1917 aka The Walk About

Rating: 6/10 (21 January 2020)

As a movie portraying a small slice of WWI ... probably a 9
As a movie for entertainment ... for me, a 6. Why?
Because scene after scene was nothing but walking... walking for minutes on end through trenches ... walking for minutes on end through a field... walking up to a tree... walking walking walking but wait! A little running thrown in ...
Was the story compelling? Enough, yes. Was the acting good? Yes. Sets and production? All fine. But the overlong scenes of walking were SO long they took me out of the story. I felt like story time was being consumed unnecessarily.
At first (in the first long walking sequence) I kept thinking ok, it's gonna end now... then when it didn't... and didn't... and didn't... I thought ok, they want to make sure we get the experience of WWI and these soldiers in their trenches... how it was for them... but it went on for way too long in too many scenarios throughout the entire movie, not just in trenches, but everywhere they went. This movie would have been 45 minutes shorter with the walking cut down in each case to clearly make the point, while not making it overbearing.
I would not recommend this movie to anyone but a WWI enthusiast for that reason.