Genre Grandeur May Finale – 1917 (2019) – Encore Review 5 – MovieRob

For this month’s final review for Genre Grandeur – Non-Winning Oscar Best Picture Nominees, here’s a review of 1917 (2019) by me.

In case you missed any of the reviews, here’s a recap:

The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) – David
Hidden Figures (2016) –Darren
Missing (1982) – David
E.T. – The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) – J-Dub
12 Angry Men (1957) – David
Apollo 13 (1995) – Rob
Apocalypse Now (1979) – David
Children of A Lesser God (1986) – Sally
Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941) – David
Fiddler on the Roof (1971) – Rob
Anatomy of A Murder (1959) – David
A Man Called Ove (2015) – Ryan
Nashville (1975) – David
1917 (2019) – Rob

In addition, I watched 7 movies in my companion series Genre Guesstimation. Thankfully, two of those films will now be considered among my favorites in the genre.

Arrival (2016)
*The Grand Illusion (1937)
*The Alamo (1960)
Hidden Figures (2016)
Fatal Attraction (1987)
Black Panther (2019)
Father of the Bride (1950)

Next month’s genre has been chosen by me and since I’ll be debuting season 3 of my Podcast – MovieRob Minute on July 4th where we will look at Die Hard (1988) one minute at a time, I decided to link it to this months GG, so we will be reviewing our favorite Die Hard Doppelganger Movie.

Thanks again to Matthew Simpson of Awesome Friday for choosing this month’s genre.

Please get me your submissions by the 25th of Jun by sending them to DieHardDoppelganger@movierob.net

Try to think out of the box!

Let’s see what I thought of this movie:

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“[quoting Rudyard Kipling] Down to Gehenna, or up to the Throne, He travels the fastest who travels alone.” – General Erinmore

Number of Times Seen – 6 (2 Jan 2020, 2 Feb 2020, 26 Mar 2020, 2 Jul 2020, 21 Jan 2021 and 30 May 2022)

Link to original review – Here, Here, Here, Here and Here

Brief Synopsis – Two soldiers are sent on a mission to avert a catastrophe during World War I.

My Take on it – For my choices this month, I decided to go with 3 movies that were nominated for Best Picture and IMHO, they all should have won the award since they are much better than the films that ended taking home gold that year.

For my final choice, I went with one of my all time favorite war films that is presented in a very unique way; 1917 (2019).

This is a film that I was intrigued to see months before it came out and that was even before I knew the style of how the story was presented.

The film looks and feels like it is all done in one take since there are no cuts along the way and they find a way to may it all seem so seamless the entire way through.

Sam Mendes is an exquisite director and manages to keep the audience’s attention for two hours straight without any breaks the whole way through.

The story is a simple one, but that is enhanced so much by the way that it all plays out because it seems to be told in real time which is done so amazingly.

This is such a groundbreaking film and despite the fact that other movies have utilizes the same kind of camera tricks for a similar effect, it had never before been done on such a large scale and more so, in a war time environment.

The film excels on so many different levels and it went into the Oscar ceremony as the front runner for both Best Director and Best Picture but alas in the end, it lost both of those awards to Parasite (2019), which IMHO is a great film, but no where near as worthy as this film was.

The characters are developed really well along their journey and that allows the viewer to get a much clearer idea as to who the men were who fought in World War I and what was important for them.

The way that things play out seems so realistic and that enhances the story because one never quite knows what surprises are in store for the characters as things move along.

The way that they pay attention to details is amazing and that makes things even more enjoyable to watch unfold.

Highly Highly Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – Sir Sam Mendes says his grandfather Alfred, who entered WWI as a 17-year-old in 1916, carried messages through no-man’s land. He was 5’4″ tall and was often hidden by the winter mist that reached as high as 6 feet. Two years in the muddy trenches left Alfred with a lifelong habit of washing his hands frequently. He didn’t talk about his wartime experiences until he was in his 70s. (From IMDB)

Rating – Oscar Worthy (10/10) (no change from original review)