We weren't sure we were going to watch 1917 (2019). We have skipped all the recent war films, and were prepared to skip this. I was intrigued by the One Cut style - the movie is edited to appear to be a single take. Then when Mr. Schprock invited us to watch with him, well, that settled it.
It starts with two British soldiers in the trenches of France, ordered to report to a general. The general has a message to send to the front: The German retreat is a trap, and the planned attack must be called off. These two, George MacKay and Dean-Charles Chapman, must walk ~20 km through the battlefield to deliver this message.
I don't think I'll detail the story. It includes great bravery and random death, as well as moments of beauty, humor and stupidity. In the end, they didn't quite succeed, didn't quite fail. But it did have an angelic soldier singing "Poor Wayfaring Stranger".
I do think I'll say a few words about the One Cut style: I thought it didn't quite succeed, definitely didn't fail. It could be completely immersive, but I had two problems. One is that you often found yourself following our actors, looking at the back of their heads. I mentioned tis in my post on Birdman: acting with your shoulders.
The other is that the lens choice for some scenes seemed a little too fish-eyed. That caused some distortion at the edges of the screen that might not have been noticeable in a static shot, but the camera was in constant motion. It was very distracting to me. I wonder how the movie would have looked with more classic shots, with a stiller camera or more sedate tracking shots, with pans or whatever to tie them together.
Still, that's a different movie than the one Sam Mendes wanted to make. What he did make was a hell of an action movie and a technical achievement.
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