1917 has been in theaters for almost two months, and is still one of the most talked about films of the year. Since it’s release date back in December, it’s had over 20 nominations and won eight awards. We sent our Spinnaker staff to watch the film and share their thoughts. 

Warning! We will be sharing some spoilers in the movie so if you haven’t seen the film, here is your spoiler alert! Without further ado, here’s what our Spinnaker staff had to say about the film:

“This film easily ranks along the sides of Saving Private Ryan and Hacksaw Ridge. The production value was on point. You feel for the main leads because something is always after them.” — David Eckenstein, Volunteer Reporter

“The move felt like one continuous shot! You felt the intensity of the war because of its focus on the main leads. It’s easily the best looking film in the Oscars this year.” — Kenny Eckenstein, Volunteer Reporter  

“I did watch the Golden Globes before watching this movie and I was aware it was nominated for best director with Sam Mendes and it also won the Best Drama/Action Picture. I was probably most excited about George MacKay, because he was in a film with Daisy Ridley — Ophelia. So I knew of the actor and I liked his work in that movie so I was excited to see what he was going to do in this movie. 

It’s about the journey of Corporal Blake and Schoefield and their journey they go on together to deliver this important message to an army base that’s a good while away. One of the people in the platoon are one of the main character’s brother, Blake’s brother. Blake does pass away. A plane crashes and he’s trying to save the person in [the plane]. He turns out to be a German soldier and while he’s trying to save the German solider, he stabs him. Really then it’s all about Schoefield. He has to get in there and try and figure everything out on [his]own. I saw an interview the other day and it took them about six or seven months to rehearse the entire movie; with the effects and the dialogue and everything.           

It was a fantastic movie. The actors in this, you can really tell they gave it their all. The cool thing about it is it looks like a one sequence shot when it actually isn’t; it was just edited that way. So from a production standpoint, I really admired it.” — Aisling Glocke, TV Station Manager 

“I’m not really a big history buff but I know that World War I was a major part of our American history, but I didn’t really understand much of the British side of the war. You got Benedict Cumberbatch in the film, Colin Firth; that’s a pretty all star cast. I didn’t think it was going to be as good as it was, actually. I saw there was a lot of great reviews, nominees for awards, but after watching it, I see why it’s one of the best films of the past year I’d say. 

So Schoefield was initially a side character; a cautious character who didn’t really like to take risks. He was very hesitant to go straight into enemy lines and try and find the other troops. He kind of wanted to wait till midnight. There’s one big moment where basically Schoefield is trapped in a pile of stones and rocks and the side character basically saves him. It kind of shows how united they were as a group at the time, that they’d go no bounds to save their own. We see that Schoefield, he changes. He changes from a cautious guy to a heroic guy. He kind of knows he’s doing this for himself; he has no one to rely on. So he goes on this awesome journey across enemy lines and into different towns.” — Drew McDonald, Sports Editor 

“The movie kind of shocked me in that I hadn’t really watched the trailer too much. I hadn’t really done any research for what the movie was about.  

The film takes place April 17, 1917. The information they’re passing on would call off an attack that would end 16,000 lives. One of them dies, sadly. There was a lot of intense sequences, but there were a lot of emotional sequences. There’s one scene where he (Schoefield) was in a French town and he meets a woman and she has a baby that’s not hers. There’s a while 10-minute sequence where he’s just talking to her and getting a feel of what life is actually like in the town’s that are ravaged by the Germans.   

As a movie lover, I love the one shot continuous. It was really interesting how editing and the story played together. I actually watched it twice. The second time I got out of the movie I was like, you know this isn’t a great story. It wasn’t a large battle. There we no large battle sequences, but it was a good personal journey. The story was second-hand to the personal experience and I really like the personal experience of this movie.”  — John Watson, TV News Director 

For a full glimpse of this movie, you can watch our Spoilercast episode here. 

Overall rating: 4.8/5 sails 

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