1917

My grandfather enlisted in the Army by lying about his age and was sent to France during WWI.  I never knew this before he died, and don’t know if he ever talked about his experiences.  A relative told me that his company returned with only 14 men walking, my grandfather included.  I feel this movie gave me an accurate picture of what he may have gone through.  This was the most realistic and harrowing picture about WWl I have ever seen.  If you do not enjoy seeing rats eating dead bodies or someone accidently putting their hand through a rotting corpse, you will want to cover your eyes, but don’t let this keep you away from the theater. General Sherman once said “all war is hell,” and the Western Front in the First World War was more hell than most.  But the depiction of the conditions in such an unvarnished way is part of the point – to try to give an idea of what conditions were like, and for many long months. The plot is simple enough, two soldiers Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman) and Schofield (George MacKay) are given a seemingly impossible mission: The Germans have laid a trap and unless the pair can deliver a warning in time, 1,600 men will die, including Blake’s brother. The movie is the story of their incredible and determined journey. It’s not so much about battles and glory; but about willingness to persevere to do what is needed to complete the journey, and the nature of individual courage and comradeship. The cinematography is breath-taking, some of the scenes were shot in one continous roll of the camera making you feel like you, too, were walking with these two intrepid soldiers.  There are appearances by famous names like Colin Firth and Benedict Cumberbatch, but their screen time combined is less than five minutes.  Not to worry, Chapman and MacKay haven enough acting chops to carry this movie.  The action is non-stop, really there is never a dull moment.  I highly recommend this movie and wouldn’t be surprised if it won an Oscar or two next month.