1917
When I sat down in the theater to see 1917 I certainly was not expecting the adventure that I was about to be taken on. The first 10 minutes or so left me thinking that the movie may have been overpraised but I’m glad I stuck with it because it only got better and better. It was an emotional roller coaster and made me feel more than I would expect from any average war movie.
Pros:-As you may have heard 1917 only has 1 cut in the whole movie which is absolutely insane. Although they probably use editing techniques to mask cuts, the way they made it looks like it was all two long takes was absolutely stunning and nothing like any other movie I’ve seen before. -The characters motivations start unknown but through good character moments they are built up through the story and in the end you know exactly why they did what they did.-The score was very fitting and meshed well with what was happening on screen.-One of my favorite things in this movie is how they portrayed war so realistically. They never held back whether it was the scenery or how gruesome the injuries some of the soldiers suffered were. Each character had realistic motivations and the lines were delivered in a believable way, not being over dramatized but also not lacking the weight needed to carry emotional scenes. The world is fully realized and it immerses you with ease into the horrors of war.-The movie was an emotional roller coaster that was able to control the tone depending on each scene. Sometimes I would feel happy when the characters would just be walking and having a conversation but then they would pull me right back into the horror that war brings by showing abandoned buildings and rotting corpses. But the emotional standout was the gut punch of a twist that happens half way through the movie that stays with you days after you watched the film.
Overall 1917 is a standout in a year full of amazing movies. It is one of the most different experiences I have had in a long time. Any emotion the character is feeling you feel as well because of how well attached you feel to them and the world they inhabit due to the amazing direction the film was taken in. There are very few movies that I truly think are worthy of an academy award but I think that if not joker, then 1917 deserves to take the Oscar for best picture.