama and Best director) last Sunday.