Its not so bad being a Wall Flower

The Perks to Being a Wallflower, is a 2012 film, based upon the book of the same name written by Stephen Chbosky in 1999. He later served as the director to the movie with John Malkovich serving as producer. The movie was a overall success and pulled in $33.4 Million in theatres. The story follows Charlie, a freshman in high school, who has a long history which unbeknownst to him, changes the way he goes about his life and experiences things (As a heads up, this movie and ultimately this article talk about some distressing themes and the characters interaction with them. Readers discression is advised).

Charlie is young and recently released from a mental health institution. Entering high school he catches the interest of an English teacher named Mr. Anderson, and the soon to be other supporting friends and cast, Patrick and Sam. They are a brother stepsister friend duo who are older than him. He very quickly becomes close to them and almost immediately develops a massive crush on Sam. Charlie describes them as Wallflowers, or people who watch the world unfold in front of them. They end up at a party which they invited Charlie to, where Charlie gets high and admits that he’s suffering because of his best friends suicide, and later walks in on Patrick in the closet making out with the high school quarterback. Charlie promises not to tell anyone, which cements that he can be trusted as their friend. As they leave the party, they drive home, when Sam stands in the back of the truck as they go through a tunnel blaring music.

Sam wants to get into Penn State, and asks Charlie to help her study for her SATs, as her scores are too low. This goes on for a while and ultimately her scores jump up. As thanks, knowing that Charlie enjoys writing and reading, she gifts him a typewriter. They talk about their pasts and relationships they’ve been in, where Sam reveals her first kiss was at a young age with her fathers boss, but Charlie admits he hasn’t had his yet. Sam says that his should come from someone who loves him, and kisses him then. Before this however, Charlie admits that his Aunt who died when he was younger was also sexually assaulted. They stay close and later he is asked to take the role of Sam’s boyfriend in a theatre performance. He impresses everyone, including a girl named Mary. She and him ultimately become a couple, until one night Charlie is dared to kiss the prettiest girl in the room, and chose Sam over Mary, leading Sam to despise him, and Mary to break up with him. Patrick tells him that its best for him to not be near Mary or Sam for a while. This severs all the work Charlie had done and ultimately results in him falling into a pit of depression.

Charlie is alone for a long while until he has the chance to redeem himself. One day Brad, the football player that Patrick was kissing at the opening party comes into school in bruises after being caught by his father with Patrick. This leads Brad to resent Patrick and targets him with slurs and attempts to distance himself. Patrick not wanting to just take the abuse, then punches Brad and initiates the physical attacks in retribution by other football players and friends of Brad. Charlie seeing his chance, then goes in and starts swinging. He misses the next few moments but next can see and remember that all the people are now on the ground and that his knuckles and hands are bruised and bloody. The moment of him missing time during the fight results in him not being as mentally stable as he was at the beginning of the story. The rest of the year begins to move very rapidly for him and soon it is time for Sam to leave. Sam broke up with her boyfriend after finding out he is cheating on her, and when Charlie shows up at her house before she leaves, she chooses to attempt to do something more than kissing with him. The kissing goes fine, however when she touches his leg, he has a flashback to his Aunt Helen touching him in a similar way. We do not find out until the end of the story just how much this affected him and how much happened. Sam leaving for school causes his already worsening depression and mental state to accelerate. The flashbacks are more frequent and increase in intensity. Realizing this, he calls his sister who he tells that he blamed himself for her death although he to some degree was happy it happened and had wished for it. His call of distress and need for help was not unanswered, as she immediately calls the police to come help him. He awakens in the mental hospital, where he reveals and understands that his Aunt Helen had sexually abused and assaulted him for years before her death.

Charlie makes it through therapy and gets the help he never knew he needed. He exits the mental hospital to find Sam and Patrick there and ready to support him. They listen to the song they first heard in the tunnel, and this time Charlie is the one standing in the back of the truck feeling free in the wind. Charlie is finally released from the mental prison he had been in that affected the way he lived his life, and vows to go out and see the world.

This movie is an excellent modern coming of age film. Almost every watcher can relate to it to some degree for its awkward moments, or its ways it ties characters together. This movie has experiences almost every person has had to some degree or witnessed. The movie is cyclical, with Charlie emerging from the mental hospital and meeting Sam and Patrick both times, however the second he is his true self. It could be argued that Charlie undergoes the Heroes Journey. A cyclical diagram for the journey a hero must go through, it could be argued that losing Sam was his loosing of the mentor, and that his Death, Rebirth, and Atonement are his second visit to the mental hospital, which changes him for the better and allows himself to experience the world without being weighted down by the emotional burden his Aunt had left with him.

