Year Released: 2019
Directed by: Sam Mendes
Starring: George MacKay, Dean-Charles Chapman, Mark Strong, Colin Firth, Benedict Cumberbatch, Claire Duburcq
(R, 110 min.)
Genre: Drama
Heartfelt, Gritty, Explosive

“Your orders are to deliver a message, calling off tomorrow morning’s attack. If you don’t, we will lose sixteen hundred men. Your brother among them. If you fail, it will be a massacre. Good luck.” General Erinmore to Lance Corporal Blake

A world of wet feet and maimed bodies, rotting corpses and rotting souls fueled only by the will to survive just one more day. It is set during the waning days of The Great War – maybe the most dangerous of times, when easy victory appeals to ambitious officers restless in their trenches.

But as the quote under the image above illustrates, this is a false hope. As Colonel Mackenzie (Benedict Cumberbatch) reminds us, “Hope is a dangerous thing.”

But it’s not the story that most cinemaphiles are talking about. It is the bold style that Sam Mendes, (who brought us the overrated American Beauty as well as Skyfall, with a darkened, diminished, and deconstructed James Bond) brings to this World War I saga.

1917 works hard to appear as a long take, an uninterrupted shot with no cuts, no edits, and no close-ups, which has its pluses and minuses:

To take us into their journey as immersively as possible it is all filmed from a single viewpoint, just one camera (or so it seems) following Blake and Schofield closely all the time like an invisible third party to the trip. –David Sexton

This personal approach is from the point of view of the two soldiers chosen for such a dangerous task. One of them has a brother among the 1,600 hundred men about to be sent to slaughter in the trap German’s have planned. Thus, high command ensures his unwavering devotion.

Aerial reconnaissance photos have revealed the German’s so called retreat to the Hindenburg line is a fake. Thousands of enemy troops are waiting to slaughter the British troops envisioning a guaranteed triumph. Two Lance Corporals must bring the countermand order before the planned attack the next day.

Akin to the first person point of view in novels, the camera’s eye follows these two young men, and as they proceed on their desperate race against time, we see the senseless killing and slaughter. Here we are reminded of Clint Eastwood’s Letters from Iwo Jima, told from the perspective of the Japanese soldiers awaiting the inevitable American invasion in the waning days of World War II. There, too, the lowly foot soldiers seem helpless pawns whose ties are to their family and not the grand emperor or the British Crown.

In 1917 we come close to watching everything not only up close and personal, but almost in real time as well. A very different and, I think, superior approach than Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk, where he concentrated on the panorama of action with sketchy portraits of the fighting men themselves. Many also questioned the way that director manipulated time and spread the story into three different points of view, something ridiculed as “Nolan Time” in David Edelstein’s scathing “Dunkirk is a Great War Movie Marred by Christopher Nolan’s Usual Tricks.”

Though it is superior to Dunkirk, 1917 starts out slow. During the first 10 minutes or so of the film, as we follow Lance Corporal Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman) and Lance Corporal Schofield (George MacKay) through the crowded trenches on their way to No Man’s Land, it seems more style than substance, repetitive, and frankly, boring. Like the tail wagging the dog.

However, Mendes is just lulling us into complacency, softening us up for the shocking events that follow. He does not shield us from the war’s carnage, one officer telling Schofield and Blake that they can find their way at night by letting the smell of rotting horse and human flesh guide them. We see it all right there with them, even if we are spared the olfactory repugnance – bodies lying in haphazard piles or poignant singles with lifeless hands outstretched from the muck, fine horseflesh now nothing more than fodder for vultures and the ever-present, emboldened rats.

The deserted German line is not quite as deserted as it first appears, and several lethal surprises await Schofield and Blake. We are in the midst of the action as snipers and explosions light up the night, or when escape to a river ends up as a choking ride through the rapids and over a cliff. None of this seems to be CGI, and afterward we marvel at how it was done, but during the film we gasp for our breath right along with Lance Corporal Schofield as the surging current tries to suck him down into its depths.

Several scenes stand out, some, as noted above, for their uncompromising action, while others offer reflective or lighter moments to give us time to catch our collective breath. A scene in a bombed out building in No Man’s Land where Schofield shares a fire with a woman and a baby is quietly moving. She tends the fire, treats Schofield’s wounds, and comforts the swaddled infant with a mother’s devotion. Later we learn it is not even her child, but one left orphaned and alone, just as she has been.

