View Poll Results: 1917

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Thread: 1917 (Sam Mendes)

  1. #1
    Since 1929 Morris Schæffer's Avatar
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    1917 (Sam Mendes)

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  2. #2
    Since 1929 Morris Schæffer's Avatar
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    Tremendous from a technical perspective, although it veers oh so close to showing off come the final stretch.
    Engrossing cinema with non-thrilling moments thrown in there, although given the 'almost' real time aspect, I would have preferred if
    it really was edge-of-your-seat stuff for 110 minutes as I found these solemn interludes to remove some of the urgency of it all.
    With a tagline like "time is the enemy" dawdling is not an option. And there is some.
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  3. #3
    Moderator TGM's Avatar
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    This should be moved to the 2019 section.

  4. #4
    Since 1929 Morris Schæffer's Avatar
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    No prob for me, but it opens wide in USA today.
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  5. #5
    Administrator Ezee E's Avatar
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    The Alamo showing for this tonight is sold out across the board basically.

    Barbarian - ***
    Bones and All - ***
    Tar - **


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  6. #6
    Cinematographer Mal's Avatar
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    Sigh. The effort is there, but it never worked for me. The seams were often glaring and the scripting too lean. Technically, it does work as an example of choreographed stuff- but as each movement felt more and more calculated, its all not enough to sustain the runtime paired with this meager journey as a complete film. If it had been 90 minutes and maybe spent some quality time with these guys (which could have easily been done at the beginning), I MIGHT have been ok with this, even slightly invested. But in the end, not even Deakins himself could sell me on this exercise.

    [
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    This made me want to rewatch Come and See and (of all things) Birdman again.
    Last edited by Mal; 01-11-2020 at 12:58 AM.

  7. #7
    Here till the end MadMan's Avatar
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    I loved it.
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    And everybody wants to be special here
    They call your name out loud and clear
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    Am I the only one here today?



  8. #8
    Administrator Ezee E's Avatar
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    Objectively, a technical marvel in all regards.

    But emotionally, kind of unrewarding? The story plays along like a video game, and despite an unrelenting journey, it doesn't feel as rewarded as it seems like it should've?

    Props to Sam Mendes who may have crafted one of the biggest tributes to a grandparent there is. Roger Deakins and Thomas Newman are also on top of their game here. It's certainly worth watching for the craft alone, and the path through abandoned trenches might be the most suspenseful sequence in a movie this year.

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  9. #9
    Guttenbergian Pop Trash's Avatar
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    More than his other award winning 'single take' movie of the teens (Birdman), this reminds me a lot of Iñárritu's The Revenant since both that and 1917 are technical feats bogged down by escalating setpieces adding up to "oh no that sucks!" and "oh no that also sucks!" and not much else as a takeaway.

    Less we forget, the Oscars are industry insider awards -not critical awards- so anyone voting is going to be mighty impressed by the logistical nightmare it must have been for Sam Mendes and Roger Deakins to pull this off. Add to that strong box office, the personal connection to Mendes' grandfather in WWI, the good standing of Mendes, Deakins, and 'powerful' true stories with the Academy in general, and I think you are looking at your frontrunner for BP and BD (cinematography is in the bag). I just wish it did more for me.
    Ratings on a 1-10 scale for your pleasure:

    Top Gun: Maverick - 8
    Top Gun - 7
    McCabe & Mrs. Miller - 8
    Crimes of the Future - 8
    Videodrome - 9
    Valley Girl - 8
    Summer of '42 - 7
    In the Line of Fire - 8
    Passenger 57 - 7
    Everything Everywhere All at Once - 6



  10. #10
    Moderator TGM's Avatar
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    I’m in a similar boat. It’s very impressive from a technical standpoint, but it did nothing for me beyond that. I kept hearing people talk about the non-stop tension in this movie. When I think tense, I think of something like Gravity or Interstellar or 47 Meters Down. I never experienced even a second of tension watching this, though. But the cinematography was nice to marvel at, and I can certainly appreciate just how much a pain this must’ve been to put together. Sadly though, despite such effort, I’ll certainly forget this movie even exists as soon as we’re through with awards season. I’ve already barely given it a moment’s thought since watching it yesterday, until I stumbled into this thread just now.

