1917
Wow! Just wow! It isn't just for no reason that a movie garners 10 Oscar nominations.
But wait let me begin at the very beginning. A very good place to start.....😁😁😁
I had sworn after missing the theatre run of Saving Private Ryan, that no war movie would go unwatched in the theatre. Hence Dunkirk was watched and wept over in a theatre and then so was 1917.
But the robustness of the preceding 2 movies isn't the undercurrent in 1917. It is it's simplistic approach to war. The grandstanding and the theatre of the war aren't what this one is about, it is vignettes if you will.
It is a reminder that the strong and thick rope of wars and war stories is woven from frail strands of simple stories, that make up the larger whole.
The premise is a one-liner. Two soldiers are entrusted with the task of racing to the warfront and saving 1600 other soldiers.
That's it.
The movie chronicles their journey through the ravaged countryside.
And it takes one about 10 to 15 minutes to actually figure out that the way the cinema has been handled is very unique. And in bits in pieces one has seen this kind of thing, but not an entire movie, using this technique. Call it long shot or call it Tunnel Vision, but the long and the short (pun intended) is that the camera follows these 2 only. We see the movie only from their perspective. When they move the camera moves, when they run, it runs alongside; when they fall the camera follows.
Sam Mendes has done this in part in Skyfall and if any one of you have seen an obscure detective thriller called Khoj starring Rishi Kapoor and Naseeruddin Shah, you will know what I am talking about.
Anurag Kashyap is quite the king of it in Bollywood and has used it with great effect in The Gangs of Wasseypur and in Raman Raghav 2.0. Oh and in Ugly too.
But Sam Mendes is masterful and keeps one engrossed in the travails of his protagonists, simply by not letting us breathe. In one scene where one of them falls into water and doesn't come up for a bit, and then he does gasping and choking, I realised that I had been holding my breath too.
There is a kind of get together of the Friends of Sam Mendes club here. And you will find that the movie like a chocolate chip cookie has delightful little cameos by the who's who of British cinema.
So we get to see Colin Firth, Benedict Cumberbatch, Andrew hot priest Scott, Richard Mu'um Madden. Utter delight! And I hopefully kept waiting for Daniel Craig to walk on too. 🤣🤣🤣🤣
I have seen no previous work of the guys who play the protagonists, but they are a treat to watch. George MacKay as Lance Corporal William Schofield and
Dean-Charles Chapman as Lance Corporal Tom Blake are perfectly cast.
Due representation has been given to the contributions of the colonial soldiers, by having a Sikh soldier in the mix. One step ahead of the flash in the pan, that Christopher Nolan did in Dunkirk.
The screenplay, cinematography and editing are superb. The writers were able to weave in a tender scene, and with just a couple of well timed sentences and 2 photographs were able to establish back stories for the 2 main characters. All the ends are neatly wound up.
Also worth mentioning is how the entire movie is lit. The light is like a character in the movie with changing emotions. I cannot say enough about the superb set mounting.
All in all a first rate watch.
And very kindly the censor board has beeped out the F word, Seriously! Actually WTF!
Also they have bleeped out the word Germans and it's colloquial use too, thus keeping it a big secret who fought the First World War against whom. LMAO.
If you don't make it to the theatres, buy a massive TV or at least find a friend who does.
Cheers till Panga!
Comments