| Universal Pictures | Release Date: December 25, 2019 | CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
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Positive:
49
Mixed:
7
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews
Dec 30, 2019
Perhaps no film can capture the enormity of that war, which left around 17 million dead, and generations to grieve. Director Sam Mendes wisely takes the opposite approach, personalising the experience through two young British soldiers sent on a harrowing, high-stakes, night-long mission, he creates a film that is tense, exhilarating and profoundly moving.
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Dec 26, 2019
Yes, it’s a dazzling technical feat. One could also consider it a gimmick, or at least a method that threatens to distract the viewer’s attention. But that ignores the fact that this very filmmaking style is also hugely effective at delivering this particular story, in the most visceral way possible.
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Nov 25, 2019
1917 is an expertly crafted and emotionally exhausting thrill-ride behind enemy lines. Gloriously shot, deftly paced, and striking in its gruesome recreation of the time and place, Sam Mendes’ 1917 wisely never loses sight of the smaller, intimate elements in a fast-paced story with immense scale and action.
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The Film StageJan 12, 2020
Deciding to craft a film as though it were all done in a single take means that everything must balance perfectly lest the artificiality be underlined rather than smoothed over. It is a credit to every person who worked on this film, at every level of development and execution, that 1917 works as well as it does.
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Nov 25, 2019
The film belongs to Chapman and more than anyone, MacKay, a 27-year-old Londoner with the long bones and baleful eyes of a porcelain saint or a lost Caulkin brother. His Lance Corporal Schofield isn’t just a surrogate Everyman; he’s hope and fear personified, and you couldn’t look away if you wanted to.
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Nov 25, 2019
Nov 25, 2019
Even if the film is mostly hitting familiar notes in terms of story and theme, it expresses a concise, focused and expertly managed vision with which there’s little to quibble, and the extraordinary style represents the fruition of a long-imagined dream on the part of many directors and cinematographers. From now on, when the discussion turns to great works of cinematography and camera operating, 1917 will always have to be high on the list.
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Jan 7, 2020
While occasionally the film wanders a bit too far into sentimentality (a scene involving a baby feels like it crosses a plausibility line), watching 1917 is an emotional and moving experience. You think of these two young men as one minuscule piece of an enormous tragedy, filled with individual stories.
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Dec 11, 2019
What makes the vivid film such an astounding effort – and one of the year's best movies – is that it’s edited seamlessly as one continuous real-time take, following a couple of Brits through rat-infested trenches, sniper-filled towns and even empty battlefields where the Grim Reaper’s been busy yet danger still looms.
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IndieWireNov 25, 2019
Jan 9, 2020
War is much on the minds of people right now, and 1917 is a good reminder, flaws and all, of what that really entails. The contradiction, of course, is that it is not one long slog through gorgeous sunsets, but a million little moments that make up the effort. That’s kind of the movie Mendes made, and yet it’s not. You want to feel a movie like this, but too often you simply appreciate it.
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Dec 19, 2019
Dec 17, 2019
1917 doesn’t solve the problem that was posed 100 years ago by the historical convergence of modern warfare and modern image-making technology. No movie can provide a final answer to the question of what it means to film a war. But Mendes’ stunningly crafted entry in the genre will now become a part of a long history of imperfect representations of that unrepresentable conflict.
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Nov 25, 2019
We basically just get our orders and go. But I get the sense this is Mendes’ point. His goal is to put us in World War I for two hours. And, no, it’s not a pleasant experience. But what the movie is trying to do absolutely works. 1917 wants to take us to hell and back, and, in that, it succeeds.
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Jan 8, 2020
It’s the lack of depth that ultimately may keep you from committing to 1917 or even respecting it — the movie’s sense that war is simply something that happens to people rather than being caused by them. Don’t forget that World War I was once called The War to End All Wars. It wasn’t and according to the headlines it still isn’t, but this movie never stops running to bother ask why.
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Screen RantJan 8, 2020
1917 is worth checking out on a big screen for its visuals alone (Deakins' next Oscar nomination is all but assured), even though its immersive cinematography can, indeed, have the unintended side effect of making the movie seem like a video game at times. Still, there's a beating heart beneath the machinery that prevents it from being a hollow experience
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The TelegraphJan 8, 2020
Dec 12, 2019
While watching 1917, there’s a sense that you’re waiting for a fresh take or an interesting point that never comes. Audiences don’t need this movie to tell them that war is hell. But for those striving to get closer to experiencing that hell, Deakins and Mendes achieve something few war films before them have. They just needed a grander reason for doing so.
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Jan 3, 2020
There is no sense of real danger, because the mission has to continue, if only to keep this impressive long shot going. Any time there’s a larger, more cataclysmic set piece, our heroes look like tiny chess pieces on a much bigger board, bystanders who move around exploding mortars and whizzing bullets to produce the most stunning tableaux possible.
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Jan 22, 2020
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