1917 (Sam Mendes, December 25 2019) Movie • Page 6

Just read this great write-up on how 1917 was shot/lit/etc.

The Look Of 1917 - How Deakins achieved the Oner - Hurlbut Academy

 

I am going to be thinking about this one for a while. What a film. Just wow. I loved it so much, especially when he hears the singing and then is slowly walking towards it. Such a beautifully shot film.

 

I'd say food as well. When you go hiking and such, you do the same thing so bears don't get your food.

Also, why would you hang your shit?

 

I figured it was "safer" to poo indoors and away from battle and then take it out later. In retrospect, it doesn't make much sense. Haha.

 

Haha, for sure. You did a hole in a corner some where and fill it. Just bags of shit hanging around? Hhahaha, imagine.

 

lmao "how to make a bad time even worse"

 

Uuuuuhhh I haven’t seen the movie yet but this is....... not what I expected the discussion to be about. Lol.

 

Crazy how the money shot of the movie is in all the trailers but it’s still jaw dropping when you watch it.

 

Ya, I wish I hadn't already seen it in the trailer, but it still made me emotional when I saw it on the big screen.

Here's a cool side-by-side of the scene and how it was filmed.

 

I really appreciated that during that scene it wasn't the typical "the hero magically zags through the crowd" thing and instead he fully collides with like 4 people lol

 

IMDB says running into people and falling wasn't indicated in the script

 

I was really disappointed by this. I think I overhyped it in my head. I have several nit picks.

the first 30-40 mins is pretty great. The next 40 mins is pretty mediocre followed by a great final 10 mins. Some the casting/cameos took me out of the film. The “one shot” was gimmicky and also made it feel like a video game in moments. Other moments it fueled some of the absolute best scenes of the film, obviously the one everyone knows about is as stunning as you expect.

I was just not invested in a lot of the “checkpoints”. I thought the script was pretty mediocre, and found myself not caring much about what a lot of characters had to say. The lead performances were excellent though. Physical and heartbreaking.

Obviously Saving Private Ryan is a huge touchstone for this, and it overshadowed a lot of this movie, because it does virtually everything better. Not totally fair, but that’s what happens when two movies are similar.

 

I thought this was fantastic. And going in I knew the plot was going to be pretty razor thin, so instead I came at it as a movie giving me/the audience a very up close and personal view into this insane day this particular soldier has. I truly felt like I was there, and I didn't feel the continuous shot was a gimmick at all. It made me more aware of everything going on around him, more concerned for everything around him. I felt closer to his universe, getting a better sense of his experience. Truly exceptional film camera work. Final shot of him approaching the tree and sitting down was sublime. I truly felt the emotional weight of him meeting his friend's brother and what delivering that message meant to him. Soundtrack is incredible. Not sure on Best Picture, but I can easily see this winning Best Director.

 

I loved this. I also disagree with it being emotionally thin. It was so immersive that I felt like I was feeling what he was feeling. For example, the scene in the truck after Blake’s death. None of the dialogue from the other guys was muffled, but I felt like it was because the hold on Scofield’s face put me in that same removed state. That’s just a random example of many in the movie.

Dunkirk is another terrific example of a movie I found very emotional where some criticized it for being emotionally thin. I cry every dang time the captain looks out to see the British civilian boats. I think it takes a special sort of film to get you emotionally invested with limited character development and dialogue. Amazing cinematography, a terrific score, and great acting in the moment all go a long way in achieving this.

 

I also loved how this movie captured the obscurity that comes with war. Like how Blake doesn’t die from the plane crash, but a stab wound from the pilot he was trying to rescue. Or like how that woman ended up being left alone in a house with someone else’s baby. One situation feels so stupid, the other feels so strange, but both feel super realistic.

 

I loved when the camera would be rolling around and a dead body or a giant rat would pop into the foreground randomly.

 

I particularly liked the scene of him running through the ruined town at night, being chased by the German soldiers; how frenetic and intense that situation must have felt to him

 

This was phenomenal. There were several moments where I have absolutely no idea what they were doing with the camera to get the shot. What an achievement.

 

In particular, I was baffled how when the two guys approached that pit that had a lot of water in it, and so they start walking around it on the left side, while the camera then seemingly floats along the surface in the middle of the pond, tracking all their movements. Like, was it just the camera zooming in? Or did they use an extremely long boom crane to put the camera in the middle of the lake to track them? Going to try watching some making-of videos today

 

that was one of my favourite moments. the music during that scene was gorgeous.

 

This is the exact moment I had in mind! It couldn't be someone with a steadycam walking through the water, as there are no ripples. Maybe the water was CGI'd in later, but it looked to good for that.

Also there is another moment (and probably several more I missed) where they are walking through the trenches and the characters push through the front of the crowd while the camera passes through the crowd on the other side, but there's no way the crowd could have parted enough to let a camera through. Absolute trickery.

 

This would good