A Poignant, Visceral Portrayal of the Human Spirit

Rating: 9/10 (11 January 2020)

Sam Mendes First World War epic is a visual masterpiece which warrants every inch of its award hype. This is not a film driven by introspective character narrative and for some this apparent lack of plot, will seem like a deterrent and boring for some. The film focuses on a day in Spring 1917 in France, following Lance Corporal Schofield (George Mackay) and Lance Corporal Blake (Dean Charles Chapman), being tasked by their General to deliver a message to a nearby battalion, to halt their forthcoming attack as it a trap. And from this point onwards the film follows relentlessly the point of view of the two men as they travel through their trenches, across no mans land and through the apparent abandoned enemy front lines.
Mendes decision to film using long tracking shots, alludes to the idea that it was filmed in one continuous take, never leaving the leads sides. This, above anything else, has garnered much attention and has drawn criticism for favouring technological technique over narrative. But I would argue, far from detracting from the story, this type of film-making is a character device all by itself and adds to the individualistic war many soldiers endured. This is not your typical Americanised, action film since very little stylised action takes place, there is very little interaction at all within the entire film. Communication between characters is minimal, there are many fleeting interactions, even between named stars such as Colin Firth, Mark Strong and Benedict Cumberbatch but this only adds to the realism the film is trying to portray.
Following one man's journey, this is not about the holistic nature of war, it's an individual's experience. With that being sad, Mende's is aware he is making a film and utilises his hero with particularly unrealistic chases from enemy gunfire at mere yards away. There are moments that frustrate and where one would say the Schofield could not possibly survive but he is encapsulating the strength of human spirit, the heroic nature of soldiers, the sheer luck some soldiers experienced surviving a war they were not always prepared for. For many, the Great War was not as it was promised: for many they thankfully never even experienced the "big push" and fought of boredom and squalor more than anything else.
Those looking for action are in the wrong film, they are in the wrong conflict and they are misinformed at what the years of trench-ware actually meant for soldiers. This was not something many men were proud of, hence a particularly poignant moment where Schofield scoffs at his war medals, for what use is a piece of ribbon to a family who will never have their son/brother/husband or father back? Many soldiers died pointlessly and were mere canon fodder for generals who had no idea what they were fighting nor what their plans were from one week to the next. The deaths in the film are not heroic in grandeur but they are in terms of human spirit and they stay true to how many young men died on the fields.
1917 is about the individual, lived experience of war, a poetic and visceral display of the battlefields. Brave in its portrayal, realistic in its cinematography and above all else, a more than fitting homage to the endurance of human spirit.