One of the Most Memorable World War I Movies

Rating: 10/10 (25 January 2020)

Two young British Infantry corporals receive orders from their Company Commander in director Sam Mendes' gripping, often surreal World War I movie "1917" to deliver an urgent message to rescind a planned frontal attack on enemy positions on the Western Front. These two, clean-cut, lads embark on a genuine journey of hardship that nobody expects them to carry out and brave an obstacle course teeming with ravenous rats, lethal German snipers, while their own men try to sidetrack them. The action takes place in trenches, trucks, rivers, forests, and the remains of bombed out villages. Furthermore, they have only so much time to accomplish their mission, and the odds are stacked against them from the start. Heroism has rarely been portrayed in such realistic terms. Moreover, these two boys aren't trigger-happy, bloodthirsty killers, but naÃ¯ve souls who don't have a clue what they have volunteered for once they forge ahead. The tragic catch is that only one of them will survive this nightmare. The one who dies doesn't die shooting it out with German soldiers. Instead, he will die trying to help a downed German aviator escape from his crashed biplane before its flaming fuselage incinerates him. "1917" captures the horror of the War to End All Wars as it was called by the politicians. Although "Apocalypse Now" dealt with the Vietnam War, the two movies reflect the futility of war as well as the humanity of their young men who bore arms in the conflict. What these two fellows experience is unforgettable, but it doesn't depict gung-ho heroics. Instead, men scramble to stay alive and often behave like cowards. Everywhere these two Brits go, they see the many faces of death. Rivers are choked with bloating, ashen-faced corpses, but director Sam Mendes resists the urge to show soldiers getting blown to smithereens or tangled up in their own guts like Steven Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan."
When a British sergeant orders Lance Corporal Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman of "The King") to pick somebody to accompany him to headquarters, he doesn't think twice about taking his friend Lance Corporal Schofield (George MacKay of "Defiance") with him. Schofield isn't especially enthusiastic about the prospect that awaits them, but he tags along with Blake to the C.O.'s tent. General Erinmore (Colin Firth of "Kingsman: The Secret Service") shows them several maps of the Western Front as well as aerial photographs and explains that the Germans have abandoned their trenches. Initially, the High Command thought this represented a triumph. Instead, Erinmore explains the Germans not only deliberately left the battlefield, but also these sly Huns are orchestrating a Trojan Horse trap. When the British launch their next attack, they will be unwittingly feeding their troops into a German meat grinder. As it turns out, Corporal Blake has been chosen not only for his map reading skills, but also because his brother, Lieutenant Joseph Blake (Richard Madden of "Rocketman"), will die in the attack if it isn't halted. Corporal Blake has more incentive that anybody else under Erinmore's command, and the General calculates that this will enable him to complete the mission.
"1917" is a sprawling, epic saga, and we're drawn into their plight, because we're following them every bloody step of the way. "Skyfall" director Sam Mendes and "Brazil" lenser Roger Deakins present this incredible mission as it unfolds on April 6, 1917. The film has a documentary feel to it, especially when our protagonists shoulder their way through fellow troops lining the infinite labyrinth of trenches. Each face tells a terrible story, and the officers hold out little hope for survival. Initially, during the first twenty minutes, Blake and Schofield are stunned by the uncanny silence that hangs ominously over the abandoned enemy trenches. Rats the size of racoons scavenge among the kitbags of food left behind by the Germans. Our two lads gaze in stupefaction at dozens of artillery pieces which the Huns have spiked in their urgency to retreat. At one point, the Brits enter a tunnel that appears to serve as a shortcut through this eerie no-man's land. One huge rat dragging a bag of food catches on a tripwire, and an explosion buries Schofield, and Blake digs him frantically out of the rubble. These guys were prepared to fight the Germans, but they had no idea a hungry rodent could pose such danger. Everywhere they go, no matter how desolate it appears, our protagonists discover nothing is what it seems. Death lurks everywhere, especially where they least expect it.
About forty-five minutes into "1917," after one of the two protagonists has been killed, the other realizes his life literally hangs by a thread. He catches a ride in a truck with other British soldiers, but they are heading in the wrong direction, so he must leave them where a collapsed bridge marks their point of departure. No sooner has he parted company with them than a German sniper starts blasting away at him. Scenes like this spawn white-knuckled tension, and both combatants never really see each other until our hero silences the sniper. When our protagonists embarked on their mission, they were loaded down like pack mules with ordinance and rations. By the time the surviving Brit spots the men he is supposed to save, he has only his uniform to prove he is British. Incredibly, he learns to his chagrin a glory hound of an officer may ignore his message that he has literally died for to deliver. Earlier, when he lost most of what he was lugging along with him, our lone soldier dived into a river to elude enemy fire. Swept downstream, he winds up caught up in a logjam of rotting, bloated corpses that prevent further progress. A night in a bombed-out village has a hallucinatory quality as flares burst repeatedly above the buildings, and their skeletal remains ripple with spooky shadows. By the time our hero attains his objective, you'll feel as traumatized by this spectacle as he is