Film Review: 1917

Whenever there is a discussion going on about the best video game movies ever made, the films often being looked at are rarely even proper adaptations of existing games. Instead, you’ll see films like Edge Of Tomorrow, The Raid, Hardcore Henry, and even Wreck-It-Ralph being thrown into the discussion because despite the fact they aren’t based on any particular existing game, they all – on some level – utilize game-like mechanics in their storytelling. This may seem like an odd place to start for a review on a prestige war picture, but I can already see Sam Mendes’ latest film, 1917, to be another film that will inspire video game comparisons.

The setup for the film is very simple. As the title suggests, the film takes place during World War I, and it follows two young British soldiers, Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman) and Schofield (George MacKay), are given orders from their general to send a message to a battalion that will warn them of a German ambush that they are walking right into. Blake has a personal stake in this as his brother is in that battalion, and will likely die if they do not receive the message. So, the two go on a race against time as they trek through dangerous territory to accomplish their mission.

The reason the video game comparisons will be made is because of the approach that Sam Mendes took in fully realizing the script he wrote with co-writer, Krysty Wilson-Cairns. Working with cinematographer superstar, Roger Deakins, 1917 is follows our characters going from one location to another, like different stages in a Call Of Duty game, and it’s filmed in a series of extended and elaborate tracking shots that are connected in a way to make the whole film look like it was done in a single shot, not unlike the 2014 film, Birdman, which went on to win Best Picture, among numerous other accolades.

However, like Birdman, I don’t think 1917 fully justifies its stylistic choices. For several sequences, the tracking shots do a wonderful job at building a sense of tension while for other moments, the technique doesn’t add anything to the experience, especially for some of the more mundane, quiet, character building moments. The film also does the thing that I typically don’t like in similar exercises where the tracking shots are mostly filmed in medium shots, and the staging rarely changes beyond that dynamic. It also doesn’t help that if the film were to have its main gimmick removed, there isn’t much here that hasn’t already been explored in countless other war films. War is hell, what else is new?

The performances are strong. Chapman and MacKay carry the film well, even if their characters don’t have the most memorable personalities. Especially when compared to some of the minor but more roles played by bigger, more recognizable stars like Colin Firth, Mark Strong, Andrew Scott, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Richard Madden. Thomas Newman’s score is quite effective, bringing a soft yet electric undercurrent that adds to the propulsive nature of the narrative.

A lot is going to be said about the way the film was made, and it is well deserved on that front. If you know anything about how films are made, you know how hard it is to pull even the most basic tracking shots, from the way it will be staged, to the lighting, to the choreography of the actors. The filmmakers behind 1917 deserve all the credit for that, but beyond being a technical achievement, I don’t think the film offers all that much else. The story is familiar, the ideas and moments where characters find warmth and humanity in even the most dire circumstances is standard for the genre at this point. This isn’t me saying the film doesn’t work, not by a long shot. War has always been, in a sense, one of the most cinematic things you could explore on the big screen, and Sam Mendes fully taps into the visceral and immediate nature of the genre. It’s still a good – and at times, great – film, but the moments where you marvel at the technical accomplishments often comes at the expense of crafting more memorable and interesting characters and story beats. When it was all said and done, I think it just makes you wish you could play the movie instead of watching it.