вЂњIf you fail,вЂќ they're warned, вЂњit will be a massacre.вЂќД«lake accepts willingly, furiously. They must exit the trenches, cross No-ManвЂ™s Land, get through the German encampments and then also a town, and then head down river to the woods where the men are preparing for what they donвЂ™t know is a certain slaughter. 1,600 lives are at risk and the only way to get news to the operationвЂ™s commanding officer is for Blake and Schofield to hand-deliver a letter. They plan to go on the offensive and attack the German forces, who appear to be retreating, but itвЂ™s a trap. The troops at the front line are about to walk into an ambush, theyвЂ™re told by a fictional General Erinmore (Colin Firth). formally entered the war-in northern France when Lance Corporal Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman, best known as Tommen Baratheon on the HBO juggernaut Game of Thrones) and Lance Corporal Schofield (George MacKay) are called into their superiorвЂ™s bunker. ItвЂ™s April 6, 1917-coincidentally the day the U.S. Then, our two heroes receive their orders. The film opens with a claustrophia-inducing trek through the ill-kept British trenches that introduces Mendes unique filming style, which feels like it was filmed via one continuous shot. (Mendes also cowrote the script alongside Penny Dreadful staff scribe Krysty Wilson-Cairns.) To be clear, there are no aliens or overlapping universes to contend with across the filmвЂ™s 117 minutes, just the daunting, terrifying absurdity of war. That certainly holds when it comes to the plot of director Sam MendesвЂ™s new WWI epic, 1917, which just won Best Motion Picture вЂ“ Drama at the Golden Globes and gets its wide release on Friday. Truth is stranger than fiction, as it has famously been said.

Director of 1917