After «American Beauty» and «Skyfall», Sam Mendes wows us with «1917».»

Cinema Wednesdays - Loris S. Musumeci

«To glory or to the shroud, faster travels he who goes alone.»

April 6, 1917. The British army has men in France. Corporal Blake is in the explosive zone: on the front line of the German army's advances. To take his head out of the trench is to have it cut off. And yet he has to get out of those trenches. Direct orders from General Erinemore. After having to choose a comrade, Corporal Schofield, he is told of the scope of this mission, which has all the makings of the impossible.

To get out of the trenches, of course, but to cross enemy territory to carry a message to another battalion, which was preparing to send 1,600 soldiers to their deaths at dawn the following day. This was a German trap, and the Germans had done their utmost to make communication between the different battalions impossible. The only way to avoid the massacre is to send two men on foot. A general's order, yes, but what's the point of running towards almost certain death? In this battalion preparing to be decimated is Corporal Blake's brother, Lieutenant Blake. The corporals set off, fear in their stomachs, courage in their hearts.

A different look

Sam Mendes didn't aim for originality, at least in terms of subject matter. Even if, whether it's the First or Second World War, the theme is never really exhausted. Behind the many repetitions, there's a different perspective. Which makes the work interesting. 1917 is interesting. Very interesting indeed. And gripping, moving. And spectacular, nerve-wracking. And frightening, amazing. What a movie!

In terms of form, the director's creativity is obvious. For a start, the entire film is constructed in a series of sequence shots. This gives the impression that the camera never lets go of the two main characters. That's why the viewer follows them, always discovering after them the perils that await them. When the camera is behind one of the corporals, it hints at mystery at every angle. When it's in front, facing the barrel of the gun, it ignores everything, concentrating on the facial expression of the character risking his life.

The camera's movements also match Blake and Schofield's emotions. It follows them, from the front or the back, in a travelling stable when they're calm. They get restless when they get agitated. The effect is obvious! We recognize the director's mastery of the image, which he displayed in his fledgling days with American Beauty (1999), a masterpiece that won the Oscar for Best Film in 2000, among many other awards.

But the delight of the formal work doesn't stop there. From references to American Beauty, we move on to the even more popular James Bond Skyfall (2012), also by Sam Mendes. The light and shadow effects revealed that 007's adventures could be carried off by spectacular images. The show continues with 1917. Corporal Schofield walks through a ruined village at night, explosives blasting the stones out of their darkness at regular intervals. Shadows merge with the ruins. Red invades the dead-gray landscape. And imagine it all in a sequence that lasts a good ten minutes. Nailed to the screen, you share the corporal's fear and determination, witnessing dreamlike images. The film becomes a tragic poem, an epic poem, through its visuals.

The double bass squeaks again

And the soundtrack takes us back to another war movie: Dunkerque (2017) by Christopher Nolan. No airplane noises tearing up the sky this time, but the same double bass squeaking gravely. The same chronometer beating out the passage of time, on which the lives of 1,600 men depend. The cinematography is rich at every moment of the film, but some scenes give priority to sounds that tell us even more than the image. A heart beating in anguish. Breathing that accelerates until it stops. Footsteps running, tapping the rhythm of salvation on the ground. Precisely.

1917, a war film. A horror film too, in what horror can tell us about reality. Bodies rotting. Bodies leaving, in the beaks of crows, under the teeth of rats. Houses destroyed. Mutilated soldiers. The film doesn't end with the smiles of war's end, but with mourning. There is no happy end at the end of a rifle. But men are men, in war as in peace. And no one can live without trust in others. Without friendship. The only thing capable of bringing about miracles in death, in horror, in mud, in fire, in a war, in 1917.

«This war will only end one way: with the last survivor.» 

Write to the author: loris.musumeci@leregardlibre.com

Photo credit: © Universal Pictures International Switzerland