how realistic is 1917

there was an immediate implication of urgency and danger.". Mackay’s Schofield is weary from seeing action at the Somme, while Chapman’s Blake is naively gung-ho. The two men had a baptism of fire from Paul, who put them through ­gruelling boot camps until they looked and acted the part. He wrote that the snipers may have actually directed bullets away from him because of a “secret admiration for my nonchalance… or they may have thought me plain crazy.” He found the companies and spent two days carrying messages back and forth, for which he was awarded the Military Medal. Actors also wore authentic uniforms, including replicas of WWI Brodie helmets (even taking note of variations in helmet shape between battalions) and authentic period hobnail boots. He was caught in a gas attack in 1918 and sent home. ... but in the case of the first world war I think it is very important to show case the struggle in a realistic way. Of course, anyone would know 1917 is a year during which British troops were fighting in World War I. Officers in WWI swore like, well, troopers. I thought: What if we develop that into a single journey of more epic proportions?". “Some filmmakers would have made a huge deal out of that,” says Boff. Soldiers, though banned from shooting them, would stick rats with bayonets. There’s also a scene with a tank stuck in a shell hole in No Man’s Land that has the right guns for the period.”. To my eye, he got it bang on here. According to Rotten Tomatoes, 1917 is described as a ‘Hard-hitting, immersive, and impressive technical achievement, 1917 captures the trench warfare of World War I with raw, startling immediacy.’, Your email address will not be published. It was not actually shot in one take, but rather a series of continuous, uncut shots that were then cleverly connected to give the feeling of one long take. “But when he reads the letter, he backs down and does what he’s told. Boot camp for George Mackay and Dean-Charles Chapman included crawling around in the freezing cold, running with their heavy boots, and moving and taking cover while carrying full kit. And it really is old fashioned. “Smaller, faster men were often made dedicated messengers when they had nothing else to do,” says Boff. According to the information, the most important man who can take a lot of credit for that is ex-paratrooper Paul Biddiss, according to the Mirror. It dispels with the popular “lions led by donkeys” myth for a more matter-of-fact viewpoint: not everything was completely senseless. Consequently, it all feels very real, and tension runs extremely high. “The kit looked good,” says Boff. Biddiss put the lead actors and 800-strong army of extras through training course, using actual training pamphlets from the time for reference. Find out more, The Telegraph values your comments but kindly requests all posts are on topic, constructive and respectful. Instead, Schofield has to clamber over bloated civilian bodies – which are just there – when he gets trapped against a dam. Following the accepted adage that realism in war movies means quality, Sam Mendes’s Oscar-winning 1917, (for Best Cinematography, Best Sound Mixing and Best Visual Effects), is a technical triumph: a sometime harrowing soldier’s-eye-view of a mission that plays out like one long continuous take. “It didn’t seem specific to me,” says Boff. This included 140,000 soldiers from the Indian subcontinent on the Western Front. “In the big scheme of things this was not some major strategic trap they were trying to spring,” says Boff. He was, of course, wrong and has since apologised. But how real is 1917? But thanks to Andy Robertshaw, there’s detailed accuracy with equipment and uniform. Around 15,000 soldiers from the West Indies enlisted for services, including men from Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, and Trinidad and Tobago (Mendes’ grandfather was from Trinidad). Here’s Gavin’s review of it. Two Indian regiments even took part in an unsuccessful cavalry charge during the Battle of the Somme. Once the pair reach the abandoned German trench, it’s almost luxurious in contrast to what we’re used to seeing on screen. “There are resonances of Gallipoli and resonances of almost any First World War over-the-top kind of battle.”