Saving Leftenant Blake

World War I (aka “The Great War”) could never hope to match its successor in terms of the number of Hollywood movies made on it, perhaps due to the widespread perception that it was a static war fought in the trenches characterized by machinegun suppression and artillery duels.  Indeed, it is telling that the greatest and most definitive WWI movie is still considered to be ‘All Quiet on the Western Front,’ the 90-year old anti-war film and Oscar winner about the futility of war based on Erich Maria Remarque’s classic novel.

 

Director Sam Mendes (‘American Beauty,’ James Bond’s ‘Skyfall’ and ‘Spectre’) attempts to redress this imbalance in his latest release, ‘1917,’ inspired by old war stories recounted by his grandfather who fought in The Great War.  If you’ve seen the trailer, you are no doubt aware (mild spoiler ahead) that’s it’s the tale of two lowly British PBI (poor bloody infantrymen) played by Dean-Charles Chapman and George MacKay on a perilous mission across “No Man’s Land” to warn a friendly unit off a planned attack the next morning, which will fail spectacularly with massive casualties from a German trap if carried out.  Why would the hapless lance corporals risk their lives, you ask?  Well, as you’re no doubt also aware from the trailer, the general (Colin Firth) ordering the suicide mission is clever enough to put a personal stake in it (as if saving 1,500 soldiers alone wasn’t enough) by choosing the brother of an officer in the battalion (2nd Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment) to be saved to undertake it.

 

Like ‘Saving Private Ryan,’ ‘1917’ is more about the journey than the destination.  In fact, to make sure we don’t take our eyes off LCpls Blake’s and Schofield’s arduous journey, Mendes shot the movie à la ‘Birdman’ (Alejandro Iñárritu’s 2014 Oscar winning anti-superhero movie starring Michael Keaton) to give it the appearance of being filmed in one long uninterrupted take.  It is a highly effective filmmaking technique, and one not as disorienting as the method used in ‘Dunkirk,’ in which Christopher Nolan told his story through three separate perspectives with three different timeframes.  While not quite as indelible as SPR, ‘1917’ is still a subtle and poignant war movie powerfully told from the grunts’ POV and a fine addition to the understocked WWI film catalogue.

 

Grade: A