1917 review: Sam Mendes' World War I drama is as haunting as it is beautiful

Director: Sam Mendes

Cast: George MacKay, Dean-Charles Chapman, Mark Strong

Score: 4.5

World War I was, in many ways, a worse war than World War II. It was a disgusting affair, where men innovated to create vile ways to make men suffer. And while many films have explored that side of the war - the side that is brutal and violent and noisy - not many have explored the crushing pain that soldiers must've felt during the long periods of silence.

This is where 1917 comes in. A drama, though it may be, Sam Mendes' interpretation of The Great War is intense and powerful, and may yet stand side-by-side with many of the best.

The story of 1917 follows Lance Corporals William Schofield and Tom Blake, who are ordered to cross miles over into enemy territory to stop an over-zealous Colonel Mackenzie from sending 1600 men into a German meat-grinder.

1917 is faithful, innovative and vicious, to put it into the least number of words possible. It is faithful to the claustrophobia and shell-shock of World War I, it is innovative in the sense that the entire film is presented as one long take with no cuts whatsoever and it is vicious in the sense that it engulfs its characters in a sense of peace ever so often, only to take it away mercilessly.

The film has an eerie silence throughout, one that pokes its ugly head out even during the brief periods of noise and violence. One particular section early on, where Schofield and Blake make their way through No Man's Land is particularly haunting because though one does not expect silence during wartime on this scale, the film presents just that: Prolonged periods of silence where the only noises are that of scampering rats and feasting ravens. The imagery is stark, unabashedly naked in its showcasing of the toll of war as bodies lay hewn across the battlefield in various states of decay.

But to balance the despair, there is also the side of hope. As Schofield and Blake make their way across the battlefield, they go not only through the remains of dead men and come within inches to death themselves, they also explore their inner misgivings and hopes of life after war. MacKay and Chapman are much like brothers throughout, joking and laughing and trying to lift their spirits up in a time of war, fruitless though it may be.

As the film progresses, one realises the omnipresent eerie silence, piercing through the subtle music and the conversations between the soldiers, for it is broken ever so rarely by a loud crack of a German sniper or the sounds of an infant. The impact of the sound is such that it shocks one into a short sense of disbelief, breaking the otherwise apparent smooth sailing that the characters seem to have.

And as our characters make their way through this hell, they come across those innocent in the drama: a woman with a child whose name she does not know, a caravan of soldiers regaling themselves with tales of comedy and another group of soldiers listening to a quiet humming song, knowing their doom lies before them - impressing upon both them and us the human cost of war.

To close, 1917 is a drama to be experienced. The trench warfare aside, the film has suspense, hope and despair in spades. It exists, perhaps, as a case for why war is the worst thing man has done to himself.