Review: Golden Globe-winning ‘1917’ puts viewers under the gun

Houston Chronicle ^ | January 6, 2020 | Cary Darling

[C19fan]

The bleakly beautiful and intensely nerve-rattling “1917” (opening Friday) ostensibly is a war film set amid the brutal realities of trench warfare between England and Germany on the fields of rural France in World War I. And it is that, so much so that you can almost feel the mud and viscera ooze between your fingers when a soldier, who has landed in a pool of muck, mistakes a fallen fighter’s corpse for something sturdy and his hand plunges deep into a body cavity.

But “1917,” the latest film from director Sam Mendes (who made the James Bond films “Skyfall” and “Spectre” as well as the drama “American Beauty”), is also a horror movie of sorts, a very personal one in which the monsters aren’t supernatural creatures but merely other human beings fighting under a different flag. It just so happens that they are Germans, but they might as well be zombies, since that’s about as much character development they get.

As such, it’s a very simple story — will our heroes be able to survive the next few hours? — but it’s crafted with such filmmaking bravura and sense of hold-your-breath suspense that it’s one of the season’s most rewarding movie-going pleasures.

[C19fan]

This movie is killing it with the critics and fans. Freepers who have seen it have nothing but praise for it. I have seen the trailers and there is snippet of the two Tommys running through a green verdant field while their fellow soldiers appears to be on the attack under artillery fire. One typically does not see WW I combat scenes filmed in virgin unscathed land like that.

[Gay State Conservative]

I just got a 4K setup and assuming that this is released in 4K I'll be buying it...used,from ebay.

[FreedomPoster]

This looks interesting, and I’ll put in a plug for all who haven’t seen it to watch They Shall Not Grow Old. And watch the Peter Jackson interview after the credits.

[hardspunned]

https://www.google.com/search?q=they%20will%20not%20grow%20old

This movie and The Great War YouTube channel will give you a very good understanding of the WWI catastrophe.

[C19fan]

They say this movie is worth paying extra for IMAX experience.

[lee martell]

Did either side use a Horse Calvary during this war?

[MeganC]

“It just so happens that they are Germans, but they might as well be zombies, since that’s about as much character development they get.”

Why are we supposed to give a sh*t about the motivations and feelings of the enemy? It’s not like they give a damn about our men when they’re trying to kill them!

[Red Badger]

American Beauty was a drama?

I thought it was a comedy!..............

[frog in a pot]

Thanks! bfl

[C19fan]

All the nations still employed calvary units especially at the beginning of the war. Once trench warfare started in the Western Front that went away. In fronts with less density of forces, Eastern and Near East, calvary units were prominent.

[Army Air Corps]

Yes.

[RitchieAprile]

Battle of Mons/Le Cateau 1914

[Gay State Conservative]

I have hearing issues (getting old I guess) so theaters,in general,aren't good for me. Sitting at home with headphones (I live in a condo...can't bother the neighbors) is my best option. And 4K is really amazing...I recently got Die Hard,Unforgiven and Bridge on the River Kwai and they're amazing.

And I have The Incredibles and The Lion King coming from ebay...can't wait.

[C19fan]

At the Battle of the Marne the Germans employed their cavalry to fill in the gap between the 1st and 2nd armies. The British Expeditionary Force was able to penetrate the screen and as Churchill wrote got their fingers on the German liver.

[GOP_Party_Animal]

In the early 2000's, there were a lot of articles and interviews of the last surviving WW1 soldiers. One that I read was of a British cavalryman who had participated in a cavalry charge against, I think, a German artillery unit. He said something like "We charged it with our horses and sabres and it was all cut and thrust and that was the end of it".

Couldn't believe I shared the earth at the same time as a guy who'd been in a successful cavalry charge.

[PGR88]

I saw the ads for it. Looks interesting.

I did have one small complaint. The trailer shows the soldiers leaving their trenches and heading into no-mans land - which was covered with beautiful green grass.

I’m not an expert in WWI, but I doubt there was any grass at all to be found at the Western front trench lines. Only mud, mud, and more mud.

[C19fan]

As I mentioned I noticed that too. I am expecting the movie to show why.

[Wuli]

War is hell. When you are in the war you are always on the edge. If a war movie does not have its audience usually on the edge, it hasn’t done a good job. I take it that 1917 does not disappoint.

[SunkenCiv]

Cavalry was used throughout the war. Horses were ubiquitously used to pull loads. In Sam Fuller's "The Big Red One" there's a WWI scene at the beginning which has a horse, not gonna post spoiler details, but that scene is based on real experiences. However, as we know, Hollywood doesn't make documentaries.

[Magnum44]

When I plunge my hand into an empty body cavity, I want to experience that in feel-a-round...

But I do plan to see this this weekend.