"On June 28, 1914, Archduke Ferdinand was shot and killed in Sarajevo, becoming the fuse of the First World War." This sentence of great significance has become more than 101 years after the end of the First World War. A line of cold type in the history book, a necessary common sense. More than a century has passed, when the survivors who have experienced this disaster have all left one after another, this unforgivable stupid mistake in human history, this tragedy that has claimed more than 35 million lives, is gradually turning over. It becomes a digital and macro-level lesson, rather than the worst nightmare that an individual and his family have experienced.
Hollywood, which gradually gained the hegemony of the world film industry in World War I, unexpectedly lacked a retelling of the First World War. Most of the war films we are familiar with are based on World War II or the Vietnam War ("Saving Private Ryan", "Dunkirk", "Blood Battle at Hacksaw Ridge", "Apocalypse Now"...), and Before Peter Jackson's "They Are No Longer Older" appeared, the only slightly influential American World War I movies were Lewis Myerton's "No War on the Western Front" in 1930 and Kubrick's "Glorious" in 1957. the road".
"They are no longer getting old" fills this vacancy to a certain extent. Peter Jackson, whose grandfather had participated in World War I, used more than 250 hours of material to restore the most authentic experience of World War I and the vivid and young pictures that were once alive and young. Face. For people in peace, it may be useless to read bloody death data and observe the cold guns. Only seeing people who have existed, hearing their names and stories, feeling emotional for them and watching Only when they are cruelly crushed can they truly understand the absurdity of war and the heaviness of this peace.
This is probably the meaning of the existence of war films. By reshaping the hellish battlefield experience and portraying specific characters that affect empathy, it is the most vivid and profound experience for modern audiences who are far and near the war. Anti-war education.
Sam Mendes' grandfather also participated in the First World War, and this "1917" dedicated to his grandfather came to the top in the fiercely competitive Oscars and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Director and Best Drama in one fell swoop. The category of movies, the best film in the Producer’s Association, known as the "Oscar vane", and the Directors’ Guild Award, have become the most Oscar-like works. (Updated after Oscar: I finally slapped my face hahahaha)
Time, the most basic and decisive element of this movie, is the subject of many Oscar-based works this year. "The Irishman" uses age-destroying techniques and a three-line narrative that travels through time to show the discussion of aging, death and loneliness. The non-linear narrative structure of "Little Women" adds a desolate filter to the warmth of the past. "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" uses chapters with different rhythms and a title card that jumps to six months later, showing the reflexivity of the film and the most gentle memorial to a passing fantasy era.
The method of "carving time" in "1917" is to synchronize the time inside and outside the screen to the end, and the whole film is composed of a continuous long shot. Of course, compared to "Russian Ark", which is a truly uncut long-shot movie, "1917" is not strictly a shot to the end. It is still made up of multiple long-term shots. It just combines the shots. The traces of the editing are cleverly hidden, creating a smooth visual experience in one go.
This kind of pseudo-mirror achieved with special effects and editing is actually not new. Hitchcock has already played in "Imperial Soul", and in recent years, "Son of Man" and "Son of Man" won the best film of the year. "Birdman" also uses the new gameplay blessed by CGI technology to leave an important trace in the history of the movie.
"1917", as the first war film to try to get to the bottom, has considerable courage and ambition. But when this slightly experimental pseudo-mirror becomes the biggest feature and selling point of "1917", it is unavoidable to make people wonder whether this kind of technical early adopters is a gimmick in which the form is greater than the content, or a broadening of the narrative and narrative of the film. A major achievement for the experience?
Perhaps you can only find the answer to this question if you personally follow the two soldiers on the "Road of Glory" that traverses hell.
Gain: Immersion, wonders of the battlefield, and the original victory of image lyric
The story of "1917" is very simple: on the French battlefield in 1917, two British corporals, Blake and Schofield, received a task and had to send a letter within a limited time to stop an attack. Waiting in front of the two of them is an uninhabited land full of corpses, small towns controlled by the Germans, and long and narrow trenches. If they can’t deliver the message on time, 1,600 soldiers including Blake’s brother will leave. Enter the death trap laid by the German army.
It is very reasonable to use a mirror to present such a clear goal and one-line forward plot line. The whole film is like a well-designed game level, with a clear map, a tight time limit, and a lot of natural existence. crisis.
It must be pointed out that although the editing traces between shots are carefully hidden in other parts, there is a black screen in the middle of the film to deliberately remind the audience of the interruption of continuity and the reconstruction of time. This deliberately black screen divides "1917" into two chapters, in which the role of the long shot and the role of the audience are different. The first half of "1917" is like a first-person war game with full immersion. The audience becomes participants and players, while the second half is transformed into a battlefield spectacle that is more illusory and lyrical and closer to the original charm of the image, turning the audience into a spectacle. Witness from the perspective of God.