Intro to Film Studies was an incredible class and opportunity. Most people watch movies purely for entertainment. While this is not a bad thing, many people never critically watch a movie and find ways to relate them to each other. Filmography is a complex but rewarding art form, which often creates a lasting impact on viewers weather they realize it or not. In many ways we are Charlie. We are naïve and searching for belonging. Charlie had reading and writing, and many of us have movies and music. Viewing movies that you may never otherwise is an important thing for a number of reasons. Its important to understand why you enjoy one style of movie versus others, as well as it being important to broaden your horizons and experience this wild wonderful world we live in. Intro the Film Studies is a class students should take if they wish to be like Charlie and be changed forever, for the better.

Stanley Kubrick’s Lasting Impression Upon Humanity

Stanley Kubrick is one of cinemas greatest auteurs of all time. Without a doubt, almost every person has seen or at least heard of some of his works. They include 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), A Clockwork Orange (1971), The Shining (1980), Full Metal Jacket (1988), and Eyes Wide Shut (1999), among many others. These are all films which were released to a critical acclaim and for the most part focus on a narrative on societal choices and consequences. This essay will focus on what I believe to be his greatest work, as well as one of the best war films of all time “Full Metal Jacket”, but it will also include references and point to where some things can be seen in other Stanley Kubrick films.

Stanley Kubrick (1928-1999) was an American filmmaker born in the Bronx, New York, to Jack and Sadie Kubrick. At age 13, he was gifted his first camera, which would ultimately spark a lifetime fascination and mastering of the art. Sometime during high school, he began taking pictures for the school paper, and ultimately sold a picture to the head of Look magazines photography department. This led to his first job, which was as an apprentice and later full time photographer for the magazine. Many of his pictures and collections were made to show peoples true reactions and emotion without telling them to act a way. He began making short films in the late 1940s. His first short film Day of the fight (1951), and its success convinced him to quit his job at Look and pursuit film making. His first major film was The Killing (1956), made after befriending James Harris, a Hollywood producer. Very quickly Kubrick discovered that Hollywood was in many ways a parasite, and in 1960 he moved to England, where film studios were far less carnivorous. Kubrick would ultimately live there the rest of his life. Kubrick’s film career is as infamous for its erotic uses and mentions, as it is for its deep philosophical stories.

Kubrick made numerous war films, but his last and most refined, was Full Metal Jacket. A 1988 film about the journey of a US Marine both through training and eventually to Vietnam, and how he consistently judged the duality of man. The story follows Private and eventually Sergeant Joker, as he trains and deploys as a combat correspondent. Following a harsh drill instructor who abuses and berates the young Marines. He becomes a mentor for Private Pyle, the young Marine who is abused worst by the Drill Instructor and eventually commits a murder-suicide in front of Joker. His roll as a mentor extends into Vietnam, where we now see him as a sergeant himself, and leading a young marine referred to as Rafterman. Rafterman wishes to be like the Marine Joker claims to be, out in the warfighting. Seeing Joker in Vietnam also offers a glimpse into the mentality of him, particularly with his helmet. The helmet is used as the official film image and becomes a talking point later when he speaks with a commanding officer. The helmet features the words “BORN TO KILL” on the side, with a peace symbol pin attached. When asked if it was supposed to be a political statement, Joker replies with “I think I was trying to suggest something about the duality of man sir” This is a statement which comes to play during the final act of the film. Here, after following a platoon of Marines, they become pinned down by sniper fire, and the commanding officers are killed, including Cowboy, a Marine who went through training with Joker. After the sniper is located and shot once, the group decides if they should leave her to suffer and bleed out to death, or if they should show mercy and kill her like she pleads them to. It is decided Joker would have the choice on his hands, as they would only mercy kill if he did it himself. Joker must make the fateful decision of not killing which would lead to her inevitable suffering, or to kill her and end the suffering but leaving a stain on his personal morals. He chooses the later and develops the ‘1000 yard stare’.  An important thing to note in Full Metal Jacket, is that each of the character changing and physiologically scarring scenes have similar surroundings. They occur in dark rooms typically lit from Hard, motivating, backlighting. This provides a dramatic and character focused shot versus the standard scenes where the background is as important as what is happening in it. In the murder suicide, it is the moonlight coming through the windows, and in the final scene, it is from the fire of the burning building they are in. In addition to this, these scenes share a score of eerie music. It is difficult to describe, but is made with violins and synthesizers, helping to further cement the pivotal scenes connection together.

