Review: 1917

Image courtesy of Universal Pictures.

After several years of being saddled with the James Bond franchise, director Sam Mendes makes a strong return to dramatic features - the phenomenally shot "1917," marking the director's second film on the war-is-hell concept (the first was "Jarhead").

Much has been made about the film's style, which appears to be all one take, although it's pretty clear where the cuts were made. The style was also adopted by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu for "Birdman," and in Mendes's film it's particularly notable because despite the fact that it's clear the film isn't all one shot, it's still impressive for the lengths of time it holds on a number of very long shots that feature an incredible amount of coordination and some stunning camera movements.

The film's plot is fairly simplistic - a young man, Lance Corporal Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman) is chosen to take a top secret message across enemy lines during World War I to halt British troops, who are being tricked into pushing forward in battle against the Germans. Blake - who choses a friend, Lance Corporal Schofield (George MacKay), to accompany him - must tell the Brits that the maneuver is a trap set up by the Germans that could lead to a massacre. Also, Blake's brother is among the troops at risk.

In terms of story, this is pretty much it. The rest of the film is one feat after the other of choreography as the two men make their way across a war-ravaged countryside to deliver the message. This includes approaching a burned out farm where a tragedy takes place as well as crossing a destroyed bridge while a sniper fires, meeting a young woman in a house below a city that burns and frantically pushing through troops in a trench to find the general who will make the call to send British soldiers into battle.

As I'd mentioned before, there are some sequences that involve a fair amount of coordination and choreography - especially the sequence involving the traversing of the bridge and another in a fast moving river that turns into a waterfall. This is an incredible looking movie, which can be attributed to the remarkable camera work by the great Roger Deakins, who's sure to collect some awards as a result.

There's also a powerful coda in which one of the men meets up with the man who's the object of the journey, and one of the two leads is spotted in a final shot in the exact same position we see him during the opening scene. There's also a dedication in the beginning of the closing credits that makes the story all the more powerful.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Mendes was considered among a group of burgeoning filmmakers who were expected to be the titans of the 21st century. Although some have reevaluated "American Beauty" in the years since its release, it's still an extremely impressive directorial debut, and "Road to Perdition" is woefully underrated - and gorgeously shot.

Mendes's Bond movies were good, but I'm always slightly disappointed to see an up-and-coming filmmaker get wooed into doing blockbusters. With "1917," the director has made his best film in over a decade (2008's "Revolutionary Road" was the last movie by Mendes that landed on one of my top 20s of the year list). This is an impeccably shot film that impresses in terms of both filmmaking technique and emotional resonance.