{"id":19783,"date":"2020-01-08T14:51:02","date_gmt":"2020-01-08T22:51:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=19783"},"modified":"2020-01-08T14:51:02","modified_gmt":"2020-01-08T22:51:02","slug":"1917-is-a-thrilling-technical-marvel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=19783","title":{"rendered":"1917 is a Thrilling Technical Marvel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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We\u2019ve all seen plenty of WWI epics over the years, including All Quiet on the Western Front<\/em>, Paths of Glory<\/em>, Gallipoli<\/em>, A Very Long Engagement<\/em>, War Horse<\/em>, and the recent documentary They Shall Not Grow Old<\/em>. All of these pictures depict the violence and horrors endured by young soldiers. Additionally, some even show the nastiness displayed by not only the enemy, but also by the soldier’s own superiors. While it is difficult to imagine that any recent film could add anything that audiences haven\u2019t seen before, 1917<\/em> manages to do just that. It places viewers alongside the leads in the trenches and tells a story in a new and completely unique way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The story opens in Northern France with young, inexperienced\nBritish Corporal Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman) being assigned to select another\nman and head out to receive new, secretive orders from their General. Blake quickly\npicks his friend, Corporal Schofield (George MacKay) and the two are given\ntheir very time-sensitive and dangerous mission. It involves traveling many\nmiles across battlefields and enemy lines, all in order to deliver an urgent\nmessage to a faraway Colonel readying to send 1,600 troops (including Blake\u2019s\nown brother) into a German trap and certain defeat. Exposed and alone in the\nopen, the pair do their best to complete the assignment without being killed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The simple plot actually adds great tension to the\nproceedings, as the leads are constantly up against the ticking clock. And\ndirector\/co-writer Sam Mendes (American Beauty<\/em>, Jarhead<\/em>, Road\nto Perdition<\/em>, Skyfall<\/em>) also adds a very unusual and clever technical\nelement which sets his film apart from others of the genre. Specifically, he\nchooses to let the story unfold and play out in its entirety as one single shot.\nObviously, there are digital tricks used to allow for the passage of time and\nhide various cuts, but the presentation allows viewers to follow along as if\nthey are walking along and reacting to events with the two young men. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the one-shot technique may initially seem gimmicky, it\nis cleverly used to help viewers empathize with the leads. It also adds a\nremarkable amount of tension to the proceedings. Admittedly, since the approach\nonly allows for a condensed period of time with its heroes, we don\u2019t get to\nknow the two leads quite as well as we might using a traditional narrative\nstructure. And perhaps viewers won\u2019t feel as close to them as a result. Yet,\nthe unusual process still works remarkably well. The camera stays tight on\nthese soldiers and doesn\u2019t explicitly reveal who or what is around them,\nallowing for drama in every scene. Even views of the protagonists simply poking\ntheir heads out of the trenches to try and see what\u2019s on the horizon are anxiety\nprovoking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Much credit must also be given to cinematographer Roger Deakins\n(Fargo<\/em>, No Country for Old Men<\/em>, Skyfall<\/em>, Sicario<\/em>, Blade\nRunner 2049<\/em>) who has gorgeously lit and filmed the extended and elaborately\nstaged events. Although it never distracts from the story itself, the camera\nalways seems to be wowing with something visually impressive. It smoothly follows\nthe characters and moves over water and through other impediments as they make\ntheir way, and always provides a clear sense of geography. As shots extend,\nthey move from outside environments to darker indoor spaces, with the focus and\nlighting always sharp. The movie looks particularly stunning as one character\nis forced to run through the ruins of a city at night lit by smoldering fires.\nThis film is a technical marvel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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While viewers may be forced into empathizing with the\ncharacters through experience and not by traditional character development,\nthis is still a tense and consistently thrilling war picture. All aspects of it\nare exceptional and, in the process, 1917<\/em> brings a completely new\nvantage point, giving a real sense of what it might have been like for those\nwalking in the trenches during WWI. Only time will tell, but this reviewer\u2019s\nfirst instincts are that the movie will likely stand as another remarkable film\ndepicting one of the most devasting wars in history. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019ve all seen plenty of WWI epics over the years, including All Quiet on the Western Front, Paths of Glory, Gallipoli, A Very Long Engagement, War Horse, and the recent documentary They Shall Not Grow Old. All of these pictures depict the violence and horrors endured by young soldiers. Additionally, some even show the nastiness […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":19788,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[67,68,69,70,198,2371,5460,6251,8197,15044,17274,17559,23249,23959,24482,24533],"class_list":["post-19783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-67","tag-1917-film-review","tag-1917-movie-review","tag-1917-review","tag-198","tag-battlefront","tag-dean-charles-chapman","tag-drama","tag-george-mackay","tag-northern-france","tag-roger-deakins","tag-sam-mendes","tag-trenches","tag-war","tag-world-war-i","tag-wwi"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19783\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}