With a certain amount of reluctance, I made the effort to go see for myself the Oscar nominated war film, 1917. Sorry to say that it was exactly what I had expected it would be all along - one very long and gimmicky war movie that tries to use the 'one camera take/no cuts' gimmick from beginning to end despite the fact that any novice filmmaker could catch the many repeated areas of pure black leader in which 'cuts' certainly took place. Overall, the film feels like you're watching a two-hour obstacle course situated over a muddy bank of cadavers, barbed wire and bloated dead horses. This movie is not SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, or SCHINDLER'S LIST, PLATOON, FULL METAL JACKET, APOCALPSE NOW or PATHS OF GLORY and does not deserve Best Picture at the upcoming Oscars. It's just how I feel. The movie has done nothing special and uses sporadic CGI, a manipulative soundtrack and tropes from past military movies without any shame at all. One final observation -- how in the living hell is a soldier who's going through so much shit going to remain so perfectly clean-shaven from the beginning to the end of this movie?? -- it transcends logic and any notion of a suspension of disbelief ... the clean-shaven issue alone disqualifies the whole damn thing. The movie and its protagonist would be far more believable as an expensive shaving cream commercial ad before our next upcoming Super Bowl.
bye.