. In truth, the response to Operation Alberich was far more cautious – and the eventual assault certainly wasn’t stopped by a messenger. “The landscape and No Man’s Land in the film was as you’d imagine it to have been,” says Boff. 1917 says that – as it could and should – but also it wasn’t just all futile. It's a hugely cinematic moment, of course, but according to the Imperial War Museum, songs – including popular tunes from the day such as Pack Up Your Troubles – were a way to combat boredom in the trenches. I suppose there was more incentive to make it more comfortable. “One of the highest non-combat injuries in that war was trench foot because the boots were seeped in water,” Biddiss told The Mirror. Furthermore, the military personnel of all ranks has called it the most realistic war film ever made. To call this image the opening shot isn't quite right, because "1917… “But these are pedantic things to get worked up about!” says Boff. There was no point in rushing – they had to build up roads and railways to bring the logistics forward to enable the next attack. June 8 As More Americans Head Out, 22 States Are Seeing Jumps In New Coronavirus Cases. There's a reason for this all to be happening. It was a British and Canadian attack to capture the new ridge and was supposed to suck in German reinforcements to a French offensive further south, which happened in May. A Historian’s view on 1917 from History Extra; Is 1917 a true story? Lance Corporal Schofield (Left) & Lance Corporal Blake (Right) called in by General Erinmore to deliver a message that could potentially save 1600 men. The new World War I drama from director Sam Mendes, 1917, unfolds in real-time, tracking a pair of British soldiers as they cross the Western Front on … The special effects makeup team describes how they created realistic dead bodies for Sam Mendes' WWI movie 1917. Could it have done better? With the English and French, once you got be transferred somewhere, you’d be 10 or 20 miles away. Would two Lance Corporals really be plucked out of the trenches and charged with such a mission? Or some US audience-baiting PR?) The guns, thanks to some creative licence, might not be quite as accurate as in real life: Schofield escapes several gunmen, including a sniper and soldiers on foot. My question is - how realistic is this depiction and if it is realistic - what were technical specs of these lamps? In a gripping drama inspired by a real-life war story told to Mendes by his grandfather, they play Lance Corporals Will Schofield and Tom Blake – two young British soldiers on a mission to warn comrades that they are walking into an enemy trap. 1917 Is a Visual Feat and a Bad Movie Sam Mendes’s war drama is designed to look like it was shot in two long takes. Made to look as if it is one singular take, with no hard cuts throughout the entire movie, 1917 alludes to the ever-lasting brutality and intensity of warfare. Archive’s androids give new life to an old question: is ‘romance’ electric? Prior to working on “1917,” special effects artist Tristan Versluis had designed no more than five or six corpses. Big expectations but falls short on realism. "1917," with its high-octane action, large cast and ever-changing mis-en-scene, opted to stitch together takes up to nine minutes long -- and yes, though marketed as a one-shot film, "1917… One detail changed is the date. 1917 is a hard hitting war film that’s rampaging award season. “They were ready with the next big attack on April 9, the Battle of Arras.”. In the film, the retreat is played as a trap – a crafty manoeuvre to lure the Allies into an attack, unaware that the enemy is heavily fortified and anticipating it. A soldier wakes up in a flowery meadow in the first few seconds of "1917," Sam Mendes' gripping action drama about World War I. They must leave the trenches and cross No Man’s Land to stop Colonel Mackenzie (Benedict Cumberbatch) and the 2nd Devons from launching an attack, which could cost the lives of 1,600 men – among them, Lance Corporal Blake’s own brother. The movie 1917 is visually accurate in terms of uniforms, but it suffers from multiple historical errors, I liked the movie. The depiction of atrocities against civilians are also nuanced. Twist is a Dickensian disaster – what did Michael Caine do to deserve this? You need to be a subscriber to join the conversation. With the Germans in retreat and the Allies communication lines cut, Lance Corporals Schofield (George MacKay) and Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman) are charged with delivering a message. The film’s call to action – the German army retreating from the Western Front – is based on Operation Alberich, a real-life withdrawal by the German to a newly built defensive position known as the Hindenburg Line. The 1,735 sq. Read our community guidelines in full, The latest offers and discount codes from popular brands on Telegraph Voucher Codes, Alfred Mendes, whose story inspired his grandson's film, George MacKay and Dean-Charles Chapman in 1917, Dean-Charles Chapman, left, director Sam Mendes, center, and George MacKay on the set of 1917, What’s on TV tonight: Teenage Superstars, The Masked Singer, Raging Bull, and more, Truman Capote as Pygmalion: how the 'tiny terror' threw his adopted daughter into high society. Boredom was also part of life in the trenches, and Biddiss captured that by putting supporting actors to work on mundane, true-to-trench-life tasks: filling sandbags, playing checkers with buttons, and killing lice with candles. The Hollywood blockbuster movie 1917 has been hailed as a masterpiece and it is one of the main favorites at this year’s Oscars. However, the specific tale of 1917 speaks of a … “So I told them they must look after their feet.”