The closest place to hell in human history is the narrow no-man's land between the warring sides in the First World War, only a few hundred meters wide.
In times of danger, tens of thousands of soldiers from one side are harvested by machine guns and artillery every day in this no-man's land, making it the most crowded graveyard in history.
In the trenches on both sides of the cemetery, the soldiers on the other side who had just turned into the god of death would continue to soak in the trenches filled with mud and sewage, accompanied by the rats that gnawed on the corpse and the gangrenous stumps, and suffered sensual torture. Nausea and both physical and mental torment.
However, compared with the dazzling stars of World War II movies, World War I movies have always been relatively unpopular in the past few decades, especially the lack of big-budget films that have left a mark in film history. After all, the victory of World War I belongs to the glory of Britain and France, but Hollywood is in the United States.
In the nearly 20 years of the explosion of film vision technology, Hollywood has filmed several important battles of World War II. There are "Saving the Privates" far away, and "Dunkirk Retreat", "Hacksaw Ridge" and "Battle of Midway" in the near future. Every appearance of the US military in World War II has been brilliantly displayed.
For Britain and France, the World War I suffered more losses and far-reaching effects, but it still lacked a large-scale film that directly represented the battlefield with modern imaging technology, let alone a masterpiece of film history comparable to "Saving the Privates".
102 years after the end of the war, the British finally produced their own World War I epic "1917". This film is not only a true restoration of the World War I battlefield with the help of modern imaging technology, but also an ambitious work of the director and photographer. There is only one "pseudo-long shot" in the whole film, which creates a sense of participation and immersion like a video game.
American science fiction writer Harry Turtledove has an imaginative short story ( They shall not pass ). In this novel, as prophesied in the Book of Revelation of the Bible, with the sound of 7 trumpets, Satan released countless demons from hell and brought disasters to mankind.
Unfortunately, Satan chose the exit from hell to the world between the trenches of British, French and German soldiers at the Battle of Verdun in World War I. Therefore, the punishment for human beings was not staged according to the script in the "Bible". Before Christ came to the world to sweep away the demons, the soldiers on both sides of the battlefield, armed to the teeth and desperate and ruthless, used the machine guns and cannons of the world to shoot the people from the world. The locusts and dark knights of hell were all easily eliminated.
After taking care of this small accident, the human soldiers on both sides immediately returned to the original battle. The cannonball that had just landed on the devil's head landed on the enemy's trenches again.
In fact, Satan did not choose the wrong place. On the battlefield of World War I, between the trenches guarded by the soldiers of both sides, the narrow and narrow area called "no man's land" only a few hundred meters wide is the place where hell is on earth. projection.
In order to show the scene of hell on earth, in the past World War I movies, the scenes of trenches and battlefield "no man's land" were generally described in detail. The most "essential" part of it is the forever muddy trenches, and the rats that scurried around, stole food, and even gnawed on corpses. But these are just stimuli for the senses, a truly terrifying and suffocating atmosphere, which is also reflected in the story.
The film's restoration of "No Man's Land" can be regarded as a model of World War I movies.
The story in "1917" is a highly condensed view of the 65 million soldiers who died and lived throughout the war, as well as most of the world that was burned by the war.
Two ordinary British soldiers, ordered to cross the battlefield within 8 hours, prevent 1,600 soldiers in distant positions from jumping into the fire pit due to the asymmetry of intelligence, killing Qingqing in vain.
For such a story with a compact time, a single character, and a concentrated plot, director Sam Mendes chose a pseudo "one shot to the end" shooting method.
For this film, the edited pseudo "one shot to the end" effect is not just the director's crazy dazzling skills of shot design and scene scheduling.
Through the sense of presence created by "One Mirror to the End", for the first time, the audience can follow two ordinary soldiers through a trench full of rats, and drill through barbed wire between corpses and bomb craters.
These "essence" scenes of World War I under the series of long shots give the movie the texture of a video game, and it seems to be playing "Battlefield 1" released in 2016 in a trance.
In addition to fine scenes, the director also has to challenge difficult lighting and shadow effects in long shots.
In a scene in the ruins of a city in the film, there are flickering flames from burning buildings, and there are bright lights flashing like daylight when flares pass through the sky. The ruins are surrounded by complex light and shadow, and the shadows cast become part of the dramatic conflict.
Make bold attempts in technology and vision, and you must converge on the story.
In the "one shot to the end" mode, the camera always follows the protagonist, the audience and the actors lose the perspective of God together, and basically cannot see the panorama of the battlefield. The director needs to make necessary choices and condensed information.
On the one hand, only some supporting characters with distinct characters are placed in the film, who have simple interactions with the protagonists and guide the way forward.
On the other hand, the film also gave up the belief of carrying too many grand themes of the protagonist duo, which is just "help", first brotherhood, then war camaraderie, without directly pointing out the theme of anti-war, and no negative characters with complex emotions.
Going straight in this way, going all the way to the dark, is a higher-level implementation of "one mirror to the end".
Back in the day, World War I was a strange war.
After the Franco-Prussian War, Europe experienced 40 years of peace. Peace gave birth to the strong national strength and blind self-confidence of Western European powers. Countless citizens of France, Germany, and Great Britain believe that they are born in the greatest country in the world, and will eventually accomplish the feat of world conquest.
The long peace has also brought technological leaps. The new weapons accumulated over the decades have gradually become the terrifying toys of the colonists, used to destroy the backward native "savages" in Asia and Africa.
However, mankind's understanding of the form of warfare has not kept pace with the speed of technological development. The machine gun, invented in 1883, was first used on a large scale in World War I. On July 1, 1916, on this day alone, 60,000 British troops were killed by German machine guns at the Battle of the Somme.
In addition to the machine gun that completely changed the form of warfare, the invention of barbed wire in 1874, the flamethrower in 1901, the mortar in 1915, and the invention of the tank in 1916, as well as the first large-scale use of gas bombs, and unprecedented artillery clusters were all in World War I. killed young people in countless European countries.
For the first time in history, humans are petrified by the killing machines of their own creation.
Aside from weapons, everything on the battlefield is also deadly. Sewage and rats in trenches kill; typhoid, dysentery, cholera, and parasites kill; infection from minor wounds kills in an age without antibiotics; despair, which is contagious, kills.
However, the war is always fought hard, and the soldiers have to vent their hatred on the operator of the weapon. They prioritized killing enemy machine gunners, executing captured flamethrowers, and firing indiscriminately at the medics housing the wounded.
All of these blur the distinction between good and evil in World War I.
Therefore, World War II movies can show heroic moments unscrupulously, and World War I movies can capture a little bit of light in madness and despair, and show the meaning of life, it is already the grace of God.
Hopefully, even the soldiers in the movie, every drop of blood shed has value.
(First published on Orange News)
View more about 1917 reviews
