Stars: George MacKay, Dean-Charles Chapman, Mark Strong, Andrew Scott, Richard Madden, Colin Firth, Benedict Cumberbatch
Director: Sam Mendes
Oscar History: 10 nominations/3 wins (Best Picture, Director, Cinematography*, Makeup & Hairstyling, Score, Production Design, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing*, Visual Effects*, Original Screenplay)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars
(Spoilers Ahead) Though the film is based on stories from the director's grandfather, novelist Alfred Mendes (who was a British soldier during World War I on the Belgian Front), it's only loosely based on historical events involving Germany's Operation Alberich, and not real-life figures. The movie's plot is essentially that two young lance corporals, Will Schofield (MacKay) and Tim Blake (Chapman) are being tasked with bringing a message to Colonel Mackenzie (Cumberbatch) that the Germans are setting a trap for his 1600 men, and that they are likely to be slaughtered. To add to the stakes, Blake's brother Joe (Madden, in what I suspect will be several year's worth of Game of Thrones coincidences as those actors set course with their careers, here bonding the houses of Lannister & Stark) is one of the men who will perish if the young soldiers don't reach their destination in time. They then set off into "no man's land" in hopes of getting the message in time.
This is a war movie, and though it's unencumbered by real-life events, it still hits a familiar beat. It only takes one man to deliver a message (didn't think I'd be paraphrasing Mulan in this review now, did you?), and Sam Mendes is aware of this, and so instead of Joe Blake, it is Tim who will perish as a result of this battle, dying on a farm at the hands of a German soldier whom he was trying to save. The movie struggles mightily with avoiding wartime cliche, and it's probably its biggest fault. There is a scene late in the movie where Will gives all of his supplies to a French woman who begs him to stay, and the final scene where we are supposed to be shocked he has a wife and daughter is so heavily telegraphed I didn't really get why this was supposed to be a twist. Combined with Cumberbatch, Firth, and Scott all forced to play common military tropes, and you realize the film's screenplay is its weakest asset.
That said, 1917 works really well as both an action and wartime picture. Mendes' greatest decision was to hire Roger Deakins, arguably the most talented cinematographer in pictures today, to be behind the lens as he attempted to create the "one-shot" war epic (the film is intended to be viewed as if it is lensed for one-shot, though it clearly wasn't, and Deakins kind of cheats with Will being knocked unconscious about two-thirds through the film). This gives the movie a breathless quality, and allows for some truly riveting sequences. Deakins technical prowess is staggering in the way he frames Tim's death scene (where he's heard off-camera dying as we realize in real time with Will that his companion's journey is at an end), but when he's given free reign to create something truly beautiful, he takes full advantage. I gasped at how magically he balances black and yellow during Will's nighttime chase through a war-ravaged French city, and the scene where he runs across the battlefield, desperately trying to save lives while risking his own (this was in pretty much every trailer) is magnificent. The film's story doesn't quite have the elegance or anonymity that made Dunkirk a true triumph of a genre that cinema seemingly exhausted eons ago, but it's a true achievement, with Deakins giving his all, and is one of Mendes' best films.
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