The British Academy Award, known as the British Oscar, was awarded on the evening of February 2nd local time.
war film "1917" won the best film, best British native film, best director, photography, art direction, sound effects, visual effects seven awards.
plus the previous 77th American Film and Television Golden Globe Awards, it has won two awards for the best film in the drama category and the best director . The possibility of "1917" finally winning this year's Oscar also greatly increased.
Some people say that it is "the best war film after "Saving Private Ryan"." What is so good about ? Let's take it slow-
"1917"
movie background is World War I , the opening time is fixed at April 6, 1917 . This day in
history is the day when the United States officially participated in World War I, but the focus of the film is not this big event, but the story of two British soldiers from crossing the battlefield to prevent the front-line British army from launching an attack .
Therefore, the movie is not as expected. There are not many big scenes of bullets, but the thrilling feeling of following the protagonist into the no man's land of the battlefield is not lost by the bombardment of artillery fire. In the
movie, the young British soldier Blake (Dean Charles Chapman) is looking forward to reunion with his family at Christmas, but his holiday application is rejected, which makes him very puzzled. What
did not expect was that he and his military friend Schofield (George McKay), who was also a small soldier, were suddenly summoned by the commander to carry out a secret mission involving the lives of 1600 soldiers on the front line.
only imagined meeting with his family in the last minute, and was pushed into the battlefield the next minute, the cruelty and helplessness of the war were undoubtedly revealed. The
mission is urgent and important. The commander received the news that the Germans set up traps to induce the British to attack in order to annihilate the British soldiers on the front line. The messenger task must be completed within 8 hours , in order to avoid the ruin of 1,600 lives.
Blake’s brother was also in the frontline combat. If he did not have time to withdraw, his brother would probably die on the battlefield. This made Blake accepted the secret mission without hesitation and decided to set off immediately when the road ahead was full of unknowns.
Schofield was very hesitant about this task. Although the commander insisted that the enemy forces in front had retreated, all signs showed that their journey was full of danger, but the friend had already embarked on the path of sending letters, so he had to follow along. The biggest selling point of
"1917" is undoubtedly the presentation of "one mirror to the end" .
follows these two soldiers, and the audience is like walking on the battlefield together, even if the road they have just walked is full of no man’s land, but the danger of ambush everywhere makes the audience feel the same as the two protagonists- , As if an enemy suddenly appeared in the next second, shooting at him randomly.
The audience witnessed the protagonist go deep into the battle line, fall into the trap set by the enemy before retreating, face the sudden collapse of the trenches, see soldiers shot to death in front of their eyes, and even suffered the impact of the crashed fighter... This kind of suffocation, desperate persecution is not inferior to the big scene of war.
Even though the film is not really one-shot, director Sam Mendes admits that the film is composed of multiple long shots, but the superb editing makes the film almost invisible to the traces of editing, even the mouse in the film. "Walking position" also works seamlessly with the camera.
And this movie will deal with a shot very calmly .
The best film at the Academy Awards "Birdman" is also presented in a pseudo-one-shot way. Its fast and cool connection with the rhythm of the movie is even a bit dazzling, and "1917" is a technology The use of is very restrained. The director hopes that the audience will ignore the existence of the camera and focus on the emotional changes of the protagonist. The
movie sets up some scenes for the audience to breathe. They are clearly crossing the battlefield. In order to relax each other, the two will tell jokes and lighten the tension. In addition to highlighting the friendship between the two soldiers, it also allows the movie to Unique in rhythm controlBeauty. The
movie does not deliberately create a climax in the story. The most important emotional turning point in the first half is Blake's death. The two of them kindly rescued the soldiers on the crashed plane, but Blake died unexpectedly.
This gave Schofield, who was in a passive state, a deeper sense of mission. After being saved by a friend, he had to fulfill the other party's wish and rescue Blake's brother who was on the front line, so that he had a more tragic and tragic situation in the battlefield alone.
and the director made a surreal spectacle under such a real setting. Walking from day to night, the ruins blazed into the sky, and a dark shadow flees in this weird and splendid world in panic. Is this reality or hell? The protagonist is deeply puzzled, and the audience must have such questions. The sense of substitution like
gives the audience an immersive movie-watching experience. When it comes to this, you will definitely think of Nolan's "Dunkirk" .
"Dunkirk" uses compressed time and parallel switching of sea, land and air scenes to draw the audience into a vast battlefield, while "1917" allows the audience to walk through the battlefield in person through an individual journey.
In other words, the two films have completely different techniques and entry points to build a sense of reality, but they both bring shock to the audience.
"Dunkirk" (Part 1) and "1917" (Part 2)
"1917" was hailed as "the best war film after "Saving Private Ryan" after being released in North America. The two movies are except for the same Focusing on individuals in the war, they also chose the theme of "saving."
In "Saving Private Ryan", 8 people rescued one person, while in "1917", two people were asked to save 1,600 lives. The former was demonstrated by Humanitarian, the latter makes people see the sense of mission of the soldiers.
"Saving Private Ryan" (Part 1" and "1917" (Part 2)
In order to bring the audience a different battlefield experience, the director Sam Mendes challenges Using the "real-time shooting" method, the time lapse of the film is the same as reality, in order to create a real sense of presence. In order to achieve this, he and the team adopted the "one mirror to the end" approach to present. Movie. From a technical point of view, this is much more difficult than shooting "Birdman." The
crew had to build a scale model to simulate the route and time of the camera movement, and then dig a one-kilometer trench according to the rehearsal.
As a result, the preliminary preparations alone would take several times the time of ordinary movies.
and there is no way to turn on the lights in the trenches. The crew has to change the filming process every day according to the weather conditions. The filming can start normally on cloudy days, and change when it’s sunny. Rehearsal.
and the difficulties encountered during the shooting process, the director and the entire crew can finally complete this 119-minute "one shot to the end" war movie, it is really not easy.
so persistently led the audience When it comes to the "real" battlefield, the original intention of the director is actually very easy to understand. In addition to commemorating countless soldiers of World War I who are as unknown as these two messengers, I also hope that we will remember that and are the most precious.
all said this session. The Oscar is a new year, and there are a series of masterpieces such as "The Irishman", "Parasite", "Marriage Story" and "Joker". However, after winning the Golden Globe Award and the British Academy Award, the competitiveness of "1917" has undoubtedly improved.
The final award will be announced on February 9. Now, I would like to ask everyone to make a prediction. Among the 9 nominated films that have been announced, who is most likely to win the Oscar for Best Picture?