Striking resemblances can be made between Full Metal Jacket and A Clockwork Orange. A Clockwork Orange (1971) is a film based onto a dystopian future in Britain, where the main character, Alex is a drug abusing man who has committed heinous crimes. After avoiding being caught, he is thrown under the bus by his fellow gang members due to his greed. Upon serving part of his prison sentence, he volunteers to test a new procedure which would in theory rehabilitate him and other prisoners. It is much closer to being torture and catches the attention of the prison chaplain who points that Alex and anyone else who undergoes the therapy is now without their god given free will. The Minister of the Interior says that this is simply a small price for the reduction in crime and the freeing up of prison space that it will cause. This is yet another call to the “duality of man” and the cost of humanity. This time however it is not a personal examination, but instead a societal examination particularly at the treatment of criminals. Granted they have committed crimes, and some of them heinous, but do they deserve to be stripped of their free will in exchange for the reduction in crime? Another example can be seen in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), in which HAL 9000, an artificial intelligence controls a human scientific exploration mission in space, where it suddenly begins to act out of control after realizing there is a plan to disable it to the point where it works to preserve its own existence. This offers the question of humanity and life both organic and virtual. When HAL begins to be disabled, it pleads for its life and begs for mercy, just as any other intelligent being would.

Stanley Kubrick’s films are exemplary pieces which leave lasting impressions on the viewers While he should be commended for his storytelling and directing skills, he routinely shows off a theme revolving around deeper meanings and questioning humanity. Kubrick’s films have as much a role in an Ethics or Psychology classroom, as they do in a class that appreciates the film.

Editors, Biography.com. “Stanley Kubrick Archive.” Biography.com, A&E Television Networks, 2 Apr. 2014, http://www.biography.com/filmmaker/stanley-kubrick.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000040/

Kubrick, Stanley, Stanley Kubrick Archive, c1945-2002. University of the Arts London Archives and Special Collections. GB 3184 SK

Glory Be to All

The American Civil war was over 150 years ago, yet the stories of it, both fiction and non still captivate audiences. “Glory”, a 1989 film starring Morgan Freeman (if you don’t want to watch it already, youre missing out), Matthew Broderick, and Denzel Washington as key characters, is one of those stories. At its core, the film is about the formation of one of the first African American infantry regiments in the Union army. This regiment which as deemed as experimental, ended up being one of the most successful in the entire Union army, despite being given lesser equipment and being treated differently, with harassment and racist attacks.

“Glory” by Edward Zwick truly feels like it was just recently released, despite being nearly 30 years old. It could be due to the actors in it who seemingly do not age, or its everlasting tone. Its unclear why it feels this way. What is clear however, is its ability to stay with its viewers and contain stories that last a lifetime. As I previously said, the movie is about a regiment of African American soldiers who volunteered to fight for freedom of enslaved people. They face numerous hardships along the way including being given subpar equipment and pay, the worst jobs that existed, and constant racism and attacks by both enemy and ally. The story extends past just a simple war film, and pushes into the story of a group of strangers who form inseparable bonds and would eventually lay down their lives for each other.

Throughout the film there is one image which is constant and goes from the elephant in the room to being something that passes by unnoticed. Matthew Broderick’s character, Colonel Shaw, is a white man, leading a black infantry regiment. When it is new to the viewer, there is an obvious tension, as although they are all free men, only one of them has lived a truly free life without prejudice. After he clearly shows his stance of being on their side and doing things out of unity and not selfishness, particularly when he rips up his paycheck to protest the unequal pay. From that scene forwards, its obvious that they support him as their leader and that the feeling is mutual. Shaw begins to help them more and more and helps to promote his Sergeant, John Rawlins (Morgan Freeman) to Sergeant Major, thus making him the highest ranked black man in the union army, and the highest ranked to date.

