Movie Review: 1917
If you didn’t catch this one in theaters then man did you miss something special. 1917 is a unique experience. The ‘one shot’ directing style doesn’t feel like a gimmick; it actually works. It keeps the tension high from start to finish. I love how the movie just gets down to business. No big setup, speeches, world-building, or slick character intros. It’s a grim story that doesn’t shy away at all from the horror of WWI while keeping the action realistic. It matches Dunkirk for directing brilliance but surpasses it in terms of actually teaching us something about the character of the war. What keeps it from being a flawless “A+” classic is…well, hard to say. The film is missing a certain, “je ne sais quoi.” It needed to be a bit longer. One more quiet moment of insight, one more good dialogue — just something and I think this could have surpassed many classics of the genre. As it stands it is still a marvelous accomplishment and a definitive exploration of the Forgotten War.
Grade: A-