  11. #11
    Administrator Ezee E's Avatar
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    Plenty of tension as they went into the "likely deserted" No Man's Land and enemy trenches.

    If I were a photoshopper, I'd make a TellTale Multiple Choice for:
    [
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    Barbarian - ***
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    Tar - **


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  12. #12
    Guttenbergian Pop Trash's Avatar
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    I had the same problem that TGM had that a lot of it didn't work in the tension dept. for reasons I can't quite explain. I kept thinking why the opening of Saving Private Ryan made me feel like I was having a heart attack the first time I watched it, while this did not. Some of that can be explained by the 'one' take thing, with Spielberg's classic cutting working more for me, but something about 1917 felt too choreographed to the point where my suspension of disbelief was never fully working.
    Ratings on a 1-10 scale for your pleasure:

    Top Gun: Maverick - 8
    Top Gun - 7
    McCabe & Mrs. Miller - 8
    Crimes of the Future - 8
    Videodrome - 9
    Valley Girl - 8
    Summer of '42 - 7
    In the Line of Fire - 8
    Passenger 57 - 7
    Everything Everywhere All at Once - 6



  13. #13
    Since 1929 Morris Schæffer's Avatar
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    By the way, did anyone else hear John Lithgow's voice right after [
    ].

    He played a commanding officer, but sits in a jeep glimpsed from afar.
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  14. #14
    Since 1929 Morris Schæffer's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Pop Trash (view post)
    I had the same problem that TGM had that a lot of it didn't work in the tension dept. for reasons I can't quite explain. I kept thinking why the opening of Saving Private Ryan made me feel like I was having a heart attack the first time I watched it, while this did not. Some of that can be explained by the 'one' take thing, with Spielberg's classic cutting working more for me, but something about 1917 felt too choreographed to the point where my suspension of disbelief was never fully working.
    I love SPR, but while watching 1917 I thought of Hitchcock one time. 1917 is the bomb under the table that doesn't explode while SPR is the one that does. Although the tension is not sustained in 1917, but even that's explained by the fact that the nazis had sort of retreated.
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  15. #15
    Replacing Luck Since 1984 Dukefrukem's Avatar
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    I want to watch the movie before I watch this but it looks freakin cool.

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  16. #16
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    You guys are nuts. This was extraordinary.

  17. #17
    Moderator Dead & Messed Up's Avatar
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    Yeah, I don't get charges of no tension. This movie almost gave me a full-blown panic attack. I was leaning forward for the last 30 or so minutes, terrified, and it was about an hour before I started to feel okay. I loved how the film was at its core about STOPPING a battle, and how the lead is increasingly disarmed as the story goes on. There were a few choices and bits of casting that felt like too much, but holy apples, this movie got me good. I also think Mendes can often be way too much as a storyteller (American Beauty feels more and more smug and silly with every passing year), so it means something that this is my favorite film he's made.

  18. #18
    Scott of the Antarctic Milky Joe's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Irish (view post)
    You guys are nuts. This was extraordinary.
    yay! I loved it too. Way more to appreciate here than not.

    It wasn't my Platonic Ideal of a WWI movie, but it came pretty damn close. Life on the Western Front has never been rendered this accurately (to my knowledge), even though it was still quite tame and ultimately sentimental compared to the reality. The Rats! (though still not quite big enough). Soldiers falling into craters and drowning in mud! Decomposing corpses not buried but literally built into the walls of the trenches! The reality of WWI would lend itself more to a horror movie than a Private Ryan type race-against-the-clock. But it worked.

    The technical gimmick was handled well, and didn't draw TOO much attention to itself. That said it still felt very videogamey in its plot mechanics and set-pieces. The videogame-ness was more distracting than the camera work IMO. But not enough to detract from the experience at all.

    George MacKay was outstanding. He has an incredible face. His sheer exhaustion at the end was conveyed beautifully.

    If you liked this and want some more of the reality, absolutely make an effort to see They Shall Not Grow Old, the 2018 documentary done by Peter Jackson's team. It's unlike any film ever made on the subject.

    having said all that...

