☆☆☆☆
As a piece of filmmaking, a technical exercise in visual storytelling, 1917 is a spellbinding, praiseworthy achievement. Director Sam Mendes sets aside the artistic devotion to story and character of his films like American Beauty and Revolutionary Road in favor of full-on Bond-level intensity.
Though its World War I setting and the images of its elegiac poster might make you think this is going to be a melancholy reminiscence of the Great War, 1917 is, in fact, a flat-out action movie, a straightforward beat-the-clock nail biter that literally can't slow down.
The plot is simple: Two British soldiers are given a mission to deliver an urgent message to a regiment that is miles away. Communication lines are down, and there's no other way of letting them know they're heading straight into a German ambush that will spell certain death for 1,600 troops.
Off they go. The soldiers are played by George Mackay and Dean-Charles Chapman, and both are very good in the roles, though they are little more than stock characters. The performers are hardly the point here: 1917 is essentially one long over-the-shoulder video game, with as much depth and as much action as a shoot-em-up. The story pauses occasionally just long enough to offer a little exposition and throw up more hurdles to prevent the men from reaching their goal, all seemingly shot in one very long take and separated into two hourlong segments. It's intense and suspenseful, if unexpectedly lacking in depth and significance.
Though its World War I setting and the images of its elegiac poster might make you think this is going to be a melancholy reminiscence of the Great War, 1917 is, in fact, a flat-out action movie, a straightforward beat-the-clock nail biter that literally can't slow down.
The plot is simple: Two British soldiers are given a mission to deliver an urgent message to a regiment that is miles away. Communication lines are down, and there's no other way of letting them know they're heading straight into a German ambush that will spell certain death for 1,600 troops.
Off they go. The soldiers are played by George Mackay and Dean-Charles Chapman, and both are very good in the roles, though they are little more than stock characters. The performers are hardly the point here: 1917 is essentially one long over-the-shoulder video game, with as much depth and as much action as a shoot-em-up. The story pauses occasionally just long enough to offer a little exposition and throw up more hurdles to prevent the men from reaching their goal, all seemingly shot in one very long take and separated into two hourlong segments. It's intense and suspenseful, if unexpectedly lacking in depth and significance.
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