At the beginning of the film, when the camera closely followed Blake and Schofield on the journey, the executors of this task changed from two people to three. The audience walked behind them, side by side and in front of them, and walked through the wire with them. After passing the stagnant water, it became the third pair of eyes present.
This kind of immersion under the video game-style perspective is very rare. The constantly moving camera turns mere viewing into participation. The audience will be under unprecedented pressure and cannot breathe for a moment. When the camera shakes away from the two protagonists, the camera becomes the watchful eyes of the audience, as if they are looking around for them to capture all details as much as possible; and when the two companions take a short break, the audience will be like a guard watching what they cannot. In the background, for fear of enemies or any more terrifying danger.
It is also because of the continuity of the long shots that every horrible or beautiful detail on the first half of the journey no longer looks like a deliberate plot, but a spontaneous discovery by the protagonist and the audience, a reward that triggers the hidden plot. In this way, every momentary emotion felt by the audience who are fully engaged in the task is magnified, the nausea when their injured hand is inserted into the carrion, and the empathy aroused when they see the photos of the family members on the German bedside. It is no longer a narrative technique, but like the audience's true feelings after being on the scene.
This peculiar emotional experience was pulled to the maximum during the first unexpected turn of the film. When Schofield turned his back with the camera, behind him, outside the frame, a dramatic climax happened so quietly. This kind of anti-climax approach is not common in war genre films, but this passage does not lose its strength because of turning around. Instead, it takes advantage of the feature that the long lens can only selectively follow, which infinitely magnifies the audience and Schofield's weakness and consternation at this moment.
After the black screen of Schofield's loss of consciousness, "1917" broke away from the perspective of video games and entered a new, surreal and even sci-fi sensory world. Time and space are out of order. Neither Schofield nor the audience know how long this black screen corresponds to, or when and where they are. They can only see the ruins of a different world under the firelight outside the window. The camera slides out of the window at this time. This is the first time the protagonist has been lost in the whole film. When the audience finds him in the panoramic view again, Schofield is isolated and helpless, shrouded in fear and loss and walks into the night.
Roger Diggins, who is good at using light, once again created the breathtaking beauty of images in this doomsday-like color. The night sky dyed red by artillery fire, burning buildings and damaged shadows, the silhouette of the character and his suddenly illuminated face, the realism brought by the long lens interacts with the unreality seen in front of him, bringing the light and shadows. The shock and even the epiphany reached its limit.
From this moment on, the long lens no longer occupies the most important position. It silently gives way to the most primitive beauty and emotion of the image, freeing the viewer’s eyes from the task of advancing forward and seeing the blue at dawn. The strange sky, floating corpses and cherry blossoms in the water, and a breeze in the woods, the soldiers listened to a song almost still. But also because of the non-stop following brought by the long lens, the audience can fully keep up with Schofield's changing mood. His fatigue and will to survive, his tenderness and panic while running make the visual and emotional blending into a complete and indispensable one. Split experience.
And when Schofield finally stepped into the narrow and crowded trenches, the long lens returned to the center of the audience's attention, followed Schofield anxiously, and then began the most shocking horizontal crossing. This wild run is the most meaningful and meaningful long shot in the whole film of "1917". It puts an individual who runs continuously forward among countless individuals who advance in different directions, and he does not hesitate to run rampant. , Will evoke the fullest and deepest empathy.
After all the dust settled, the exhausted Schofield sat back under the tree like the beginning of the story, and the continuous long shots of the whole film formed a circle, completing an epic of young soldiers traversing hell. And the black and white photo of the family also fulfilled the ups and downs but full of emotions, and finally condensed into the simplest and most touching sentence, come back to us.
Lost: The sacrificed play, the contradiction between show and tell
Of course, the shortcomings of a mirror in "1917" are also very obvious. First of all, visually, in the first half of the journey, in order to make the long shot less monotonous and hide some editing points, the camera had to rotate or shake at a large angle from time to time. These lenses will inevitably cause some dizziness and discomfort under the highly immersive video game-style viewing angle.
Although the title of this article touches "Road to Glory", in terms of the depth of the theme and the interpretation and thinking of war, "1917" can be said to have completely abandoned this effort compared to "Road to Glory." "Road to Glory" seriously discussed how the system swallowed individuals, revealing the meaninglessness and injustice of war. Although "1917" was scattered with clues to deeper themes, it finally had to achieve a mirror. Compromise in the end.
Colin Firth, who plays the general, revealed in an interview that his role has such a deleted plot: After the general has dispatched an almost impossible task to the two young soldiers, he began to spread a white tablecloth to enjoy it. afternoon tea. Although Fairs himself thinks that even without this scene, the general's disregard for the lives of the two young soldiers is already obvious, but the meaning behind it may not be as obvious to the audience as he thought. Regardless of whether this episode was deleted to allow "1917" to maintain its "understatement", or to achieve a smoother, more focused on the two protagonists, it means the attitude of the top military to the individual. The profound information is ultimately not communicated.
