1917 Movie Review – Worth all the hype?
*Warning: this review may contain spoilers for 1917. I will try to avoid it but I may have to wade into spoiler territory in order to review the movie properly.*
I have to say going into this film I had zero expectations. The bar was pretty low to begin with because it was never really a movie that looked interesting to me to begin with. I also held out for two days, even going to see it again today because I just couldn’t decide how I felt about it. Hopefully you’ll see why.
With all that said; onto the review, but first the plot.
Plot
The plot of 1917 is pretty basic. It’s an action war film that revolves around two characters, soldiers named Schofield and Blake. They are tasked with the job of passing on a message to the 2nd battalion of the Devonshire regiment, calling of their attack on the German army, as they’re walking into a trap.
Blake’s brother is among the 2nd battalion. It’s a race against time to get the message to them so all 1,600 men aren’t killed.
1917 is based incredibly loosely on an account director Sam Mendes’ grandfather, Alfred Mendes.
Review
OK, I didn’t hate this film but I definitely didnt like it.
First of all, the pacing. The entire movie consistently hammers home the message of desperation as they’re up against time to get the message to the 2nd battalion in time. However, there’s no sense of urgency at all in anything the characters do. They constantly take detours and even when it’s Schofield on his own, the pacing is still an absolute mess.
The actor who plays Blake’s accent goes from cockney to received pronunciation about 50 times in a few sentences. Thankfully there’s not a crap ton of dialogue. It’s still massively jarring though, and makes it hard to take him seriously.
The movie is filled with coincidence too. Schofield at some point comes across some milk he fills his flask with which he then gives to baby much later in the movie. He just so happened to come across one bucket of milk when later the script would need it.
The German soldiers are terrible shots and though Schofield is periodically attacked by them they never actually hit him. What are the chances?
1917 is a movie that is pretty much a generic war movie but with massive amounts of fiction thrown in. The fiction parts are jarring and make you roll your eyes and the slow as all hell pacing is painfully boring.
The scenery is beautiful but that’s pretty much the only positive I can give it without actually searching for a positive to say.
Judging this movie based on how I would judge any movie it’s fine. Boring but fine.
Judging it based on all the hype surrounding it and all the accolades it’s won it’s massively over-hyped.
