1917

Having written positively about both the Gentleman and Jojo Rabbit, I was expecting to be doing the same for this year’s favourite for the Best Picture Oscar. Alas, I am not. I appreciated the camerawork and the realism and as such understand why it is 1/10 favourite to win Best Cinematography at the Oscars; I just didn’t care much for it.

The gist of the film is that two Lance Corporals, Blake (Dean Charles-Chapman – Tommen Baratheon, Game of Thrones) and Schofield, are tasked with hand-delivering a message to a battalion of the Devonshire Regiment, to call off a planned attack that could cost 1,600 lives including Blake’s brother. The pair needs to navigate no man’s land and vacated German trenches in order to get to the Devonshire Regiment. If you’ve seen the trailer, you’ve seen the film.

If you’ve seen the trailer, you’ve seen Lance Corporal Schofield running across a battlefield, running across the path of fellow Brits. It’s probably the most memorable part of the trailer, so for a long time within the film, you know you’ve still got this to scene to come, killing the suspense somewhat.

Disappointingly, there wasn’t really any character development within the film. You find out at the very end of the film that Schofield has/had (simply avoiding a spoiler) a wife and two daughters. However, throughout the film you find out next to nothing about their past, their relationships or their thoughts – you’re just straight into the thick of the action. I guess you naturally want the mission to succeed, but I couldn’t get myself to care about what would happen to either of the two main characters.

I appreciate why so many people like it and why it is going to pick up numerous Oscars, but it really wasn’t for me. It reminded me of when I was much younger, going to a friend’s house and thinking you’d be playing a multi-player game like FIFA or Mario Kart, and you end up watching them playing on a first-person shooter for a couple of hours instead. Oh, and for some reason they’re trying to complete the level of the video game whilst firing their gun as little as possible.

Although the film is set to scoop numerous Oscars, I think I would have rather gone to a friend’s house under false pretences for a couple of hours to watch them play a video game – at least I would have been able to talk.