1917 Analysis

1917

Directed by: Sam Mendes

Cinematography by: Roger Deakins

This film is set in the backdrop of World War 1, it has a simple premise. Two British soldiers have to travel by passing through enemies territory to deliver a message which can save the lives of about 1600 people, their fellow soldiers. The film is essentially the hurdles they face while doing so and their journey. 

For me, the thing that bugs me the most while watching war films is that the standard is already set so high in terms of tension and drama. The world is not at all grounded, it is war, it's right up there. In this kind of a world, if something much isn't happening then it kind of puts me off. It won't be the case, if it's a slice of life film or a coming of age drama whereas with war films I expect the film to hook me throughout the film. This film is conceived in a single take, they haven't actually shot it in a single take but the shots are stitched in a way that we can't decipher the cuts like Emmanuel Lubezki does in Birdman and The Revenant. This technique works very well for the scenes where there's something else in the frame to look as well, in scenes where it's a mis-en-scene where we find some dead bodies or some other detail in the frame. It doesn't work as much in scenes where they're just walking or running for long distances. Since the entire film is set in that zone, where they're walking and anyone could attack them anytime it didn't hook me as such until anything started happening.

The conflict of the film is that they've to send a message by going there before they start attacking, it is something which isn't a problem anymore, a WhatsApp text would do the job. But it's interesting to watch someone face a problem which isn't a problem anymore for you. Then you don't watch for how the problem would effect you, you'd watch for how they react to a problem which effects them. This was the case while watching Majid Majidi's Children of Heaven as well, the whole film runs around a pair of lost shoes. Do we care about the shoes? No. We care about what it means to them.