'1917' A Reveiw

1917 is a war epic set in WWI which takes place over the course of a day in one (mostly) continuous shot. In Northern France two British soldiers Schofield(George MacKay) and Blake(Dean-Charles Chapman) are given a mission to deliver a message to stop a British assault by a different Battalion of which Blake's brother is a part.

Chapman and MacKay have good chemistry and give good physical performances as the story is essentially an actual race, and there are moments the two hit some real emotion but because of the ceaseless narrative momentum no time is particularly taken to really flesh out either character, which isn't necessarily a criticism especially given their youth. There is a parade of cameos from British stars, who all exciting to see but none who really distinguish themselves primarily because no one outside the two leads has anything greater than around 60 seconds of screen time.

Visually the film is superb, majestic landscapes both picturesque and ghastly. The fluid continuous camera movement provides a propulsive and thrilling pace and the story itself, set within one of histories great wars that has not been immortalized countless times on celluloid it is not only an animated dynamic war story but one that sheds light on a conflict we know little about.

An exciting, effective, if not altogether singular war movie.

See It.