The Best Movie I have Seen Period

Rating: 10/10 (27 March 2020)

I don't write movie reviews, and this is my first in my 70+ years, so forgive me but I am new at this. Oddly, I thought no movie would ever replace my all time favorite, Lawrence of Arabia, which strangely was also about WW I and a real British hero. Once it starts you cannot stop watching it and it brought me to tears at the end. You are with these brave soldiers all through it as an unseen witness.
I watched 1917 last night and again this afternoon, for two reasons:
1. Sam Mendez had a great uncle who inspired him to write, direct, and produce this movie. So did I. My great uncle, fought along side Major Charles Whittlesey,
during the American effort to end WW I in 1918. He was a survivor of the Lost Battalion in October of 1918 where only 194 were rescued, and 197 KIA, the rest never found or captured out of 554 men. If this movie inspires you to learn more about the Great War, that most have forgotten, I recommend: Finding the Lost Battalion, Robert, Laplander, Lulu Press, 2nd Ed, 2007, 611 pp.
I wanted to get some idea of what my great uncle suffered in that War, beyond the diary he left me of those terrible days in the "Pocket" and all the medals he was awarded for his bravery along with Major Whittlesey, his hero, serving as his aid-de-camp and interpreter for German prisoners.
2. I needed to escape for a few hours away from all the current gloom and doom of the world's current War against an insidious virus. I thought there might be some lessons to learn in courage, bravery, sacrifice, and good and evil of mankind during all our wars against illness and each other.
Impressions:
1. I have never seen a movie like this. The entire movie is shot with camera angles between 0-6 feet from the ground, with the exception of a brief water fall scene. You are in the trenches, shell craters, open fields, rooms, and streets, day and night. You can feel the fear and sense what each actor is thinking. The scene at night with all the flares and fires with the music is something out of this world.
2. The cinematography is spectacular and the sound was wonderful. I had to watch it on my 4K 65" HDTV at home a second time today with my Sennheiser
headphones just to capture the sounds I would have heard in a theater now that they are all closed around here. It was fitting that both the first and last scenes of this movie were almost the same place for a complete emotional round trip to give some peace to everyone watching it.
3. Although the story was fictional and was focused British soldiers in 1917, many Americans and others around the world, especially will sense
what real wars and battles are like against a common enemy, even a pandemic
virus. It will make you proud to think we all have heroes out there now fighting for our lives in hospitals now in the "front lines". The bottom line is we can fight any foe, anytime, and anywhere if we all pull together, like they did in this movie.
The minor flaws that others point out in this reviews miss the point. Any good war story needs a little humor and small miracles to break up the tension.
If you want to get away from your day-to-day, and you are old enough, watch this movie, anyway you can. You will feel sad and scared at first, but proud and satisfied at the end, as you remember, life goes on. My final thought is that I hope Sam Mendez, might consider a sequel someday, ;maybe call it 1918 with the American perspective on WW I and contributions of our heroes like Major Whittlesey