A new, intense, visceral way of depicting the gruelling experience of war.

Rating: 9/10 (21 January 2020)

I read a headline critical of 1917 right before I saw it, that said something along the lines of 'Does 1917 have anything new to say about war?' I couldn't help but think about this throughout my viewing of the film, and realised pretty early on that no, perhaps it doesn't really have anything 'new' to say.
But at the same time, what is there to say about war that hasn't already been said? The personal and psychological experience of the solider, following orders and just trying to survive, is a surprisingly universal one, and has been captured extremely well in many of the past few decades' best war films, including Platoon, Come And See, The Deer Hunter, and Full Metal Jacket. The broader issues of war, breaking it down politically and socially, looking at why nations fight and to what extent they are or are not justified in doing so, and the way things so often spiral out of control are all far more complicated topics to tackle, but someone like Ken Burns has more or less made a career out of doing that through his lengthy documentary miniseries.' So even in that department, it's hard to explicitly say something truly new and unique about the topic of war.
This is all preamble to say ultimately it didn't matter to me that 1917 did not have a lot to say beyond how terrible war is, how foolish the higher-ups sending young men off to die are, and how brave some of the individual soldiers on the frontline were for surviving and trying to hold onto their humanity in the process. What 1917 does bring to the table is a new way of putting the audience into the war, capturing the tedium, tension, and horror of what our two main characters go through, largely through the immersive use of numerous long takes strung together to give the illusion of one single, continuous shot.
It could be something of a gimmick to some, and I was skeptical in the film's first few scenes just how well this approach would work, but early on, when the camera follows our two main characters crossing No Man's Land, forcing us to experience every painful, tension-filled step along with them, no cuts to ease the tension by showing them suddenly safe and on the other side, I was basically hooked.
To give away anymore of the set pieces I feel would be criminal. But even with the scenes in which danger isn't 100% present- the 'downtime' if you will- are often just as engaging and interesting, thanks to a powerful score, consistently great visuals, and two strong lead performances (plus a whole host of recognisable actors popping up in cameos, that honestly weren't too distracting).
Very occasionally the writing veered close to being cheesy, and there were a couple of shots involving one character jumping that looked out of place- I think he was composited onto a green screen or CGI was used, because a couple of these stunts didn't look seamless. But these are ultimately nitpicks. By and large, this film as a whole works thrillingly and surprisingly well, and is entirely worth seeing on the big screen.
There are images and sequences here that will stick with me for a long time to come. It's not quite my absolute personal favourite of 2019, but if it ends up taking home Best Picture, it'll be deserved.