This story was originally published in the fourth edition of The Lion’s Tale (February 7, 2020).

The film “1917” is an amazing technical feat in my eyes. The key feature in the movie is that the entire thing is supposed to be seen as if it were recorded in one go: It is a continuous-shot movie.

Now, filmmakers didn’t actually film the entire movie all at once. Despite this, the technique was impeccably done. Not once were there any discrepancies that made the film look choppy or patched together. That alone I believe to be an amazing feat.

The plot of the movie itself, even without the technical advancements, was also very good. As a quick synopsis, the film starts off with two characters with a mission to deliver a letter. If they fail in their delivery, it would result in the deaths of 1,600 British men on the World War I battlefield. The movie follows the two men as they deliver the message across the front lines of the war.

As the movie progresses, you could vividly see what war does to one’s mind. The way the actors displayed these emotions caused a truly empathetic reaction in the audience. The actors were amazing: with their art of expression, they drew me in and put me right into the middle of the war. The audio, on the other hand, in some parts synced well to what was going on, but other times seemed almost a foriegn sound in the scene playing underneath it.

There is no epilogue, so we as viewers don’t get to see what lies beyond this battle. But I think that’s what makes this movie so successful: it’s a gut-wrenching experience that gives the audience a horrifying up-close view of this moment in history that we should never forget.