1917

A film set in the First World War over a single day. Two soldiers are woken. A general gives them an order: cross the opposite line, reach another battalion, and stop the attack planned for the next morning. The attack is a trap. The Germans have made it look as though they withdrew, and sixteen hundred men are preparing; one of the soldiers has a brother in that battalion. The telephone lines are cut. The order has to go by hand. From there the film is a walk. Trenches, an abandoned line, a booby-trapped dugout, a farm, a falling aircraft, a river and a burning town. What the narrative is interested in is not war but distance: the film shows the road between the lines in detail and makes you feel time passing through its structure. The structure is the real idea. The film is built as a single unbroken shot; the cuts are hidden and the camera almost never leaves the two men. That choice forced the planning. Sets were measured to the length of the dialogue, trenches were dug to that length, and the scenes were shot in order. The cinematographer is Roger Deakins and the film won him an Academy Award; it also won for sound and visual effects. The night section is the best part. A town lit by flares, with shadows turning on the walls. The director said the core of the story came from what his grandfather told him. George MacKay, Dean-Charles Chapman, Mark Strong, Andrew Scott, Colin Firth and Benedict Cumberbatch are in the cast. Sam Mendes directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes technically ambitious war films. Who it is not for: anyone looking for character depth; the narrative does not introduce its two men and takes its tension from structure.