Amazon.com: Customer reviews: 1917 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray | A Film by Sam Mendes

Reviewed in the United States on March 14, 2024

This movie had me holding my breath for lengthy periods when I saw it in the theater, so I had to get the Blu-ray. Shot in one long, nearly unbroken take, the movie follows two British soldiers in the second to last year of the first world war. They are sent on a dangerous mission through enemy territory in order to stop a doomed attack. The cinematography is stellar, the performances are top notch all around, and there were times that I didn't realize I had almost stopped breathing. A must see even if you're not a war movie fan, the suspense and action more than make up for any historical inaccuracies.

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shoreline4

Well done and powerful.

Reviewed in the United States on April 21, 2024

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It’s amazing what everyone lived through- civilians and soldiers alike. Incredibly brave people. Powerful and incredibly well done movie. Beautiful and terrible at the same time.

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B. L. Wray

Decent movie, but not great.

Reviewed in the United States on April 26, 2020

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So, I finally got around to watching this movie last night and more than a few things didn't quite sit right with the film. What I can best express this film as is a on rails adventure... as long as you stay on the rails it looks good, but the second you walk a few feet off to one side you can see behind all the props and there is nothing beyond that.

Quick synapse: A brother and a friend are sent on a mission thru no mans land to warn the brothers unit of a ambush the Germans have set... can they make it in time?

So the problem I had with the film. (I've done my best to avoid spoiling things, but in describing the issues, you will glean the plot...so read on at your own risk!)

Right at the start the director wants you to notice the visceral gore around these guys by annoyingly spinning the camera around them as they walk.... So, naturally since I am supposed to be looking at the spinning scenery I did... and that's when I noticed the major problems with the film.

So, littered around the battlefield is bodies/parts displayed in gory detail... but whats missing? Well, there is no debris or trash or even foot prints in the soil. It's like they spent their entire budget making no mans land look as good as possible but then didn't bother dressing up the grass field right behind it which should be just as torn up.

So, when the two men get to the German side of the line they trench is immaculate... there is no litter, no blood, no signs that anyone actually lived there.... so when the German's pulled back the last thing they had to do was police the area for litter.

When they get behind German lines there are no tracks in the grass, no cart/horse/truck marks to be found anywhere! (Thousands of German troops were supposed to of been there for months if not years) Also missing was the shelling pock marks that would be behind the enemy front lines...

Funniest part of the next segment is where a convoy of trucks gets stuck in the mud... by mud I mean A single mud puddle in a flat open field that was easy to see and even easier to just drive around.... but now, time must be wasted to get unstuck.

Next Part is where the movie just falls off the rails.

A sniper starts shooting at one of our heroes who must close in and deal with him..... Well, our hero having previously shot his gun 4 times, chambers a new round and fire 4 more rounds at the sniper, closing in fires another round (having never reloaded the entire time).

Later on after the sniper fight our hero decides that infinite ammo guns is easy mode and decides not to shoot at enemies shooting at him but run in a straight lines out in the open.

Up against the clock, our hero then decides to waste even more time by hanging out with a French woman before setting off in a straight line evasion in the open from more Germans shooting at him.

Later, he shows up in the general area of where he was supposed to be and comes across troops sitting around listening to a guy sing... this is funny because none of the troops there even bother noticing/reacting to a stranger wandering into their formation. So after a prolonged singing segment our hero finally decides to ask where the unit he is supposed to warn is located... they say they are that unit.

Now, our hero must rush to the head of that unit to warn the commander who is strangely enough at the upper most forward position he could possible be.... and as our hero closes in the 1st wave is about to go.... (keep that in mind). He makes it to the Commander and instead of clearly stating he is a runner with orders from Command, he decided to shout nonsensical commands (demanding they cease the attack) coming across as a person who lost their mind. Eventually he convinces the commander to accept the orders and halt after the 1st wave has gone out..... which HE WOULD OF MADE IT IN PLENTY OF TIME HAD HE NOT STOPPED AND WASTED TIME TWICE BEFORE.

Oh and it's interesting to point out that this forward unit had time to create some immaculate trenches in the short time they were there.

23 people found this helpful

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cinemafique

1917 - AN AENEID FOR OUR TIME

Reviewed in the United States on April 27, 2023

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In 1917 Director Sam Mendes has left us with more than just another film of war. A clue lies with the term “Gehenna” (aka - hell, hades, limbo, catabasis) used for the title of a movement in the film’s music score – he is clearly alluding to the layered meanings of this remarkable film.

1917 is an allegory of yet another allegory nearly 3,000 years old. It demands repeated viewing to absorb its nuanced and symbolic iconography. The landscapes of dark beauty, the liturgical score and most of all the unbroken camera flow that rarely breaks from the protagonists every step work subliminally much as a dream. Veterans who have survived combat might cast a memory of war beneath shut eyes this way. It connects you to the experience of a soldier at his own level. Few other films of this genre compare.

The ancient Greeks believed we come here with “sealed orders.” Lance Corporal Schofield and Corporal Blake are ordered to deliver an army command message that would save 1,600 men from annihilation. It’s a race against time.