    Quote Quoting Morris Schæffer (view post)
    even that's explained by the fact that the nazis had sort of retreated.
    oof. If I had one complaint about the movie, it'd be that the depiction of the German army, in 2020 over 100 years later, STILL result in reactions like this. Not only are they Nazis and a Faceless Evil, they're a horrendous shot. How many times did they miss him? And Will hits the guy hiding behind cover on his second shot? Hmm.
    ‎The severed arm perfectly acquitted itself, because of the simplicity of its wishes and its total lack of doubt.

  19. #19
    Evil mind, evil sword. Ivan Drago's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Irish (view post)
    You guys are nuts. This was extraordinary.
    Yeah, this is wonderful. A captivating spin on the war movie that frames World War I in one continuous long take that builds a nightmarish atmosphere throughout the mission of its characters, while proposing that the mark of a good soldier is not measured by how many men he kills, but by the compassion he displays in knowing when to stop killing, and his will to survive.
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  20. #20
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    Fall on the positive side of this technique, where I think collectively Deakins, Gassner, Mendes, and Newman (listed in order of importance) manage to find enough moments of lyrical beauty and gripping terror to make it worthwhile, reaching the apex of this haunting combination in the bombed-out village sequence at night. The appearance of long take is most distracting in the early stretch, because the relative calm before the storm and the need to integrate our expositional/character bearings make the long take(s) seem mighty stagey and unnatural. But once our leads are plunged into the horror and urgency of war, it proves productively claustrophobic and at times unbearably intense, where the unavailability of visible edits often promises threats of surprising disruption and violence, even in the seemingly calm sections. And even if the script is sometimes blatant in planting signifiers and objects to be paid off later on, they are spread out enough that their emergences feel sneakily effective in their emotional impact among the chaos; I find the very last cameo and the final scene right after unexpectedly moving. 8/10
    Midnight Run (1988) - 9
    The Smiling Lieutenant (1931) - 8.5
    The Adventures of Robinhood (1938) - 8
    Sisters (1973) - 6.5
    Shin Godzilla (2016) - 7.5

  21. #21
    Replacing Luck Since 1984 Dukefrukem's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Dead & Messed Up (view post)
    Yeah, I don't get charges of no tension. This movie almost gave me a full-blown panic attack. I was leaning forward for the last 30 or so minutes, terrified, and it was about an hour before I started to feel okay. I loved how the film was at its core about STOPPING a battle, and how the lead is increasingly disarmed as the story goes on. There were a few choices and bits of casting that felt like too much, but holy apples, this movie got me good. I also think Mendes can often be way too much as a storyteller (American Beauty feels more and more smug and silly with every passing year), so it means something that this is my favorite film he's made.
    Nah there are definitely problems with tension that could have solved (I believe) without the one shot perception. Specifically the escape from the mine shaft. It looked like I was watching a Nathan Drake cutscene and I had no doubt they would make it out.
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  22. #22
    Administrator Ezee E's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Dukefrukem (view post)
    Nah there are definitely problems with tension that could have solved (I believe) without the one shot perception. Specifically the escape from the mine shaft. It looked like I was watching a Nathan Drake cutscene and I had no doubt they would make it out.
    I am waiting for someone to do this on YouTube

    Barbarian - ***
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    Tar - **


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  23. #23
    Moderator Dead & Messed Up's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Ezee E (view post)
    I am waiting for someone to do this on YouTube
    I'm waiting for someone to do a Zelda select screen so you can give the woman Lon Lon Milk.

  24. #24
    Replacing Luck Since 1984 Dukefrukem's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Ezee E (view post)
    I am waiting for someone to do this on YouTube
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    Quote Quoting D_Davis (view post)
    Uwe Boll movies > all Marvel U movies
    Quote Quoting TGM (view post)
    I work in grocery. I have not gotten sick. My fellow employees have not gotten sick. If the virus were even remotely as contagious as its being presented as, why haven’t entire store staffs who come into contact with hundreds of people per day, thousands per week, all falling ill in mass nationwide?

  25. #25
    Administrator Ezee E's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Dukefrukem (view post)
    But with 1917.

    Same with Telltale decisions.

    Barbarian - ***
    Bones and All - ***
    Tar - **


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