This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
futiledeviiices’s review published on Letterboxd:
This review may contain spoilers.
“will you write to my mum for me? tell her i wasn’t scared.”
a lump was in my throat and the tension was there throughout. there’s no warm up. this was intense. the amount of times it genuinely caught me off guard was impressive. i was invested from the get go. you’re just there and present, as you wonder if these two boys are going to make it out alive. technically of course, it’s played out masterfully across the board.... the direction, the cinematography, the special effects (so good that you don’t notice which parts are fake and that’s why they’re so good if you’ve seen the behind the scene clips, you’ll be even more amazed and will give you a newfound respect), the score especially was truly something. everything is on point. the two lead performances are good and i mean this as a compliment but they just look like regular lads that got thrown in the deep end and that’s exactly what happened in world war one, they had absolutely no idea what they were getting themselves into, deep in those trenches or the whole scale of what was happening so they captured the everyday man feel and interaction at that time perfectly to me. if you watch real footage of ww1, you’ll know exactly what i’m talking about. so many young lives were so happy to be there in honour of their country and they had no clue of what was to come. i don’t see the one long shot effect to be a gimmick at all. is birdman (2015) a gimmick? because it uses and does exactly the same thing and no one called it that. it’s a very lazy cheap shot to call this excellent piece of work that in my opinion. it serves a purpose. to give the illusion of being right there where the action is and give a sense of urgency and is done for a good reason, considering the plot: an important mission they are sent on. period. the performances, especially george mackay, was so so human even in the quietest moments. the time just seemed to fly by also. damn i’d be lying if i said i didn’t cry several times but mostly in the scene from the above quote. then the scene after that, when he’s sat in the back of the ride is so poignant without a huge show and tell about it. the handshake. the tree. how the music swells. again i cried. just utterly brilliant. executed perfectly with no unnecessary thrills, simply getting from point A to point B, by command. war is a savagely hell that waits for no one.
even more touching because it was made for a close relative. i hope it wins best picture exactly 20 years later after sam mendes won for american beauty, proving his consistency. that would be great and well deserved. he made war seem so personal, it’s a feat.
last man standing.