The movie ends with the most important scene (as one might expect). They receive orders to advance and attack a fort held by the confederacy in North Carolina. It was one of the crucial forts, and overtaking it was thought to turn the tides of the war. It was also a known suicide mission, as there was only one approach, and it was on land with no cover. In a final act of proving their worth as a regiment, and to prove that African Americans were just as good as any other man, Shaw with the backing of his troops offers to lead the assault. The night before, they pray together knowing it was likely their last time. They are finally whole and prepared for what lay ahead. The morning of, they are cheered as they advance on the fort, which is a complete turn around from the harassment and racism they faced from these same people. They chose to make the final push under the cover of night to increase the chances of success. Unfortunately very quickly things turn sour, as Shaw is killed, leaving the soldiers without their commanding officer. Private Trip (Denzel Washington) makes a final flag raising as a rally cry, which is something he previously swore he would never do and is ultimately what leads to his swift killing. Rawlins, and the other high ranking soldiers take charge and make the final push, seemingly inches from a victory. In the end however, they are killed quickly from a final barrage of gunfire. The scene cuts to the next morning, and we see Shaw’s body placed next to his soldiers in a mass burial, in a final act of laying his life down next to his men, despite what they looked like. Despite not taking the fort that day, they brought victory, by showing reason for more black men to join the union army and fight for a cause.

Glory is a film that shows what should exist in peoples hearts. Fighting for a cause alongside men, and seeing them no differently, and fighting for them to have the same chances and opportunities despite your differences, weather they be physical, ideological, or mental. Glory is a film which will exist as a film that generations should watch to see that even in times of war, we can find reasons to see the good in people.

To Get Out Alive

A modern horror movie. No cheesy monsters. No damsel in distress. No blood guts gore, and cheap jumpscares. Just pure embodied terror of knowing that what the main character walked into isn’t what they thought it was, and you as the viewer cant help but just sit back and watch whatever happens unfold.

While Jordan Peele is by no means the new kid on the block when it comes to the big screen and television industry, this was his first dabble into the art of production versus acting. And it paid off. BIG TIME. It was praised for its one of a kind plot, production, sound design, script, you name it, and it was acclaimed for it. It was also given a pat on the back for its not so subtle but still not in your face tackling of racism within the United States.

The Plot is fairly simple, and breaks down as follows. Chris and his new white girlfriend, Rose, head to a fairly simple suburbia to meet her parents. It becomes obvious from the get go, that something is off, from the strange mannerisms of all the characters. Its not just that these unfamiliar people who also happen to be white are strange, but also that people who work at the house and are black, are strange as well. Now Rose’s parents are doctors which might be a subtle point that wealthy white parents are doctors, but anyways. Roses’ mother is a hypnotherapist, and on the first night, when Chris is unable to fall asleep, she coaxes him into a session to convince him out of his smoking addiction. During this time she also implants a trigger phrase which becomes very important later

What this hypnosis scene does to the viewer is it offers a new strange “tick” at the back of the mind. Moving forth… is anything the viewer sees, real? Or is what we see simply a trick of the mind? This isn’t too far off of what Chris himself feels, as he wakes up from this trance in bed, unsure if what just happened was a dream or reality. It takes Walter confirming that it was true to convince Chris one way or the other. This leads into the next major scene, where Chris is surrounded by a huge number of these wealthy white people from the community, and in what Jordan Peele later spoke about, it was designed to invoke reactions to how black people walk through day to day life with feelings of extreme discomfort.

Enough dodging of the films ending however. The film quickly speeds up from the party. At the party, Chris calls a friend to warn him that something here feels off, and attempts to take a picture as evidence but is caught and causes a violent reaction. Following this, Chris talks to Rose and decides it would be best for them to leave. In the process he discovers that Rose has had a number of black boyfriends before which contradicts what she had told him earlier. Knowing this, and what happened earlier, he attempts to leave the house, but ultimately is stopped by Roses parents, and is told a trigger which sends him into a hypnotic trance, rendering him unconscious. Upon waking up, he finds himself strapped to a chair, with a video explaining that he was subject to the families form of immortality. By implanting their consciousness into a physically superior being, they can create a desirable mix. This is done by keeping the original bodies consciousness into the “Sunken Place”, the place Chris was sent to during his earlier therapy session.

He is sent back to his unconscious state again or so we are lead to believe. He in truth however was able to block out the command with inners of the chair, and is in a fully realized state. He hits a member in the head rendering him unconscious before working his way out of the house. Along the way, he kills Roses father, Dean, in the operating theatre, with a deer heads antlers (Feels like were playing CLUE now, doesn’t it?). When Dean falls over, a candle goes with him and sends the operating room with the man who was intended to be the new consciousness inside Chris going up in flames with it. Remember how I said earlier that this movie isn’t a messy gore flick? Well it was sorta true UP UNTIL THE END. Like final 10 minutes is it. I feel like I was 95% right with that. Roses mother, Missy, and the member earlier knocked unconscious is back again, except Chris kills him for good this time. He injures Georgina, and mistakenly believing that she is not possessed by some other person, he attempts to save her, but is proven incorrect when she attacks him. In a turn of events, the car they are having the struggle in crashes and she is killed. All seems to be lost at the very end however when Rose and Walter stand in front of him and yet again, we discover Walter is already taken over. Chris decides to use his phones flash to temporarily daze Walter, and allows his consciousness to submerge from the Sunken Place, and regains control. He decides to end the cycle of himself, and after shooting Rose, Walter kills himself. Chris attempts to choke Rose out when suddenly flashing lights appear, and the friend Chris called during the part, Rod, takes Chris to the car and leaves Rose to die in the road.

