1917

[geonuc]

Wow. Even if you don't care for war movies, you must see this one.The the cinematography is brilliant. The entire movie is shot in one continuous scene from one camera, never leaving the two main characters and never breaking the viewpoint*. To fully shoot the breadth of the scene, the camera moves around the actors, sometimes leading them. sometimes following from the side or behind or above. It's astounding. Even if you don't like war films - and this one is definitely set in the middle of a bloody, gruesome war - you should see it for the cinematography.

* There is one scene where you might argue it does, but not really. To say more would be a spoiler.

[SciFiFisher]

I am looking forward to seeing it.

[Rommie]

Saw it this weekend. Definitely a good one if you're into war movies. For me they're not my favorite, but I do love stuff with great historical accuracy and it did pass the time on a really cold Saturday so hey.

I guess you can tell I'm bad at war movies though because my main reaction was "wow these Germans are assholes, they keep trying to kill them!" when obviously that's what everyone is doing in a war. I don't think I would be cut out for the infantry.

To be fair, I don't know how many people would be cut out for trench warfare today either. One of the things that always amazed me about WW1 is people know they're running to their death sometimes, with casual incompetence of officers who got their position on less than merit, and for the most part everyone just does it anyway. I just can't believe a bunch of conscripts today would behave the same, probably because we were raised a bit differently.

[SciFiFisher]

Saw it this weekend. Definitely a good one if you're into war movies. For me they're not my favorite, but I do love stuff with great historical accuracy and it did pass the time on a really cold Saturday so hey.

I guess you can tell I'm bad at war movies though because my main reaction was "wow these Germans are assholes, they keep trying to kill them!" when obviously that's what everyone is doing in a war. I don't think I would be cut out for the infantry.

To be fair, I don't know how many people would be cut out for trench warfare today either. One of the things that always amazed me about WW1 is people know they're running to their death sometimes, with casual incompetence of officers who got their position on less than merit, and for the most part everyone just does it anyway. I just can't believe a bunch of conscripts today would behave the same, probably because we were raised a bit differently.

Attitudes about a lot of things were different then. For example, Britain court-martialed and executed soldiers who were suffering from "shell shock" and who refused to return to battle. Today, they would call it PTSD and probably give them a medical discharge.

[Rommie]

Saw it this weekend. Definitely a good one if you're into war movies. For me they're not my favorite, but I do love stuff with great historical accuracy and it did pass the time on a really cold Saturday so hey.

I guess you can tell I'm bad at war movies though because my main reaction was "wow these Germans are assholes, they keep trying to kill them!" when obviously that's what everyone is doing in a war. I don't think I would be cut out for the infantry.

To be fair, I don't know how many people would be cut out for trench warfare today either. One of the things that always amazed me about WW1 is people know they're running to their death sometimes, with casual incompetence of officers who got their position on less than merit, and for the most part everyone just does it anyway. I just can't believe a bunch of conscripts today would behave the same, probably because we were raised a bit differently.

Attitudes about a lot of things were different then. For example, Britain court-martialed and executed soldiers who were suffering from "shell shock" and who refused to return to battle. Today, they would call it PTSD and probably give them a medical discharge.

Yeah, I heard somewhere (I think it was a Hardcore History episode) that because psychology wasn't understood in this way at the time, it was also just the most brutal conditions imaginable. Even by WW2 it was recognized that you can't always be in that environment because everyone will eventually break, and it's not that the person is "weak." In WW1 though you were just basically stuck in the trenches for months and nothing would get you out of it.

[Thumper]

I really want to see this movie.

[geonuc]

Yeah, I heard somewhere (I think it was a Hardcore History episode) that because psychology wasn't understood in this way at the time, it was also just the most brutal conditions imaginable. Even by WW2 it was recognized that you can't always be in that environment because everyone will eventually break, and it's not that the person is "weak." In WW1 though you were just basically stuck in the trenches for months and nothing would get you out of it.

A Hardcore History reference.

[Rommie]

Yeah, I heard somewhere (I think it was a Hardcore History episode) that because psychology wasn't understood in this way at the time, it was also just the most brutal conditions imaginable. Even by WW2 it was recognized that you can't always be in that environment because everyone will eventually break, and it's not that the person is "weak." In WW1 though you were just basically stuck in the trenches for months and nothing would get you out of it.

A Hardcore History reference.

I was a huge fan! I say was because it's hard to keep following along with a show that only releases something once every six months so I can't remember what was in the previous episode.

[Thumper]

Still haven't seen it, still hoping...