1917 (2019)

Intense and humbling, like Saving Private Ryan and any good war movie.

An amazing accomplishment of camerawork and editing. The shortest unbroken shot was 39 seconds long, while the longest single continuous shot was 8 1/2 minutes long, both of which are impressive. The steadicam shots through trenches and houses and barbed wire crowds of people, from outdoor to indoor and outdoor again, and over water were supported by tricky editing but nonetheless exquisite. Don’t know how much CGI was used, but the sets were really great. And the in-scene effects of Blake bleeding out are horrifyingly real.

MacKay was fantastic, what a find for this movie. I like that he’s an unfamiliar face. Attaching a young star here would have personalized the movie too much and made it less about the war, which is really the star of this movie. Chapman plays well off of him. Fun to see more recognizable actors, like Firth and Strong and Cumberbatch, in positions of authority.

Love the movie’s bookend shots of Schofield having gone through this incredible journey, sitting under a tree.