Battle Transmitters – 1917: A Painfully Long Shot

Somewhat forgotten past

Countless films have been made about World War II and even the Vietnam War, but at the same time there are not many titles inspired by the First World War in the film world. Perhaps one of the most famous is the Paths of Glory , directed by the unforgettable Stanley Kubrick , starring the recently deceased Kirk Douglas.

World War I raises more doubts in people than World War II, and it is not as cinematic as its followers. Perhaps the enemy of the First World War is not so clear and the chaos that describes it has in a way prevented it from going into the cinema. On the other hand, any viewer who contemplates war movies in his mind will soon mention titles in which the clear enemy is none other than Nazism.

However, the film’s director, Sam Mendes, inspired by stories heard from his grandfather, dared to dive through the trenches of the Great War through a film with a simple plot and superior staging.

Hitting the right key

A joke can be told in different ways, and depending on who tells it and how it’s told, it can make us either laugh out loud or not. This statement, as simple as it may seem, can also be applied to film and ultimately to art. The message is central, there is no doubt about it; if the underlying story doesn’t catch on to us, perhaps there’s no other task left. But as with all jokes, the way it is told is necessary.

The plot of the Battleers – 1917 movie couldn’t be simpler: two British Army line soldiers have to pass a message to another force to avoid a massacre at the hands of the enemy. That’s when something so simple happens that this message comes to life and overcomes the audience’s empathy. The audience holds their breath in the silence of death, as they feel their hearts shrink and their skin with chicken as imminent danger as death.

The film glitters with big names that include some of the most famous stars in British Film Art in recent decades, such as Colin Firth or Benedict Cumberbatch. However, the film decides to leave all the weight of the interpretation to two rather unknown young men.

It is true that a different narrative would have allowed viewers to explore more secondary characters, i.e. the masterpieces of the aforementioned actors, but the decision to rely on a very small number of protagonists drags the audience into the middle of a full action.

The trenches have never before been so shocking, so poetic and so repressive at the same time. The viewer can experience a sense of horror, loneliness and destruction. And all of this is thanks to the film’s impeccable technology, which immerses its roots in excitement. How can this be possible? At the same time, thanks go to both the timeless and illusory long shots.

Battle transmitters – 1917 and a false long shot

Battle transmitters – 1917, however, has not invented anything completely new and revolutionary, as Alfred Hitchcock himself tested the limits of film cutting in his 1948 film Rope. This film has also been followed by some newer titles such as Birdman (Joaquin Oristell, 2015) and Victoria (Sebastian Schipper, 2015).

In this way, they combine and explore the possibilities offered by new technology in technology we have seen elsewhere. A success that engages the viewer fully in the protagonists ’story and the action they follow from their perspective in“ real time ”.

Both interpretive and technical work require more effort, as when shooting such long shots, everything has to be calculated perfectly and with millimeter accuracy, even the weather conditions.

The illusion of a long shot with its millimeter-accurate and almost imperceptible cuts gives us viewers a sense of this anxiety. We are no longer passive followers alongside the tragedy, but donors. Since the protagonists can’t escape, we can’t escape either. In this sense, the use of natural light, spaces, faces and fine special effects emphasizes that activity.

The viewer ends up trapped in a maze of trenches, feeling empathy for the protagonists, and living a fear that transcends the film screen.

Music and image combine beauty that raises cold colors, where energy is a key factor. The camera never looks backwards, it never goes backwards, it goes forward in the footsteps of the characters and the music plays just in the moment of greatest excitement, partly reminding us of Hitchcock.

The complexity of Battle Transmitters – 1917 is precisely because of the difficulty of exploiting natural resources, the play of twilight, natural light, and the immediate intimacy it intends to convey. And not forgetting the task force that has managed to create a hostile state full of trenches where countless young men lived and died sent to war, which – and like all other wars – was completely absurd.

Battle transmitters – 1917: Cinematic experience

The feeling of watching an uncut film, even if it is an illusion, creates uncertainty for the viewer. The uncertainty that tragically continues with the film’s longest, most obvious, and thoughtful cut. After the bullet fires, we sink into darkness, eternal darkness, which, far from relieving uncertainty, only adds to our pain. Is it all over now? Do we now see scenes full of cuts? No, definitely not, the dramatic cut only serves as one point and follows a story that still has a lot to say and that still includes endless and repressive scenes.

Ten Oscar nominations, but only three statues; they are the most technical but not the least important. The film would be nothing without a stable script, but the film also does not come to life exclusively through the script. From costumes to music, through acting by actors, or photography, making a film is a complex art and hard teamwork where all the elements are important and fundamental.

By Leah Padalino

This is probably one of my least unbiased articles, but as with all criticism and the whole art, taste plays a fundamental role. I’m not a passionate viewer of war movies that turn against the war, but I’m a big admirer of Mendes and Roger Deakins (the genius in charge of photographing the Battle Messengers – 1917).

Mendes captured my gaze with his film American Beauty, hypnotized me and invited me to dive into a film that, without much surprise, got me completely in power and still fascinates me. She managed to show me beauty in a plastic bag and has now managed to leave me confused and find beauty in a hugely hostile environment.

All this staging show to tell us something we already know and which the film world has repeated infinitely many times: wars are absurd and man is absurd, where nature continues to flow. Because drowning at a time when cherry blossoms are blooming has never been so meaningful, seeing death where life originates, or destroying humanity in nature that seeks to flourish, has proven poetic, cleansing, and revealing.

Nature acts as one additional figure, alien to humans, but present in everything, where again the tree becomes the most significant symbol. The presence of wood at the beginning and end of the film makes this film somehow cyclical. In addition to the technical side, the Battle Messengers – 1917 is a lesson to humanity, a clear tribute to those who lived in the Great War as well as to those who saw death in their hands and their illusions buried in the mud.