So overall? This movie has plenty of twists and turns for the average viewer. With the tiniest of scraping of the surface, an underlying theme of daily racism can be uncovered. This movie offers as much drama from the storytelling, as it does a message of what some people go through with day to day life in their feelings, although expressed in a dramatized way.

The Start of The End

A blind man with a drinking problem, and a young teen looking to make some money. Two characters at opposite ends of the spectrum in regards to having seen this world. This entire movie, and its story, revolve around Charlies choices and decisions. In attempt to get home and see his family for Christmas, he must help another family take care of their own black sheep.

Movies and stories in general can be grouped into two main categories for the direction the narrative takes. The story can either be goal oriented, or decision based. A goal orientated story is for the most part linear. Its a simple A to B story, with the occasional side step to help develop characters and create an interesting conflict. These can be interesting, but in all honesty, a decision based story is superior. It is superior only in how it is a complete mystery for what direction this story might go. Sure, as time goes on, the viewer might start to see what type of character the actor is and predict… BUT, during the beginning half? Take “Scent of a Woman” for example. We see Charlie (Chris O’Donnel), the protagonist make some quick decisions. We haven’t known him long enough to guess but the decisions he makes, make it clear what we are dealing with. The entire basis of the story, is that Charlie sees some of the other boys he goes to school with, pull a prank on the headmaster. We know that Charlie is financially challenged from what we are told, and that he searches the job board hoping to find something that pays decent. After being witness to some people he hangs out with, who include some who come from wealthy backgrounds and would be particularly unaffected should they be removed from the school, commit a prank, we see his first major decision. Instead of ratting them out on the spot, he instead remains silent. When flashed an offer to have a recommendation letter written for him to get into Harvard, he still remains silent. This decision to remain silent is a bold one. Was it out of loyalty to his friends, or was it out of fear of the headmaster?

Taking up the job of watching over a blind retired Army Lieutenant for the weekend, Charlie walks into what is essentially the unknown. His first interaction with Frank (Al Pacino) is not a pleasant one. He is berated with comments about how he talks too much and is useless. Taken aback, he choses to still take on the job, since it had no competition. This works for the better, as Frank immediately takes Charlie to New York City. Once there, at a fancy hotel, Frank tells Charlie with zero signs of joking, that he plans to live it up in the city for the weekend before killing himself. Charlie now has the added decision to make, of if he wants to warn anyone of Franks mention. He decides not to. This is a decision which is bold and comes into play later. The duo go to Franks family nearby on Thanksgiving, uninvited, where things go awry quickly, and Franks blindness is revealed.

After a bleak night, they return to the hotel. On the way, Charlie talks heart to heart with Frank, with Frank actually listening and seeming to be caring. This could be from Charlie knowing the past of Frank, or that Frank is coming to terms with himself. Frank offers the advice that Charlie needs to ‘cash in’ on the offer of the letter of recommendation, before he loses the offer, as him or George (Phillip Seymore Hoffman), the other student witness, were going to break down and call out the pranksters eventually. At dinner, Frank notices a woman nearby and while being blind, lead her on a fantastic Tango dance in front of everyone. To end the night off with a bang (yes this is meant as a pun), Frank orders an escort for the night. The following day, there is a slight change of pace, until Charlie mentions that they should maybe just go test drive a Ferrari. This catches Franks attention, and ends up being one of the strangest interactions in this entire film. After Frank convinces the Ferrari dealership to lend the car to a young boy he is calling his son, he then somehow convinces Charlie, to let him drive… Lets just repeat that, the BLIND man, convinced the kid to let HIM drive. This results into them being pulled over, and Frank being who he is, and going for the threepeat, convinces the officer not to give them a ticket or arrest them. Doing all of this without giving a HINT of being blind. After walking across the street and narrowly avoiding being hit by a car, almost as if he was out with a death wish, they return to the hotel.

