The baby-faced soldier running toward the camera in 1917 perfectly captures what was so heart-breaking and haunting about World War One – all that innocence sent into battle, all those futures destroyed. Perhaps no film can capture the enormity of that war, which left around 17 million dead, and generations to grieve. Director Sam Mendes wisely takes the opposite approach, personalising the experience through two young British soldiers sent on a harrowing, high-stakes, night-long mission, he creates a film that is tense, exhilarating and profoundly moving.
Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman) is that baby-faced soldier. Schofield (George MacKay) is not much older but seems world-weary, having already been in combat. Mendes immerses viewers in the young soldiers’ experience when they are sent on foot across no-man’s land with a message that could prevent a slaughter. They must reach British forces at the front line before dawn with orders to call off a planned attack on the Germans, who have staged an ambush. With phone lines down, the fate of 1,600 men rests with these two messengers.
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