1917 [4K UHD]

In 1917 Director Sam Mendes has left us with more than just another film of war. A clue lies with the term “Gehenna” (aka - hell, hades, limbo, catabasis) used for the title of a movement in the film’s music score – he is clearly alluding to the layered meanings of this remarkable film.1917 is an allegory of yet another allegory nearly 3,000 years old. It demands repeated viewing to absorb its nuanced and symbolic iconography. The landscapes of dark beauty, the liturgical score and most of all the unbroken camera flow that rarely breaks from the protagonists every step work subliminally much as a dream. Veterans who have survived combat might cast a memory of war beneath shut eyes this way. It connects you to the experience of a soldier at his own level. Few other films of this genre compare.The ancient Greeks believed we come here with “sealed orders.” Lance Corporal Schofield and Corporal Blake are ordered to deliver an army command message that would save 1,600 men from annihilation. It’s a race against time.The first hour of 1917 could be entitled “catabasis” from the epics of Homer – a term we can apply appropriately here to describe the sacrifice of a nation’s children in war. The graphic depiction of “no man’s land” separating the British and German front lines leaves little to your worst imaginings.In the second hour, when Schofield awakens from a fall, he discovers his watch has stopped. Is he therefore even still alive? As he steps into Ecoust, a city of burning rubble, we enter the underworld with him. His solitary journey here is now so much that of book 6 from Virgil’s “Aeneid.” For Schofield to “go over” he must first complete his task. He must kill to survive, shun the pleas for an orphaned infant, nearly drown in a river (the Styx?) near Crosillies, climb over an island of dead civilians, and only then in a quiet forest find the Devon Rifle Company he was seeking. A soldier can be heard singing “I Am A Lonely Wayfaring Wanderer” - a hymn of warriors free of woe, crossing "the Jordan" to return to their parents in death. It is one of many carefully engineered symbols throughout the film, each of them a paradox.In the suspenseful and relentless race against time that governs the final 20 minutes of the film Schofield staggers, exhausted, shell shocked, dogging a rain of shrapnel through the surreal chalk trenches to reach his destination and deliver the message. And also deliver another more personal message of his own.Shall all these phantom warriors yet find their way to “Elysium” in the tender green fields of Belgium? Schofield carried with him a photo of his wife. On the reverse she had written “come back to us.”Virgil's Aeneid was a poem of the Trojan wars. It addressed war with the subliminal aesthetics of that time as civilization’s great nightmare, and mankind’s greatest test. It remains relevant today and going forward. That aesthetics rather than reality can leave an emotional and not only an intellectual comment is the truest definition of art

Fantastic cinematography! Beautiful 4K presentation! The story is a simple one and the presentation makes you feel like you are present. Excellent!

This beast is 2 1/2 hours long.... Plan on a couple of bathroom breaks.The supposed - gimmick - for this film is that it has little editing.It almost runs as one long scene.They shot whole segments for 10s of minutes, by using a massive series of sets - spread out over 100s of acres.The trick was to get everyone on the same page - and, getting the camera man to dance thru the maze backwards, whilst filming the major characters.It's a neat trick.The plot will not bolster long lines at your local recruitment center.If anything, one comes away from the show, with an opinion that war is very much a waste of time.It's bad for their side.It's bad for our side.It's bad for the civilians.It's bad for the horse - and, livestock in general.The politicians are buffoons.The officers are idiots.The soldiers are expendables.If you tend to bond to major characters, this may not be your movie.There are no winners.Just a long list of victims.That's - pretty much - what war is about.

I've been putting this off for too long. Let me just start by saying that if you have any interest in seeing this film, purchase it now and watch it immediately. I have been blown away by the quality of this film, so much so that it's led me to just keep analyzing frames and shots and dialogue throughout the movie. Yes, it's just a WWI movie that takes place on one day in 1917, but it's a movie so packed with purpose and intention behind every little thing. It's astounding how much thought and time was put into making this film. It's truly a beautiful work of art that I may now regard as my favorite war film of all-time. You're immediately thinking of other, better war movies, and I'll agree that those are all great too, but 1917 is a true masterpiece of a film.Sam Mendes has done what you would think had already been done before in blockbuster war films, and that's to create an artificially "one shot" movie that follows our characters through the trenches of WWI without ever leaving them. It literally starts from the first frame and doesn't let you go, as you walk through trenches of mud and guts with these young men. The camera work is extraordinary, and whether or not you notice that there are no "cuts" or very deliberate shots, you'll see yourself mesmerized with the storytelling that this technique creates throughout the movie. There's so much to be said about the way this film is framed, and it helps to guide the viewer along on their journey with the main characters. I found so much purpose and meaning in things that weren't words being said by characters, and not even actions so much as the way things were being shown on the screen.I can't do this film any justice by talking about what it is about and the story and how it happens. It's just true beauty, it's outstanding work. I gave this movie a 9/10, and would have given it a perfect 10 had it made me cry at the end. This isn't a knock on the film, so much as a testament to the suspense it wrangles you with. The actors are phenomenal, and I love that we get to see 3 well-traveled actors make cameos throughout the film to give it some Hollywood weight. Do yourself a favor, buy the film and watch it. If you're blown away by the nerdy film stuff, watch the commentaries and you will be even more so enlightened. Though they will ruin where all of the cuts in the film are for you, they will highlight the technique of the film as you continue to wonder how a story could be so perfectly told on film through visuals in this way.This movie is not overrated and despite knowing that the visuals were the strength of the movie, I was still worried it would be over hyped and I'd be disappointed. I wasn't, and this is now one of my favorite films. It's truly a masterpiece, and one of the best war films ever made. The details of war are on full display and they never shy away from a shot. For all of the horror within, there is so much beauty in the story and just... WOW, watch the movie already!

Unbelievable movie

Great film about the first World War. I'm a big Roger Deakins fan and he certainly does not disappoint. Found myself glued to the screen in the theater and has to own this one.