Sending Charlie off to perform some errands for him, he puts on his army dress uniform, and prepares his service pistol for a final act. Charlie is almost immediately suspicious that Frank sent him off in such a hurry, and returns, only to find that Frank was in fact not joking when he said he wanted to end his life here in New York. Charlie makes the decision to go against the blind man with a gun, and manages to take it out of Franks hand. With some careful coercion, they return home to New Hampshire.

We return to Charlie in the sprawling auditorium, in front of the entire student body, the headmaster, and the disciplinary committee. Firstly lets just gawk at how impressive this place is. Granted its a prep school but, yeesh this couldn’t have been cheap. Also does this place do all of its discipline in front of the entire student body? Anyways. The proceeding does not get very far, before Frank decides to pay a visit. Now George’s father is acting as his legal representation, and says that George cannot identify the culprits due to his poor eyesight. This is decision time for Charlie. Still under fire he chooses to remain silent, but this time with Frank by his side. Frank isn’t going to stand to see Charlie made out to be a terrible person for his choice. He engages into a speech which, while not particularly motivational, because its said by Al Pacino, a man who was in some ways destined to play this part, is almost… moving? He talks about how people living the elite lifestyle are running the world into the ground, with their ways of backstabbing and snitching.

We end the movie with a final scene of Frank returning to his local families home. Upon entering, he happily greets his niece and her children. A complete reversal from the character we first met at this home. Due to Charlies decisions, and Franks decisions, the man we knew is gone, and instead is replaced with one who embraces the man he is: the last of a dying breed. There isn’t a reason to kill himself anymore. He has a bit of joy. Charlie offered him an incredible weekend of happiness he had not experienced in ages.

The film to some degree was unpredictable. At any moment Frank could flip back to his upset self. At any moment Charlie, could listen to Franks opinion, and take the offer. Sure it was linear in that it had to end somehow, with the completion of the New York City trip, and the return to the prep school. There was no goal, other than avoiding trouble. The decisions of this film made it realistic, and entices the viewer to remain interested despite its 156 minute runtime. This film is under appreciated, and should be at the tops of film lists. I don’t know what kind.. maybe coming of age films? Whatever the list, this movie should be near the top for its story, and performances.

An Unexpected Cinematic Masterpiece

We open to rolling hills and blooming flowers. Two very young soldiers are awoken and sent to retrieve their mission from across the hustle and bustle that is this division of the British Royal Army and their encampment, on the front lines of the British-German trenches. Unfortunately for the two of them, this is as quiet and as calm as they are going to experience for the next few hours of their lives.

I keep referring to these two soldiers, but there is one more walking alongside them. The viewer. The biggest acclaim this movie received from the get-go, was its camerawork, and deservingly so. This movie moves at the pace of the actors. We see the world they see, as they see it. You can find handfuls of articles online praising the story work and acting done, but a bigger rarity is any mention or real breakdown of the camera and lighting work done. Where most movies are made with controlled lighting and positioning and everything is perfect, 1917 was shot in the real outdoors where mother nature decided when shoots could occur. There were many takes with perfect stitching of takes together to create the seemingly one shot viewing. This meant however that the lighting between two takes had to be the same or close enough that it would blend. Rain, too much cloud cover, or different levels of wind would make shots glare that they were done separate times. A full comprehensive and detailed breakdown of some of the work done can be viewed HERE.

Beyond the camera work and lighting done to create this landscape was a soundtrack which was subtle enough to be forgotten but still left its mark. Through the entire movie, the soundtrack never really ends, but instead is there to further convey the emotion of our characters. This is my third or fourth time watching the movie, and every time, there is another scene that you didn’t realize had music behind it, but you re-watch to find there is and can appreciate the work put in. The music is difficult to explain until you think about other movies done. Thomas Newman did the entire soundtrack to 1917, as well as The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, as well as most of the James Bond movies within recent memory. These movies were usually in conjunction with either director Sam Mendes, and/or Cinematographer Roger Deakins. Newman has a track record like few others for his ability to convey urgency and then at the same rate as the viewer and the actor, transition into calm and security. Mendes and Deakins are a fatal duo, for their abilities of clean transitions and masterful storytelling.

1917 is a horrifically graphic movie, done extremely well. With any other senior staff, the movie likely would have been a flop, as at its core the story is fairly simple and rudimentary. IT was only in the way the story was told and experienced alongside the viewer, that it was able to do so well. It is a movie that should be on everyone’s must watch list and should almost be considered an adventure drama before a war story.