#and sad with how little i had to look at colin firths face

I just watched 1917 and wow. Wow.

I put off watching this for so long bc I thought it was just going to be another Dunkirk. I loved Dunkirk, don’t get me wrong. But I wasn’t in the mood to watch a copy. While watching, though I noticed some similarities, I was delighted at how different this was.

The absolute emptiness I felt at the end of this movie was indescribable. All of that, for a measly handshake and a lousy “well done lad.” All of that, just for us to sit back down by a tree. We don’t even get a thank you from the man who’s military career we just saved. Just from the man who’s brother we couldn’t save. And as we sit down at that tree that brother is missing from the shot, making you feel even worse. And you don’t feel peace. The bit of relief you get is quite short lived.

This movie does such a good job of putting us in the protagonist’s POV. The way the camera follows him, and strictly him. The way we lack information for a whole bunch of scenes, because this is exactly the amount of information the character has. The way the music swells and dies at exactly the right moments. The amount of things we have to process and the little amount of time we get to do so. The stress you feel throughout the entire movie, even in moments where the characters are sitting down (Dunkirk was really good at that aspect too.) The way the camera constantly twists around the protagonist because he needs to be aware of his surroundings at all times. I almost wish they didn’t subtitle the french bit just to get into character even more, with what little french this soldier understands (obviously subtitles are necessary for accessibility, but to solve that they could have put subtitles in french, and not translate them to english. I am aware of how this wouldn’t work the same for the people who do speak or understand french, like me, but i feel like the point that would make would still stand)

This is a masterpiece of a movie. I truly recommend.