Skip to main content

1917

A review by Brooks Rich

Sometimes a film comes along that I have so much to say about but have a hard time finding the right words. 1917 is easily the best film of 2019. It is the best war movie in years and easily one of the most stunningly shot films of the year, if not the best shot film of the year. Director Sam Mendes has crafted a masterpiece.

The film follows two soldiers in April of 1917 during the first World War. Schofield and Blake, played by George Mackay and Dean-Charles Chapman, who a lot of you will know as King Tommen from Game of Thrones, are tasked with crossing no-man's land and sneaking behind enemy lines in an attempt to reach a platoon of soldiers and stop them from walking into a trap. 

It's a simple plot. Two solders have to get from point A to point B. The film is also shot in what looks like one long continuous take. Of course this isn't true, it's all done in the editing, but it's a seamless effort on Mendes’ part and probably the best way to tell this story. There's never a chance for the characters to catch their breath. Even in moments where the film seems to slow down, there's still the chance something else can go wrong. 

This is one of those instances where I don't want to spoil anything. The story might be simple, but I do not want to explain any of the shots in this film. There are moments so exquisitely crafted I literally got chills… whether it was the visuals, the music, or a combination of both… the film is stunning! Speaking in the vaguest terms I can, there is a sequence at night that is one of the most impressive things I've seen on film in years. You'll know it when you see it. 

This is the type of film I like to refer to as a technical juggernaut. It beats every other film on a technical level and so it's the favorite heading into awards season. It's not just the cinematography either. This film is art directed to within an inch of it's life, putting us right in the middle of World War I. No other film this year has the craftsmanship that this film does. Other examples of technical juggernauts include Birdman and Titanic, which both won the Academy Award for Best Picture, and Gravity, which fell short. 

 I think this film is a masterpiece. It is in my opinion the best war movie since Saving Private Ryan as I found Dunkirk to be a major letdown and I never cared for films like Hacksaw Ridge and We Were Soldiers. Absolutely seek this film out and see it as big as possible. It's my favorite film of the year and I'm pretty sure some of the other writers on the blog would list it as their favorite too.

 Rating: 5/5 (Masterpiece))




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

John Travolta month: Saturday Night Fever

 A retrospective by Brooks Rich So this was not the big start of John Travolta's career. That would be the classic sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter. But this did elevate Travolta to another level. For any of you going oh come on. This silly movie with a disco soundtrack? Come on, Brooks. Just wait. Have you ever actually seen this? This isn't about disco. Disco just happens to be the music of choice. This about the kind of people who are kings at the dance clubs and then losers the rest of the time. There is a lot of darkness and truth in this film. So if you've never seen it please. Do yourself a flavor and check it out. Just watch it and then come back to read this.  This is a movie about the different types of people we become between our real lives and our weekend lives. Tony Manero is a regular working class guy in a Brooklyn neighborhood, struggling to make ends meet and dealing with his loving but at times overbearing family. He lives in the shadow of his priest brother. ...
1 comment
Read more

John Travolta month

 Get your dancing shoes on! Order a Royale with Cheese! Blow millions in an overblown sci-fi disaster built around a weird Hollywood religion! Because for the month of June we are discussing the filmography of the one and only John Travolta. A man saved from being a laughing stock in the early '90s by a director making one of the greatest American masterpiece. A man who then had a stunning run of films before blowing all his goodwill not once but twice. But we of course do not disparage the great John Travolta. We want to celebrate him like we do with all of our monthly subjects. 
Post a Comment
Read more

Forgotten Film Friday: Melinda and Melinda

 A retrospective by Brooks Rich I know Woody Allen is a complicated figure. He is a creep in a lot of ways and some people find his sexual weirdness to be too much. I get that. But on the blog I sometimes like to separate the art from artist. Not always to be sure. Jeepers Creepers will never be covered here because Victor Salva is a useless piece of human garbage. What he did I can't ignore. Allen I can push aside him being weird to cover him now and then. It's hard to write a film blog and not mention a Woody Allen film now and then. The man has some bangers. And I've always wanted to cover this film. The concept is so interesting and Allen post 2000 is fertile ground for Forgotten Film Friday. So let's look at the film and not Allen himself.  Melinda and Melinda is a dual narrative about a woman named Melinda, an underrated and brilliant Radha Mitchell, who shows up unexpectedly at a dinner party in New York. The film questions if life is inherently tragic or comic a...
Post a Comment
Read more