. But this technical accomplishment is wasted on a soulless film. Entered A Recession In February. “But in the course of the retreat, the Germans did leave booby traps, and snipers, and machine gunners to make life as hard for the Entente as possible.”. The soldiers of 1917 also do plenty of good old fashioned British swearing – lots of “f--k”, “s—t”, “b-----d”, and “b-----ks”. But the film is not about actual events that happened to Lance Corporal Alfred H. Mendes, a 5-ft.-4-inch 19-year-old who’d enlisted in the British Army earlier that year and later told his grandson stories of being gassed and wounded … Mendes is known for his Academy Award-winning work on … 1917 is something of a true story, loosely based on a tale the director's grandfather - Alfred H. Mendes, who served with the British Army during the First World War - told him as a child. In reality, Alberich was a tactical, well-executed plan which allowed the German army – battered and depleted from the Somme and the grind of the Western Front – to regroup, free up divisions, and shorten its defensive frontline line by 25 miles. In fact, 1917 was inspired by stories told to Mendes by his grandfather, the writer Alfred Mendes. A fate… In short: sort of. Comment below what you thought of the movie. “They closed up the German line pretty cautiously and launched the Battle of Arras on April 9. Wounded soldiers are bloody, missing limbs, and crying in pain. Sebastian Stan‘s new war drama film The Last Full Measure paid tribute…, The Battle of Marawi was the biggest urban battle in the Philippines’ modern history. Rats were a problem in the trenches, spreading “trench fever” via lice and feeding on corpses. After escaping German gunmen through a river, Schofield chances upon the 2nd Devons, who are sat in the woods as one of them sings The Wayfaring Stranger. But if he said 'Get your rifles!' The film was pretty nuanced in its portrayal of the realities of war. Instead, the German trench is like a large dormitory, with rows of bunk beds. The war ended at 11 am on 11 November 1918 an armistice was declared. Yes, 1917 has goodies and baddies – the Brits try to save an injured German pilot, the German pilot responds by stabbing one of them – and it’s a rollickingly tense adventure. The Golden Globe nominated film 1917 tells the story of WWI runners carrying a message on the Western Front, inspired by director Sam Mendes's grandfather. We urge you to turn off your ad blocker for The Telegraph website so that you can continue to access our quality content in the future. Some are lost, but some are saved.”, 'I saw a corpse and jumped out my skin': inside the muddy horrors of making 1917. 1917 follows two British soldiers, Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman) and Schofield (George MacKay), who are handed the perilous task of traversing no … Guns featured in the action include the Lee-Enfield No. F ollowing the accepted adage that realism in war movies means quality, Sam Mendes’s Oscar-winning 1917, (for Best Cinematography, Best Sound Mixing and Best Visual Effects), is a … The war-drama from the First World War received great critics as a movie with a real war background. “There were fundamental implausibilities and minor historical details that weren’t quite right,” he says. World War I epic 1917 is an unusual type of war movie – and not just for the fact that it's edited as though it's one continuous shot.. Required fields are marked *. Not the cramped hovel of Blackadder or swampish hell-holes piled with bodies. We’ve had lots of films which have told us that. Thus if a sergeant said, 'Get your f---ing rifles!' Messengers were used on both sides of the conflict (“Adolf Hitler was a messenger, of course,” Boff reminds me) but the concept – a race against time to save the lives of 1,600 other men – does sound like it was created with a sharp, self-aware knowledge of the genre: part Saving Private Ryan, part Gallipoli. This home was built in 1984 and last sold on 7/24/2017 for $179,150. Although it features A-list names Colin Firth, Mark Strong and Benedict Cumberbatch in supporting roles, the actors who take up most screen time are the ­previously little-known George MacKay, 27, and Dean-Charles Chapman, 22. Jarhead, based on Anthony Swofford's book of the same name, recounts Swofford's time as a Marine, while 1917 tells the story of two soldiers racing to deliver a message that could save the lives of up to 1600 men. Production cut out 2,500 feet of trenches around its filming locations on Salisbury Plain, with military