1917 (2019)

[sksvlad]

Another movie with a potential https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8579674/. It is not rated yet, shall come out in December.

[sksvlad]

The words "grandiose" and "apocalyptic" (the night scene with flares and burning church) come to mind, probably an Oscar contender. I never saw British helmets with a cocarde above the forehead.

[MINENAZ16]

I saw this movie yesterday.
Here is my opinion, it's likely that in France we make a different cinema...
First it's an undeniable tribute to the soldiers who came to fight and die in France.
But the story is not believable, only two young messengers missioned to save 1600 Tommies crossing ennemy territories.
I assume in real life other teams were sent and given the urgency, other means were used, messages dropped by planes, pigeons, etc.
Sometimes one has the impression that the two soldier are tourist in pasture, the writer seems to have forgotten it's war !
Trenches are well reproduced but a little too clean.
And the village looks like a theater setting.
This film is to manichean, this thought is out of date today.
No emotion, no analysis, no background, only a nice show.

[starshell]

Saw this film yesterday too.
As per MINENAZ16 its a nice tribute to those who fought and fell on all sides.

Scene wise, some sets were excellent ( the canal shots and ruined bridge) and in some cases the scenery is almost identical to what you'd find in period books on the subject. The ruined town lit by flares was pretty well executed and instantly bought to mind the painting by Georges Leroux, "L'enfer", a superb depiction of the horror of war in itself.

My only reservation was the cleanliness and uniformity of the chalk trenches later in the film, with perfectly slanting 45 degree angles both sides. I'd have thought they'd be more crudely dug, shored up, funk holes, etc, although I'm certainly no expert on the subject.
Still the film is well worth a go, just look beyond the artistic licence....