Great War film is history on the run
Heroes cross gauntlet of body-strewn fields, booby traps and bomb-dropping aircraft
1917
★★★ 1/2 (out of 4) Starring George MacKay, Dean-Charles Chapman, Colin Firth, Benedict Cumberbatch, Mark Strong, Andrew Scott, Richard Madden and Claire Duburcq. Written by Sam Mendes and Krysty Wilson-Cairns. Directed by Sam Mendes. Opens Wednesday at the Varsity. 110 minutes. 14A
The First World War, a.k.a. the Great War, is remembered as a ghastly battle of attrition, with combatants hunkered down in muddy trenches and struggling to claim metres of ground rather than kilometres.
Sam Mendes’ outstanding new film “1917” sets that defining characteristic aside and turns the battle into an onthe-run thriller, set on a single April day of the title year. Cinematographer Roger Deakins shoots in virtual real time. The film has been edited to look like a single unbroken take, which provides even more propulsive pull to the story, as does Thomas Newman’s slow-building score.
The mission: two young British soldiers on the French battlefield, Blake and Schofield, are tasked with crossing into enemy-held territory to warn 1,600 of their brethren, Blake’s brother among them, of an impending ambush by German troops, who are feigning retreat.
Telephone wires have been cut; the message must be delivered by hand and with an official seal to ensure compliance from Col. MacKenzie (Benedict Cumberbatch), who is otherwise determined to advance.
Dean-Charles Chapman’s Blake and George MacKay’s Schofield seem to have been chosen almost at random by their commander, General Erinmore (Colin Firth), although we learn on the fly that Blake is “good at maps” and the older Schofield has more battle experience. Schofield makes it known early on that he considers it a suicide mission.
Everybody else knows it, too: The sardonic instructions given them as they leave the trench are to go “straight ahead, past the dead horses.”
Don’t mistake Schofield’s caution for cowardice. He and Blake exhibit uncommon valour and ingenuity as they run a horrific gauntlet of body-strewn fields, booby-trapped structures and bombdropping aircraft.
The screenplay by Mendes and cowriter Krysty Wilson-Cairns is based in part on the real experiences of the director’s grandfather, Col. Alfred H. Mendes, who is remembered in the end credits as the man “who told us the stories.”
And what stories they are, combining to make “1917” one of the best movies of 2019.