There are many examples of this kind of imagination. Although there is a suspicion of over-interpretation, there may be a serious crisis of confidence in the British army at that time, and soldiers with vital interests have to be sent to perform this dangerous task. This kind of suggestion was reflected in the resisting Schofield and the soldiers with low morale in the trenches, but in the end they did not dig further. Something wasted as well, as is the setting of the colonel played by Benny. He is the boss of the final level. On the way, Schofield was told that the colonel was warlike himself and would not necessarily obey orders. When the audience thought that there was finally a bit of discussion about the war itself and its impact on people, the colonel ended up saying only one beautiful sentence that didn't hurt or itch.
This kind of point has so far filled the entire "1917". Some viewers will appreciate this restraint and subtlety, but other viewers may usher in a gap in expectations. Part of the ambition of Sam Mendes in filming "1917" was to let more people know about World War I, and he was also very pleased that the form of video games could attract more young audiences into history. But in the case of technology first, his accomplishment of this goal is precisely compromised. Except for the details of guns and uniforms that only military fans can notice, "1917" does not seem to have much to do with World War I. The entire plot line seems to be established in any war in human history.
Many critics criticized "1917" for being full of war film routines: companion death, Anglo-French friendship, family photos... and the lack of surprises in the drama is part of the responsibility for the one-shot. Because of the end, all the foreshadowings buried in the early stage must reappear, and if the milk is filled, the baby must be encountered. After picking up the relics of the comrades, there will be a not-so-exciting sensational scene against his brother. The protagonist's whole The plots are all intertwined without leaving gaps. As a result, with the visual surprise, the script of "1917" seems a bit thin.
There are also people who don't like the protagonist of "1917", thinking that their background information is limited and their characteristics are not outstanding, but in my opinion, this is not a shortcoming. These two ordinary British boys with vague faces and not strong personalities are played by two young actors who are not familiar faces. They are really unknown and small individuals in the war. Such simple characters may be able to allow the audience to substitute their perspectives without barriers, and turn their stories into their own.
However, the audience has nearly two hours to get acquainted with the protagonist gradually, to have a close emotional connection with them, other supporting actors are not so lucky. In the case where the camera must focus on the two protagonists, the remaining characters can only have the only chance to appear on the stage, becoming a one-time tool man, a bloodless NPC, wasting such a bunch of excellent (and sexy) in vain British actors.
"1917" uses smooth long shots to shape a new experience, achieving a higher level of "show, don't tell" narrative, which is an achievement worthy of recognition. But perhaps, as the art of storytelling, film still must have a certain telling part in order to be truly satisfying. In the end, the mirror of "1917" is certainly not just a gimmick, but it must be admitted that this kind of formal effort has to some extent compromised the height that the entire text can reach.
From the perspective of audiences and film critics, the one shot of "1917" may have been lost and gained, but for the filmmakers behind the scenes of "1917", being able to complete this extremely difficult challenge is itself a simple greatness. Achievement. Even the most discerning audience cannot admit the obvious technical difficulty and high level of craftsmanship in "1917" in the end.
In order to ensure the continuity of the shots as much as possible, the crew created 5200-foot-long real-life trenches and rich battlefield scenes, and cleverly connected them with puddles and rivers. The actors’ positions and the camera’s path were rehearsed four times. Months, but there were still many surprises and surprises just before the shooting;
The most amazing night scenes with light and shadow are also the most difficult to complete. The light sources in the scene are limited and difficult to control, including burning churches and fleeting flares. In order to experiment with the best lighting method and design the best shadow effects, Roger Diggins and his team created a set of models of the ruins and houses of the town in advance, and then adjusted every detail, even The size of each window finally completes such a visual feast.
The story behind "1917" is as fascinating as the movie itself. It is a perfect embodiment of the teamwork and craftsmanship in the film industry. The two soldiers in the film have to move forward to complete a mission that cannot be failed, and these professionals in the real world are also working together to complete a difficult but successful challenge.
This explains why "1917" was so popular during the award season. On the one hand, its universal anti-war theme and technically obvious greatness can deeply impress the audience. On the other hand, those in the industry who voted for major awards We, perhaps, under the influence of "1917", remember the love that made them devote themselves to this art in the first place.
However, regardless of the final award situation of "1917", Sam Mendes used such a huge project to carry personal emotions, and gave a grand personal epic to his deceased grandfather, with a kind of recklessness. Courage. In 1917, Alfred Mendes, a small communicator, struggled through no man's land, and more than a hundred years later, countless people in peace will remember his name.
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