historian Andy Robertshaw (who was also an advisor on War Horse and Wonder Woman) ensuring that the trenches and No Man’s Land landscapes were dressed properly. More than 9 million combatants had died. 1 Mk III rifle, the official rifle of British forces during WWI, the German Gewehr 98, the service rifle of the Imperial German Army, and Webley Mk IV revolvers, as carried by British officers. it was understood as a matter of routine. The camera follows the young soldiers in one long tracking shot, making it feel like you're right in the action. Overall, though, he's complimentary. ft. single-family home is a 3 bed, 2.0 bath property. The story has been, as Mendes himself described, “enlarged” for the big screen. (A comment on the insignificance of the Americans’ involvement for the average honest-to-god Tommy, perhaps? But the Germans knew they’d be coming back.”. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); I'm the active duty law enforcement officer serving in SWAT unit. “You get the same sense you get from a lot of the photographs from the time.”. He has since worked on the film Jason Bourne, the BBC version of War and Peace, and most recently on Sky One’s Strikeback series. “The filmmakers took advice on who would have been there and who wouldn’t have been there,” says Boff. At the end of the day, the message does get through and some lives are saved. Paul is a retired sergeant who served 24 years in the Parachute Regiment before going into private ­surveillance. To call this image the opening shot isn't quite right, because "1917" contains essentially just one shot, a continuous stream of imagery that flows nearly uninterrupted for two hours. In the 1930 book Songs and Slang of the British Soldier: 1914-1918, John Brophy described how F-bombs were common, everyday parlance – so much so, that not swearing made things all that much more serious. Even the rats – which chew off a soldier’s ear, swarm around the trenches, and (unfortunately for the lads) set off a booby trap – are true to life. “But we had to shut him up for obvious reasons, as we couldn’t stand too much of that.”. Finally, a war story worth watching. Sam Mendes’s epic new First World War film 1917 is based on the stories of his grandfather Alfred Mendes, who fought on the Western Front between 1916-18.Born in Trinidad, Alfie Mendes signed up at "It became so common that an effective way for the soldier to express this emotion was to omit this word. Sam Mendes directed and produced the film, 1917. The First World War was sparked by the shooting of Austria-Hungary heir Archduke Franz Ferdinand on 28 June 1914, with war officially declared a month later. “The Allies had pretty much come up to the new German line by then,” says Boff. “He starts off that way and has a line about, ‘The only way this war is going to be won is last man standing,’” says Boff. “Andy Robertshaw was the advisor on that stuff. He became a military ­adviser after working as an extra on the 2014 film Monuments Men and getting into a ­conversation with its star, Hollywood giant George Clooney. But there’s nothing to mark the assault out as anything other than generic WWI stuff. He used to be at the National Army Museum and has 30 to 40 years advising on this stuff. It drew in all the world’s major economic powers. Moira Macdonald. In his interview with the Sunday People, Paul Biddiss, 51, a dad of five from Oxfordshire, tells the secrets behind 1917’s authenticity. "There was one particular story he told us about carrying a message across No Man’s Land alone at dusk,” Mendes told Radio 1. Meet the author trying to solve humanity’s greatest puzzle, James Bond film No Time To Die delayed again over Covid pandemic, Enter Block 9: meet the pioneers tipped to take Glastonbury 2021 to cyberspace, The pyramids were never this hard: how Land of the Pharaohs made Joan Collins and broke Howard Hawks, In the wickedly cruel The Rental, Dan Stevens and co shack up in a deadly Airbnb. They are supposedly electric but I’d be very surprised if they last longer than half an hour. 1917 Realistic Dr , Bedford, TX 76021-4655 is currently not for sale. I thought within the world that Mendes created, it was coherent, consistent, sensible, and actually rather beautiful.”. Paul Biddiss had only one objective, to train more than 800 men to look and act like soldiers and give ­essential advice to director Sam Mendes. Blake and Schofield are sent miles further than real messengers would likely have been expected to go – “It’s some very long distance and at a very funny angle,” laughs Boff, “you’d find other ways to get the message across!” – but there is some truth to idea of a soldier being randomly picked for messenger duty. "But frankly, it’s a film. Having the clobber and guns is a great start, but to avoid having “all the gear and no idea” military advisor and former paratrooper Paul Biddiss taught the actors were taught to move, shoot, and even think like real WWI soldiers. 