The Great War according to Hollywood

Rating: 6/10 (23 January 2020)

1917 is in itself a pretty decent action movie: tension building is well done, long tracking shots through the trenches, and even a few outstanding scenes reminiscent of the better work of Bresson, like the bridge crossing scene. However it also has several flaws, ranging from minor to more irritating. It seems the script was not well researched, and this is not Kubrick first reading several years into the subject matter, and then coming up with something perfect.
First, the hierarchy as portrayed in the movie is incorrect: WWI meant strict hierarchy, it seems very unlikely orders from higher up would be ignored or reflected upon. In WWI the battle field was a reflection of society at that time, from upper to lower class. In Paths of Glory, by now the benchmark for WWI movies, we see the arrogance of the upper levels slaughtering thousands of soldiers for nothing. As Scorsese noted about Paths of Glory: "It was so honest, that it was shocking, and what made it even more shocking, was the nature of the way it was shot, the use of the tracking camera and the trenches".
Then, the portrayal of the Germans is more WWII-like than WWI: Soldiers from Europe went to the battlefield in WWI seeing this as an honor to defend their homeland, almost like a football match. They were waved out like heroes, most were very nationalistic at that time. If you have seen the excellent Peter Jackson-documentary They Shall Not Grow Old, you noticed little hate between Germans and British. So, the stereotypical Hollywood bad German is driving the action once again in this movie. To the scriptwriters I would advice them to read a history book about the matter.
Another inaccuracy is that individual ethnic soldiers are written into the script, maybe to reflect and conform with current society's ethnically mixed makeup. And although groups of colonial soldiers fought in WWI, they mostly did so in their own regiments, just as society was organized then. Few of them fought as individuals in the main ethnic British group.
The story contains some odd situations: Wouldn't it be better for the Germans to catch Schofield alive for interrogation, he also goes through an unlikely amount of luck, and after the river scene he ends up just in the right place. The village looks by the way too much like a film set, and some other sets do not look very realistic either.
Then the much discussed tracking shots. See again Paths of Glory: The tracking shots there have more tension, more dynamism, and more speed. Here they are dull. I was somewhat disappointed overall in the work of Roger Deakins here, take Sicario as an example of what this man is capable of.
Mendes started his career with an almost perfect script, that was also well executed (American Beauty). Since then he thinks he is a great visual film maker, the problem however is that a guy like Nolan surpasses him in both writing and visual execution.