1917 is the latest film by Sam Mendes, the winning British director, screenwriter and producer of the Academy Award for Best Director with American Beauty in 2000, but also behind the camera for other important films such as Was My Father, Skyfall and Specter. At the end of last year he gave us his latest effort, which cost several months of work and planning, six of which were needed only to rehearse the scenes that would be shot later. 1917 is based on the stories of Mendes' grandfather, Alfred Hubert Mendes, an English fighter of the World War I. A real-life episode that lasted a handful of hours, transformed into a 119-minute film that is a true work of art and testimony. A historical film, but which has become historical in turn, certainly an example for other future works and winner of three Oscars: best photography a Roger Deakins, who had already won it for Blade Runner 2049 just two years ago, better special effects and better sound. Also nominated for Best Picture, Direction, Original Screenplay, Set Design, Soundtrack, Sound Editing and Makeup.
Trench warfare
In France, on the western front, the British army is at war with the German army, trench against trench. The latter seems to have retreated, freeing the territory that the Colonel Mackenzie is intent on occupying with an attack by the second battalion of the Devonshire Regiment. However, aerial reconnaissance reveals that in reality the German army was only backward to ambush the British. The attack planned by the Colonel for the following day could therefore become a massacre and the 1600 men of Devonshire seriously risk their lives. The General Erinmore then sends two corporals, Tom Blake (whose brother is from Devonshire) e William Schofield, from Mackenzie to give him a written order to stop the attack immediately. A real fight against time begins. To be defeated would mean to lose a multitude of human lives. Everything is in the hands of two young soldiers, chosen perhaps thanks to their physical prowess and knowledge of maps and territories, or perhaps because eventually expendable victims.
This is the plot of 1917: simple, linear, effective, even cynical. Basically it is a question of following the two protagonists who go from point A to point B, with much more than one difficulty to face, in a world very far from ours, now almost forgotten, but in which we manage to immerse ourselves. Total immersion, is certainly the main feature of this film and rare in the recent cinema scene. We are there, together with the protagonists, for all 119 minutes of the duration. We suffer with them and we become more and more emotionally involved, until our heartbeats are decidedly accelerated on some occasions. We resist admiring their courage and determination: they know how important the mission is. Fast pace, action, content, just a couple of pauses to catch your breath towards the middle of the film. Then, ready to move towards the final full of anxiety and fear.
A two-hour long sequence shot is the visiting card of 1917, created by the assembly of a series of very long sequence shots joined together so that no breaks are seen. It is Sam Mendes' perfectly successful gamble that allows you to experience the film without having time to catch your breath. The great mannerism he was capable of sharing the merit with the immense director of the photography, which gives us a wonderful job to say the least with an incredible fire management, which at times seems to turn into an exhibition of paintings. A direction and a substantially perfect photograph that lead us through the film substantially without defects, synchronizing camera movements to the acting, to the movements of men and vehicles, to the explosions, to the movements of lights, to the special effects. All in incredibly vast sets. Something incredible and unrepeatable, perhaps never seen in the cinema before. A film script which has also been described as too simple, but which has resulted in an incredible film. Besides, who said that a script has to be complex in order to work? Indeed, the strength of the film is undoubtedly that of having transformed a simple story into two hours of experience. A contribution to this also came from acting, right, emotionally engaging both on the part of the protagonists, George McKay (who made his debut with Hogan's Peter Pan in 2003) e Dean-Charles Chapman (King Tommen from Game of Thrones); both of the secondary actors, Richard Madden, Benedict Cumberbatch, Colin Firt. Few dialogues, but effective, because there is little information we need in the events experienced in 1917.
The real enemy is time
All departments work just fine, without exception, but another really important contribution comes from sonoro, which heard at the cinema or col Dolby Atmos of the blu-ray disc of the home-video version like it to the nth degree. The bullets from behind, the shells that fall, the explosions that make the earth splash over the soldiers, the footsteps of desperate races: everything is perfect and packaged by colonna sonora di Thomas Newman, powerful and exciting both in the pressing rhythm and in the percussion, as in the silences, with carpet-pieces that accompany the long sequence shots and decidedly more overbearing pieces that remind us of being at war and that everything around us can be fatal.
To think that all of this ventures into really existing sets, created within a huge park in England, is something unique. Dozens and dozens of men and women of the technical cast, along with hundreds of extras, with just a little help from green screen and CGI. Swampy fields, mud, trenches, dust, towers, destroyed cities, videogame settings. We would prefer it to be a video game, but it is not. That was real life and now we know it.
1917 is not only mannerisms and great technical skills, but it is a historical gift. The work of hundreds of passionate people who have created something by studying it down to the smallest detail and which can only be seen a few times in life. Years will pass before we will be able to relive something similar and this must push us to appreciate second by second this great work, identifying ourselves with those who created it and who really lived that story. An experience that passes quickly, that leaves a lot inside and above all wants to be repeated many times, without ever getting tired.