1917 does simplify details for the sake of dramatic license: maps that would actually get you nowhere, muddled jargon relating to the regiments, and bringing its casualty clearing station (a makeshift hospital for the wounded) much closer to the frontline than it would have been in real life. A soldier wakes up in a flowery meadow in the first few seconds of "1917," Sam Mendes' gripping action drama about World War I. Sam Mendes’s blockbuster film 1917 follows two young British Army messengers in an against-the-clock attempt to deliver a message behind enemy lines. 1917 based on a Mendes family story. The Mauritanian, review: Cumberbatch in Guantánamo is no-one’s idea of a thrill, 76 Days vaunts the severity of Wuhan’s lockdown – but ducks the real questions, The White Tiger, review: the punchy, propulsive tale of a grubby ascent to the top, Marvel’s problem child: Joss Whedon and the battle to make Avengers: Age of Ultron, Film industry faces squeeze as streaming giants expand, Why this year's Oscars will be like nothing we've seen before, Stanley Tucci on becoming a cult figure: 'It makes me really happy. Dr Jonathan Boff, history lecturer at the University of Birmingham and author of Winning and Losing on the Western Front, jokes that after coming out of the cinema he dubbed the film “Tommy Atkins and the Trenches of Doom” for its Indiana Jones-style adventure. The entirety of "1917," a drama set during World War I, follows a pair of young soldiers trying to deliver a message to stop an attack. I've just seen "1917" and when Schofield and Blake were in enemy trenches - the rat tripwire scene - they were using some portable lamps. There’s no big Spielbergian scene of French peasants being slaughtered, to be avenged by our hero later in the film. Jan. 7, 2020 at 6:00 am Updated Jan. 8, 2020 at 11:48 am . ‘1917’ review: World War I tale captures a realistic, riveting race across enemy lines . “German units tended to stay in the same place more than the English and French, who would rotate around. The Germans’ “scorched earth policy" to obliterate anything the Allies could use – orchards felled, villages razed, trees cut down to block roads, electric cable and water pipes destroyed, and railways bridges blown up – is recreated faithfully in the film, which causes all sorts of problems, not least of all for Schofield as he clambers over a broken bridge while being shot at. Your email address will not be published. Laurence Fox recently made headlines with his claim that the casting of Nabhaan Rizwan as a Sikh solider in 1917 was “institutionally racist” for “forcing diversity on people”. The 1917 script, written by Mendes and Krysty Wilson-Cairns, is inspired by “fragments” of stories from Mendes’ grandfather, who served as a “runner” — a messenger for the British on the Western Front. A soldier wakes up in a flowery meadow in the first few seconds of “1917,” Sam Mendes’ gripping action drama about World War I. By . “When they did realise, they advanced very cautiously – partly because of the traps and rear guards left for them, and partly because they would have to advance 20-odd miles across devastated terrain. “When the Germans retreated, the Entente didn’t even realise they’d gone for a bit,” says Boff. Young actors Dean-Charles Chapman and George MacKay play the parts of Lance Corporals Blake and Schofield respectively, taking responsibility for the majority of the film's dialogue and action. Battle violence is graphically realistic, including shootings, strangling, stabbing, bombings, etc. Mendes’ film is set on April 6, 1917, the day the US joined the war. It was okay, but it perpetuates a bunch of British memes, and the many long shots do not make it more realistic. In a way that doesn't brush over certain details or gloss over them. A potential contender in the 2019–2020 awards race, director Sam Mendes’ World War I movie, 1917, looks to be as technically impressive as it is dramatically heavy, telling the story of two soldiers (George MacKay, Dean-Charles Chapman) attempting to deliver a message that will save a huge number of lives, including one of their brothers. I'm not going to pretend it doesn't', One Night in Miami, review: when four black icons in the making put their heads together, ‘Were we doing what the FBI tried to do to King in the 1960s?’: director Sam Pollard on MLK/FBI. Is there life after death? As recalled in Alfred Mendes’ autobiography, which was written in the Seventies and published posthumously in 2002, Alfred enlisted aged just 19 and fought on the Western Front for two years with the 1st Battalion Rifle Brigade. He searched shell holes where the companies might be hiding and was shot at by German snipers.
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