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1917 Blu-ray Review

  • Actors: George MacKay, Dean-Charles Chapman, Mark Strong, Andrew Scott, Richard Madden
  • Director: Sam Mendes
  • Writers: Sam Mendes, Krysty Wilson-Cairns
  • Producers: Sam Mendes, Pippa Harris, Jayne-Ann Tenggren, Callum McDougall, Brian Oliver
  • Format: NTSC, Subtitled
  • Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), French Canadian (Dolby Digital 5.1), Spanish (Dolby Digital 5.1)
  • Subtitles: French Canadian, Spanish
  • Subtitles for the Hearing Impaired: English
  • Region: Region A/1 
  • Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
  • Number of discs: 2
  • Rated: 
     
     Restricted
  • Studio: Universal Pictures Home Entertainment
  • Release Date: March 24, 2020
  • Run Time: 119 minutes



         The brilliance of 1917 works on multiple levels. Simple as it may be, the film tells an effectively gripping story of fortitude during wartime. The manner in which this story is told may not leave much room for expansive plot or historical background information, but it makes up for that by giving the audience a gripping experience in which it is impossible not to feel the urgency. Staying tied to a single character for the run-time also creates empathetic involvement unlike any war film I have ever experienced. But as brutally horrific as the film makes war appear, this is also a remarkably beautiful film. Beyond the poetry of the wartime themes of sacrifice and loss, 1917 is a technical marvel. Three times in my life I have been brought to tears by filmmaking, separate from the story being told, and this is the second time this experience has come from a Sam Mendes film.