Movie Review 1917

Terry

MOVIE REVIEW
"1917"

I so seldom seek to sit inside an actual movie theater anymore.
However ...
Some films are absolutely tailored for it.
LIFE OF PI
GRAVITY
AVATAR
3 examples of movies which do NOT translate to your home viewing...at all.
Good, bad, or indifferent - some films are VISUAL and IMMERSIVE.

Here is a sacred pronouncement:
Movies are a VISUAL medium.
In the hands of an Orson Welles (i.e. Citizen Kane) they are a radio play+visual storytelling medium.
_____

Spectacle, per se, is boring...mostly. To me.

CGI spectacle is like an angry mob.
Noise. Chaos. Overindulgence.

Rare exceptions do exist, but only as exceptions.
LORD OF THE RINGS set the standard in modern times
and so so many imitations have ruined movie going for me.
("Super hero", he whispered.)

Perfection in a film is only achieved when the blend and balance of a Master's vision and consummate control of elements is wrought...and miraculously achieved.

1917

This is a perfect film

It is based in part on an account told to Mendes by his paternal grandfather, Alfred Mendes, and chronicles the story of two young British soldiers during World War I who are given a mission to deliver a message. This warns of an ambush during a skirmish, soon after the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line during Operation Alberich in 1917.

Go see it.
___
I'm not going to sit here and spoon feed you.
If you once loved movies and seldom go anymore -
get off yer butt and GO SEE IT.

The cinematography is a MIRACLE!

The music score is exactly and precisely subliminal to the point
it must be adrenal secretion in your pulse. This is not a Hollywood war movie.

Thomas Newman was born to create music for this film.
He is the anti-thesis of Hanz Zimmer.
His score is the bloodstream of this film and not the fists.

Put CHRISTOPHER NOLAN waaaaaay over THERE out of my eyesight, please. Let me have my SAM MENDES.

Go see 1917.
You'll help me save my breath.

Kubrick's PATHS of GLORY
Mendes' 1917
Milestone's ALL'S QUIET on the WESTERN FRONT
Terrence Malick's THE THIN RED LINE

are four masterpieces of wartime cinema.

Go see it.

LoveUniHateExams

Yeah, I've heard that lots of people like 1917. It seems like a very good film.

TBH, I don't go to the cinema because I'm kinda poor and war films aren't really my thing so I'm not exactly champing at the bit, waiting for the DVD release.

(My favourite genre is horror - I'm eagerly waiting for the DVD release of The Lighthouse.)

Slidin Fast

Terry. you've sold it to me. I will be going.

I agree with your comments about CGI. I think if a nuclear explosion occurred within sight now it would be dismissed as unrealistic. We have been so inured by big bangs, splattering blood and the like that excellent non-computerised film making has been devalued. CGI has it's place but your observation is so true, the key is restraint.

It can be compared to public speaking. Many feel that the key to emphasis is to speak faster and louder until blood vessels are popping. Give me the contrast of the quiet pause followed by an almost whispered truth. Power is in restraint.

jhine

Gotta be honest like LUHE war films aren't really my thing , but l have heard a lot of positive comments about it .

Jan

Finkelstein

Yes I would agree with Terry that some films are that good as cinematic experience that they can better appreciated by seeing them on large screen with a good sound system.

These films are getting rarer as in the past but umm maybe I'm just getting old-er

Beth Sarim

1917. I'm convinced. I gotta see it.

On a side note. I just want to throw out there. Who's seen Dr. Sleep. The sequel to the Shining. I saw Dr. Sleep twice. I kinda liked it. But apparently it tanked at the box office. I don't know why. But maybe 39 years is too long for sequel maybe.....

But Kubricks The Shining is still far more thrilling all these many years later than Dr. Sleep. (Dr. Sleep) is still very good too.

But yeah, I have to go check out 1917, thanks for the tip.

cofty

It's outstanding

Wasanelder Once

Because of the camera technique you are made to feel like the third man on the mission across enemy lines. I was exhausted when the movie ended, I truly felt as if I had taken part in the action. (They RUN everywhere it seems.) The clock is ticking from the first moment to the last and you feel each moment as if it might be YOUR last. I saw it twice and noticed that I heard more on the second go. I heard only one F bomb the first time and over 11 the second time. I took a friend who has an aversion to F bombs and she counted them aloud, 1, 2, 3, as they were spoken. Jerk. (Its a war movie for god's sake). Not one was inappropriate.

Neither of the two actors who star were nominated for anything. Perhaps it wasn't a big enough anti war message? I thought the point of it was how futile war is. Live and learn. Yep, its exceptional.

JimmyYoung

It was a great film, second this past year only to Midway

Earnest

Went to see it this afternoon. Parts were unrealistic to my mind, but it probably gave a good sense of what life must have been like in the trenches. A very human story.

Movie Review 1917

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