1917

In my lifetime, or my grandchildren's, there's a greater chance of all human life being eradicated than war being eradicated, and so I guess as long as we keep having wars we're going to keep making pro-war movies—this one is this year's most popular one—it's won and is nominated for many industry awards. I refused to go, but then went to see it with a friend—I love being wrong about things, and for half of this movie I felt like I had been wrong not to want to see it—it was so much fun, kind of like that pro-war classic, Apocalypse Now (1979). Also, there are a lot of conspiracy theories surrounding this film, including that it was shot in one continuous take (and why not!) and the title, 1917, when you turn it upside down says “Libi” which is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning, “My Heart”—director Sam Mendes' secret dedication to someone, possibly his mother. And why not? We never forget our moms.

Anyway, I loved the journey through those cool looking trenches—it felt like a video game where you keep going to a different, deeper level. Also, it took me back to childhood when we built forts and dug tunnels. We also played POW camp, thinking we were destined for Vietnam. By the time the guy fell into the river, however, I was pretty far removed from any reality, but I was still willing to forgive the pic had it followed the following storyline. Anyone who remembers seeing the 16mm short “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” (based on the Ambrose Bierce story) projected in grade-school, certainly thought about that classic while the guy was washed downstream. What I expected, then, was for him to finally reach the safety of a sunbaked shore (and maybe some bathing French prostitute/nurses) when he would suddenly be thrust back to the point of being buried alive after the rat (spoiler alert) tripped the explosive wire—and when his friend tried to dig him out he was, alas, dead. From that point on it's just the other guy—but repeating the exact same steps, but now alone. So then, when the plane crashes and he pulls the guy from the plane, when the pilot pulls a knife on him, he immediately shoots him—and is thus not, this time, mortally wounded. I think audiences would absolutely eat up this twist—but hey, no one was taking my notes.

Other suggestions I have to improve the second half of the movie include getting rid of the score, or at least reduce it somewhat, so it's not the loudest, most overbearing and manipulative thing you've ever heard. Also, an alternative ending could be when the guy finally gets to Colonel Cumberbatch with the letter from the General, he could pull it out of the envelope and (remember all that time he was in the water?) on the paper is nothing but faint clouds of faded ink. They all laugh, give the bloke some tea, and send him into battle with the rest of the poor bastards. Or, even better, when he finally reaches the destination, it seems that they have already received the message that he was bringing and called off the attack. It seems that the General, no idiot, in an effort to hedge his bets, sent out scores of two man teams with the same letter, each thinking they were the only hope, and so actually several identical letters had reached their destination first. They all have tea and yuck it up, then, but our hero, understandably, is considerably perturbed.

Randy Russell 2.9.20