The first hour of 1917 could be entitled “catabasis” from the epics of Homer – a term we can apply appropriately here to describe the sacrifice of a nation’s children in war. The graphic depiction of “no man’s land” separating the British and German front lines leaves little to your worst imaginings.

In the second hour, when Schofield awakens from a fall, he discovers his watch has stopped. Is he therefore even still alive? As he steps into Ecoust, a city of burning rubble, we enter the underworld with him. His solitary journey here is now so much that of book 6 from Virgil’s “Aeneid.” For Schofield to “go over” he must first complete his task. He must kill to survive, shun the pleas for an orphaned infant, nearly drown in a river (the Styx?) near Crosillies, climb over an island of dead civilians, and only then in a quiet forest find the Devon Rifle Company he was seeking. A soldier can be heard singing “I Am A Lonely Wayfaring Wanderer” - a hymn of warriors free of woe, crossing "the Jordan" to return to their parents in death. It is one of many carefully engineered symbols throughout the film, each of them a paradox.

In the suspenseful and relentless race against time that governs the final 20 minutes of the film Schofield staggers, exhausted, shell shocked, dogging a rain of shrapnel through the surreal chalk trenches to reach his destination and deliver the message. And also deliver another more personal message of his own.

Shall all these phantom warriors yet find their way to “Elysium” in the tender green fields of Belgium? Schofield carried with him a photo of his wife. On the reverse she had written “come back to us.”

Virgil's Aeneid was a poem of the Trojan wars. It addressed war with the subliminal aesthetics of that time as civilization’s great nightmare, and mankind’s greatest test. It remains relevant today and going forward. That aesthetics rather than reality can leave an emotional and not only an intellectual comment is the truest definition of art

11 people found this helpful

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Mark B

Great movie

Reviewed in the United States on April 14, 2024

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I like war movies such a great movie decent price for it too

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Rob

Great movie!

Reviewed in the United States on April 12, 2024

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Great movie! So few good movies about WWI. The cinematography is outstanding!

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Very good but the ring turns my finger green

Good movie

Reviewed in the United States on January 16, 2024

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My boyfriend loves this movie

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sixthreezy

1917 - A Masterpiece of Filmmaking

Reviewed in the United States on May 28, 2020

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I've been putting this off for too long. Let me just start by saying that if you have any interest in seeing this film, purchase it now and watch it immediately. I have been blown away by the quality of this film, so much so that it's led me to just keep analyzing frames and shots and dialogue throughout the movie. Yes, it's just a WWI movie that takes place on one day in 1917, but it's a movie so packed with purpose and intention behind every little thing. It's astounding how much thought and time was put into making this film. It's truly a beautiful work of art that I may now regard as my favorite war film of all-time. You're immediately thinking of other, better war movies, and I'll agree that those are all great too, but 1917 is a true masterpiece of a film.

Sam Mendes has done what you would think had already been done before in blockbuster war films, and that's to create an artificially "one shot" movie that follows our characters through the trenches of WWI without ever leaving them. It literally starts from the first frame and doesn't let you go, as you walk through trenches of mud and guts with these young men. The camera work is extraordinary, and whether or not you notice that there are no "cuts" or very deliberate shots, you'll see yourself mesmerized with the storytelling that this technique creates throughout the movie. There's so much to be said about the way this film is framed, and it helps to guide the viewer along on their journey with the main characters. I found so much purpose and meaning in things that weren't words being said by characters, and not even actions so much as the way things were being shown on the screen.

I can't do this film any justice by talking about what it is about and the story and how it happens. It's just true beauty, it's outstanding work. I gave this movie a 9/10, and would have given it a perfect 10 had it made me cry at the end. This isn't a knock on the film, so much as a testament to the suspense it wrangles you with. The actors are phenomenal, and I love that we get to see 3 well-traveled actors make cameos throughout the film to give it some Hollywood weight. Do yourself a favor, buy the film and watch it. If you're blown away by the nerdy film stuff, watch the commentaries and you will be even more so enlightened. Though they will ruin where all of the cuts in the film are for you, they will highlight the technique of the film as you continue to wonder how a story could be so perfectly told on film through visuals in this way.

This movie is not overrated and despite knowing that the visuals were the strength of the movie, I was still worried it would be over hyped and I'd be disappointed. I wasn't, and this is now one of my favorite films. It's truly a masterpiece, and one of the best war films ever made. The details of war are on full display and they never shy away from a shot. For all of the horror within, there is so much beauty in the story and just... WOW, watch the movie already!

22 people found this helpful

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Giovanni Cruz

Great Movie

Reviewed in the United States on March 22, 2024

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Amazing movie with the 4k DvD

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FJG

Good movie

Reviewed in the United States on January 26, 2024

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I bought this so I could watch the movie in 4K. If I had it to do over, I wouldjust watch the version offered by my cable commpany and let the TV upconvert it. Not certain if this is a movie I would want to watch aain any time soon.

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1917 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray | A Film by Sam Mendes | Region Free

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