1917 was one of the great favorites to win the most coveted Oscar of 2020, however, it had to settle for statuettes that rewarded more technical aspects, Parasite was undoubtedly the real revelation, a film that made history and that won the most. award-winning awards.
Talent does not include languages or borders, which was very clear with the historic Award for Best Picture for a South Korean play, however, in this article we will talk about another feature film, which triumphed at the BAFTA and Golden Globe Awards, even though it had not been so successful at the Oscars.
- There are a pletle of films about World War II and even Vietnam.
- But there aren’t many titles that have enjoyed international success inspired by World War I.
- Perhaps one of the most recognized being Glory Made of Blood.
- From the unforgettable Stanley Kubrick.
- Starring the recently deceased Kirk Douglas.
World War I raised more doubts than the Second and was not as cinematic as its successor, the enemy may not be so clear and the chaos that characterized it has somehow prevented its passage into cinema. War cinema will not rush to quote titles whose main enemy is Nazism.
Inspired by some of the stories he had heard from his grandfather, Sam Mendes dared with a feature film with a simple plot and a set of sublime scenes to immerse himself in the trenches of World War I.
A joke can be told in different ways, and certainly, depending on who to tell it to and how to tell it, it will cause more or less laughter. This statement, however simple, can be applied to cinema and, ultimately, to art. The message is fundamental, there is no doubt; If the backsa story doesn’t stop us, there’s not much we can do. However, as with any joke, the way you tell it is of crucial importance.
The 1917 scenario couldn’t be easier: two British army private soldiers must send a message to another of their troops to avoid a massacre at the hands of the enemy, that’s when something as simple as a message comes to life and provokes public empathy. An audience that maintains a sepulchral silence because it feels its heart and nerves shrink alive in the face of danger as imminent as death.
The film features a cast that includes some of the biggest british film names of recent decades, such as Colin Firth and Benedict Cumberbatch, but decides to leave the full weight of the performance to two young strangers.
While it is true that a different type of storytelling would have allowed the secondary characters and actors already mentioned to work more, the decision to rely on a small number of protagonists immerses the audience in the action.
The trenches have never been so poetic and suffocating at the same time, the viewer can perceive terror, loneliness and desolation, all thanks to an impeccable technique that keeps its roots in suspense, how is it possible?By using an eternal but illusory sequential plan.
Not that 1917 invented something completely innovative, because Hitchcock himself experimented with the boundaries of cutting during the 1948 Feast. There are also other more recent experiences, such as Birdman (Joaquin Oristell, 2015) and Victoria (Sebastian Schipper, 2015).
In this way, the functionality combines the possibilities offered by new technologies with a technique that we have seen on other occasions. It is a provision that makes the viewer fully involved with the protagonists and perceives the action in “real time”.
Interpretation and technical work require more effort, because when executing such long plans, everything must be perfectly timed and calculated, including atmospheric conditions.
The illusion of the sequential plane, with its millimeter and almost imperceptible cuts, arouses a feeling of anguish in the audience, we are no longer passive spectators of a tragedy, but accomplices, if the protagonists cannot escape, neither are we. , the use of natural light, spaces, faces and subtle special effects underline the action.
The viewer ends up feeling trapped in the trench maze, feeling empathy for the protagonists and feeling the love that runs through the screen.
Music and image combine an exciting beauty in which energy is the key. The camera never looks back, never backs down, just moves forward with the rhythm of the characters. The music appears in times of greater tension, somehow reminiscent of Hitchcock.
The complexity of 1917 lies precisely in the difficulty of harnessing natural resources, the game of clearing, natural light and the urgency it seeks to convey. Nor can we forget a team that managed to recreate a hostile stage full of trenches in which countless young people were recruited for a war that, like everyone else, was absurd, lived and died.
The feeling of watching a film without cuts, although it is an illusion, creates uncertainty in the viewer. An uncertainty that is tragically maintained with the film’s longest, most obvious and meditative cut. After rolling, we move on to a black screen, an eternal black that, far from alleviating us, increases our anguish. Absolutely not. The drastic cut only serves as a point that follows a story that still has a lot to say, which always contains endless and suffocating plans.
Ten Oscar nominations, but only three statuettes. These were more technical, but no less important. A film is nothing without a solid script, but it also does not draw its merits exclusively from the script. From costumes to music to acting and photography, cinema is a complex art, an arduous teamwork in which all the elements are important, fundamental.
This is probably one of my least impartial articles, but as with any critic and art, taste plays a fundamental role. I’m not passionate about war movies becoming anti-war, but I’m a big fan of Mendes and Roger Deakins (the genius responsible for photography in 1917).
Mendes captivated me with American Beauty, hypnotized me and invited me to immerse myself in a film that, without too many surprises, shocked me and continues to fascinate me today, has now managed to surprise me and make me discover the beauty in an extremely hostile environment.
All this innovative way of presenting the scenes aims to tell us something that we already know and that cinema has repeated many times: wars are absurd, human beings are absurd, and in the meantime, nature is on its way. Because drowning while cherry blossoms have never been more significant, seeing death where life arises, or seeing human destruction in a natural environment struggling to flourish is poetic, cathartic, and revealing.
Nature acts as an additional character, alien to humans, but ubiquitous, while the tree rises as the most significant symbol. A tree present at the beginning and end, making this film somewhat cyclical. Beyond the technical aspects, 1917 is a lesson in humanity, a clear tribute to those who lived through World War I, to whom they saw death in their hands and their dreams buried in the mud.
“I wanted the landscape to be more of a character in the story; a voice that gave another perspective on the war. And did he need time and space for words in a lost world?-Sam Mendes around 1917?