1917 could be about to change the landscape of the 2020 Oscars race.
The war epic from Skyfall director Sam Mendes follows two young British soldiers, Schofield ( George MacKay ) and Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman), who are given a seemingly impossible mission at the height of World War One.
In a race against time, they must cross enemy territory and deliver a message that will stop a deadly attack by hundreds of soldiers, with Blake’s own brother ( Richard Madden ) among them.
The film also stars Mark Strong , Andrew Scott , Colin Firth , and Benedict Cumberbatch.
But what have the reactions been like?
Clayton Davis of AwardsCircuit even wrote on Twitter : "'1917' is the best war film since SAVING PRIVATE RYAN. The cinematography of the year. The cinematography of the decade. Thomas Newman’s orchestral masterpiece. Sam Mendes gift to cinema…and his family. Every ounce is powerful."
Naturally, the reviews are also reflecting a rather positive reaction to the film.
1917 review round-up
Empire
In a four-star review , Alex Godfrey writes: "Almost everything you’ve ever seen in a war film is here. But never quite like this. It is very much a stylistic exercise, but if you’re going to do that, you have to really go for it. And 1917 really, really goes for it"
The Guardian
In a five-star review calling it a "masterpiece", Peter Bradshaw writes: "The single-take technique fascinatingly creates a kind of theatrical effect: the spectacle of two people moving through an unbroken space. It is immersive, yes, but that dangerously overused word does not quite convey the paradoxical alienation that is being created: the distance, the pure strangeness. The two men’s experiences are bizarre and shocking, but a poignant and then tragic sympathy is finally dredged up from the mud of their ordeal.
"1917 is Mendes’s most purely ambitious and passionate picture since his misunderstood and under-appreciated Jarhead of 2005. It’s bold, thrilling film-making."
Forbes
In a glowing review , Scott Mendelson writes: "Universal just dropped a bomb on the ongoing Oscar season, because Sam Mendes’ 1917 is indeed one of the best movies of the year, if not THE best.That’s a conversation for another day, but the single-take World War I action drama, concerning two grunts attempting to race across enemy lines to deliver crucial, life-saving intelligence to allies readying to wage war, is a genuine marvel of movie magic."
The Times
In a five-star review , Kevin Maher writes: "Sam Mendes delivers the film of his career by mashing up the survivalist thrills of The Revenant with the helter-skelter mayhem of a shoot’em’up video game, and setting it during the Great War. The resulting two hours of amphetamine-rush cinema is both a monumental technical achievement and, instantly, an Oscar-night frontrunner."
1917 is released in UK cinemas on January 10, 2020.
Will you be seeing 1917 in cinemas? Let us know in the comments below.
