Commentary: To judge from its trailer, Sam Mendes’ upcoming 1917, like most modern war dramas — Hacksaw Ridge, Saving Private Ryan, War Horse, even Dunkirk — is essentially a personal story. In the fourth year of World War I, two British soldiers, played by George MacKay and Dean-Charles Chapman, thread their way through a near-hopeless mission in the trenches of Belgium.
The film is based on the recollections of Mendes’ grandfather and is said to unfold in one, long, Birdman-style take. Cinematically, it doesn’t get more personal than that.
Yet that title — 1917 — suggests something larger than the fate of two boyish protagonists. It provokes thoughts about a year, an era, a major historical moment as distant from ourselves as, well, our long-dead grandparents.
And at least one of those thoughts seems hard to avoid. Namely, things were worse back then. Much worse.
Lately, we’ve tended to view our own age as being particularly troubled,...
The film is based on the recollections of Mendes’ grandfather and is said to unfold in one, long, Birdman-style take. Cinematically, it doesn’t get more personal than that.
Yet that title — 1917 — suggests something larger than the fate of two boyish protagonists. It provokes thoughts about a year, an era, a major historical moment as distant from ourselves as, well, our long-dead grandparents.
And at least one of those thoughts seems hard to avoid. Namely, things were worse back then. Much worse.
Lately, we’ve tended to view our own age as being particularly troubled,...
- 10/1/2019
- by Michael Cieply
- Deadline Film + TV
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