Another scene offers some comic relief as Schofield rides in a truck with other soldiers who amuse themselves imitating the plumy accents and arrogant attitude of their superior officers. Interestingly, it is an Indian recruit who does the best job.

A brief quibble about the language and the ever-present F word. To Different Drummer it has always seemed an anachronism in WWI and WWII films. However, some research proved those instincts wrong. Apparently, that curse word was tolerated and was even so commonplace that officers purposely stopped using it when they wished their soldiers to pay attention. Nevertheless, Benedict Cumberbatch’s vulgar parting epithet to the heroic Lance Corporal Schofield ends their interaction on a sour note.

Mendes, in spite of his sappy interviews trying to paint his film as an anti-Brexit/ can’t-all-we-Europeans-just–get-along screed, has succeeded by saving those political views for interviews only. His political, spin, thank God, is left on the cutting room floor, where it rightly belongs.

A must see. It’s the story that gets you. Not the technique.

–Kathy Borich
🥁🥁🥁🥁

Trailer

Film-Loving Foodie

Food was scarce for both the civilian and the military during World War I, the general populace urged to go without meat or wheat products, so there were more rations for the soldiers.

These soldiers dined on such luscious sounding fare as tinned Biscuits.

Unlike the flaky, buttery biscuits we love to eat at breakfast time, biscuits served to soldiers during World War I were nowhere near as tasty. They were more cookie-like, hard, and most likely sugar-free, as sugar was rarely rationed out.

Egg biscuits were basically bare-bones nourishment (which sometimes broke soldiers’ teeth if not soaked in water first).

Something called Maconochie, a canned mixture of meat, vegetables, and thin gravy. It was reportedly disgusting, whether served hot or cold.

And then there was Bread Stew:

Although soldiers were promised fresh bread, the bread often took too long to get to the frontlines, which meant it was stale and almost inedible. This stew was oftentimes cooked in a sandbag, which gave the concoction a gritty texture.

Bully Beef, now called corned beef, was also served out of a can and was sometimes the only food a soldier would get in a day if kitchen battalions had been attacked — or if there was a food delivery delay. Again, like Maconochie, soldiers absolutely despised bully beef, since it was oftentimes unrecognizable as actual food.

Another staple was Bacon. You can never go wrong with bacon, right? But cooking it was a slow affair:

Both British and American soldiers would sometimes get bacon a few times per week. They would have to cook the bacon slabs on super low heat — usually a single candle — so they wouldn’t send smoke into the air and attract enemy fire. Bacon was sometimes the only fresh meat they would get for a long period of time. It sure beat the heck out of bully beef.

Not to mention the delectable Pea Soup with Horse Meat

It’s debated whether or not soldiers ended up eating their own horses when food supplies got low. However, several sources state that soldiers ate pea soup with chunks of horse meat in 1916, toward the end of the Great War. We suppose desperate times call for desperate measures, and that you’ve got to take what you can get…

These foods courtesy of So Yummy.com

***

If I haven’t completely ruined your appetite, Different Drummer has found an authentic recipe for those on the home front, who also faced a food shortage. It is called Apricot charlotte, “a thrifty pudding made with stale bread and dried apricots.”

Maybe not your cup of tea, but it beats Bread Stew or Pea Soup with Horse Meat.

This recipe was based on a project called “On The Home Front: Original Wartime Recipes from The Great War 1914 to 1918.” The author describes her work:

One of the most fascinating pieces of commissioned work I have undertaken recently was linked to the act of commemoration for all those who fought and lost their lives in The Great War of 1914 to 1918. I was asked to recreate some original recipes from the era and then style them with appropriate props and photograph them.

I styled them with old cutlery, linens and crockery from a similar time period, and served the recipes as suggested in the original recipe. I discovered that most of the recipes that suggested they would feed four people, would in fact feed two to three people nowadays……another indication of how our portion sizes have increased along with our girths.

As an extra project, I applied a “time machine” edit to some of my colour photos (in a photo editing programme) so all the black and white images are reproduced as if the photos were taken on a box camera of the era. –Karen Burns Booth

Different Drummer has posted both the color and the black and white photo taken with a box camera look.

Apricot Charlotte (circa 1915)

Soak half a pound of dried apricots all night in just enough cold water to cover them. Next morning add some sugar, and stew until tender. Well butter a pudding bowl, and scatter brown sugar on bottom. Line it thoroughly with bread buttered, and pour apricots in when ready. Press plate on top, and put into oven for half an hour, when it will turn out nice and brown. Serve with sweet sauce and it will be delightful.

Lavender and Lovage.com