Quite simply, this movie astounded me. The continuous camera perspective that continues throughout the movie is a kind of film magic that I have never seen on this sort of scale before. Certainly, there are mini breaks from time to time where segments could be spliced together, but even that meticulous editing leave me in awe.
The story moves just as smoothly with the character development building from the very first shot and leading to a point where I was deeply invested in what was going to happen. The dialogue was well-crafted and the events that occur throughout were tremendously believable (well, one part pushed my boundaries of disbelief a bit). I even found myself caring about some of the few characters seen only briefly and wondering what would have happened in their continuing stories.
World War I is not a common topic of modern forms of entertainment. Aside from portions of Downton Abbey and the video game Battlefield 1, I can't remember seeing recent depictions of "The Great War." I suppose the fact that the villains aren't as clear--historically speaking--and the much of the action was limited so much in mobility (although not in devastation) that it probably does not lend itself to the type of visual media to which we currently are accustomed. I found that the conceit of following a specific mission from start to conclusion an excellent way for the film to explore the various facets of the Western Front.
This is a movie that, not only do I want to see again, but I want to spend some time combing through the extras to see how they managed to accomplish something so phenomenal.
The story moves just as smoothly with the character development building from the very first shot and leading to a point where I was deeply invested in what was going to happen. The dialogue was well-crafted and the events that occur throughout were tremendously believable (well, one part pushed my boundaries of disbelief a bit). I even found myself caring about some of the few characters seen only briefly and wondering what would have happened in their continuing stories.
World War I is not a common topic of modern forms of entertainment. Aside from portions of Downton Abbey and the video game Battlefield 1, I can't remember seeing recent depictions of "The Great War." I suppose the fact that the villains aren't as clear--historically speaking--and the much of the action was limited so much in mobility (although not in devastation) that it probably does not lend itself to the type of visual media to which we currently are accustomed. I found that the conceit of following a specific mission from start to conclusion an excellent way for the film to explore the various facets of the Western Front.
This is a movie that, not only do I want to see again, but I want to spend some time combing through the extras to see how they managed to accomplish something so phenomenal.
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