Universal Pictures/Paramount PicturesCritics are going nuts for 1917, a ‘one-take’ rollercoaster through the pits of the Great War from the director of Skyfall.
War films have long been a fixture of cinema, from the hypnotic heart of darkness in Apocalypse Now and Sgt. Hartman’s hurtling insults in Full Metal Jacket to Christopher Nolan’s thunderous rain in Dunkirk.
However, 1917 marks an audacious turn of the tide: stylised à la Birdman to be shot entirely in one take, grappling your soul for a bloody, heart-thumping ride. The critics’ first reviews are in, and it looks to be a huge Oscar contender despite a late break into the race.
Check out the trailer for 1917 below:
Directed by Sam Mendes (Skyfall, American Beauty), with Mendes penning the script alongside Krysty Wilson-Cairns, the WWI epic follows two young soldiers on a mission against the greatest enemy: time.
The synopsis for 1917 reads:
At the height of the First World War during Spring 1917 in northern France, two young British soldiers, Schofield (George MacKay) and Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman) are given a seemingly impossible mission to deliver a message which will warn of an ambush during one of the skirmishes soon after the German retreat to the ‘Hindenburg Line’ during ‘Operation Alberich’.
The two recruits race against time, crossing enemy territory to deliver the warning and keep a British battalion of 1,600 men, which includes Blake’s own brother, from walking into a deadly trap.
Alongside the two leads is an all-star British ensemble: Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock, Doctor Strange), Mark Strong (Kingsman, Kick-Ass), Andrew Scott (Fleabag, Sherlock) and Richard Madden (Bodyguard, Game of Thrones).
Universal PicturesThe praise has been near-unanimous. Awards Circuit‘s Clayton Davis wrote on Twitter: ‘1917 is the best war film since Saving Private Ryan. The cinematography of the year. The cinematography of the decade. Thomas Newman’s orchestral masterpiece. Sam Mendes’ gift to cinema… and his family. Every ounce is powerful.’
Peter Bradshaw from The Guardian wrote in his review: ‘This phantasmagoric first world war nightmare from the British director is ambitious and unshakeable storytelling… an amazingly audacious film; as exciting as a heist movie, disturbing as a sci-fi nightmare.’
Leah Greenblatt from Entertainment Weekly particularly praised the film’s cinematography from Roger Deakins (Blade Runner 2049, No Country Old Men), writing that it ‘effectively drops the viewer in the center of the story and compels them to stay there, fully immersed in every muddy step, hunger pang, and rifle click’.
Currently the film has a 92% rating on Rotten Tomatoes from a handful of reviews. If the reviews keep up, we could be looking at our Best Picture winner.
1917 hits UK cinemas on January 10, 2020.
If you have a story you want to tell, send it to UNILAD via [email protected]
After graduating from Glasgow Caledonian University with an NCTJ and BCTJ-accredited Multimedia Journalism degree, Cameron ventured into the world of print journalism at The National, while also working as a freelance film journalist on the side, becoming an accredited Rotten Tomatoes critic in the process. He’s now left his Scottish homelands and took up residence at UNILAD as a journalist.