'1917'

For when the vibe is taut, resolute, and inspiring.

'1917' -- Promotional Poster

'1917' is perhaps one of the best war movies ever made, vividly illustrating the horrors and the heroism that only wartime can produce by zeroing in on one man’s incredible journey across a World War I battlefield. The narrative is straightforward and hinges on a grim military order: cross into enemy territory to deliver a message. The stakes couldn’t be higher -- life or death. Success means saving 1,600 men from destruction, brother of one of the protagonists among them, and so failure is not an option. The ensuing journey sees the protagonist, a quiet and reserved central character, encounter every type of person there is to meet in war: the battle buddy taken too soon, the tired General doing his best to balance mission needs with the price of human life, the all-too-gruff, jaded and hardened tactical officer, the civilian in the form of a young Frenchwoman and her even younger ward, the insular group of battle-weary soldiers, the shark-like commander, and many versions of the enemy. Each encounter is a rich vignette dominated by stellar acting.

The whole thing happens against a ceaseless flow of stunning and detailed backdrops that make it difficult to know where to look – the performers or the scenery. They are like two stories told in parallel: the hero’s journey and the evolving face of the war. The opening scene follows the protagonist and his battle buddy locked in dialogue as they walk from a vibrant green field dotted with wildflowers, through a crowd of haggard, dirty soldiers, and into a muddy trench. The soldiers in the field are replaced by soldiers huddled against trench walls, reading or smoking, barely distinguishable from the earth. Then, as they move through no man’s land, these men are replaced by mangled corpses in the mud. The movie proceeds like this, in one continuous shot, sandwiching moments of horror (bloated bodies in the river, mutilated men in the casualties tent) with moments of beauty (raining cherry blossoms, a solemn hymn) so that when the climax comes and the protagonist runs across the battlefield and through his fellow soldiers to deliver his message there is both horror and beauty there.

This filming style introduces a dynamism to the performances and gives the viewer a very real share of the tension, as though you’re playing a video game and waiting to encounter an enemy around any corner. The story is carried along by undulations in the score and shifts of color and light until, in the end, the same soldier is resting against an almost identical tree in an almost identical field.

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