Film Review: 1917
1917 is worth the price of admission. Go see it and you will not be disappointed. You will immediately be transported to the front lines of World War I and enjoy a fast-paced adventure with many surprises. The cinematography is beautiful and unique and for this reason alone you should consider seeing it in a movie theater to get the proper experience.
The film 1917 by Sam Mendes is a visual experiment that takes us through the trenches and war zones in what seems like one long single recording. The audience follows the main characters like a hovering spirit, floating around them as they march and run on their mission. The film however never speaks directly to us. This is not a news report.
World War I is said to have been the most brutal war in history. It was when mechanized and chemical warfare was first introduced to the battlefield. At the same time wars were still conventionally fought, with large numbers of men holding lines in muddy bloody trenches. Men died brutally and in masses. A generation of people were scarred. They could not conceive another war was ever possible; its carnage and horror so unimaginable and repugnant. The war photographs of the time are horrible and frightening. There is no beauty here only death.
Our focus is solely on the characters, where they are and what they are feeling. The surroundings, a trench, a battlefield, a ruined town, are all backdrops and enhance our understanding of the scale and intensity of the situation the main characters are in.
Before I saw the movie I read a review that criticized the lack of an attempt to speak to the horrors of war. After I watched the movie I thought a lot about that opinion and wondered if it was misguided. Why did the filmmaker seem to do this?
Imagine yourself running through a battlefield trench during a horrendous World War I battle. You have been tasked to run a day’s distance past the front lines, into enemy territory only recently abandoned the night before. You are to deliver a message to a nearby regiment planning a massive attack the next morning. The message is that the attack is a trap and that the whole regiment will surely be killed including your own brother who is there with them.
There is no time to think. There is no time to stop and stare. There is no time to rest. No time to be afraid. No time to mourn. I think the intention is to give us a sense of how soldiers deal with war. We expect to learn how horrible war is but what we actually learn is how a person might deal with that horror while in the midst of it. The more questions you ask, the more you stop to think, the more horrible and pointless it all becomes. This film doesn’t comment on the madness of war. There’s no time. There’s no point. There is a job to be done. Your friends need you. You put the fear down. You hold back your tears. You bury your mental pain. You keep moving.
I heard a man talk recently about the number of soldiers here in the Tacoma area. It is maybe the largest group of U.S. soldiers and airmen anywhere else in the country. Many people are coming back from war to a place where most people have no idea what they’ve been through, and most likely don’t think about enough to care. He passionately reminded us of our obligation to these people, to welcome them back into our communities and help them heal from the trauma of war.
The film doesn’t try to teach us why war is evil and wrong. The assumption is that we already know that. The focus is not the horror and the bloodshed in gruesome detail although the detail is there. Its almost like you are being told a story that happened a long time ago by an old man. In this case, it is somewhat true since the director’s father is credited as the original inspiration. In this sense, we get a story that might not have every detail. Memories are fragmented but the truth is there.
To me, this film is about the horror and pointlessness of war. It is also about how when put in this situation, we deal with it and cope with it. Beyond all the reasons for fighting, for our country, against evil, whatever it is, this film is about a greater purpose motivated by the bond of duty that we have to one another. It is the person standing next to us, not an ideology. We are called to love one another. When things all around us are falling apart, when there is no discernible purpose, we can fall back on that duty to each other with a tiny sense of faith that what we are doing, is the right thing.