<em>1917</em> Is a Visual Feat and a Bad Movie
Sam Mendes’s war drama is designed to look like it was shot in two long takes. But this technical accomplishment is wasted on a soulless film.
Hollywood has long excelled at mining . Some of moviemaking’s most indelible images have come from dramatizations of battle, from the early Oscar winner to Christopher Nolan’s 2017 blockbuster, . Taking any situation, such as the horrifying trench combat of the First World War, and turning it into cinema will smooth away some of the crueler realities, no matter the director’s intent. Sam Mendes’s is a particularly beautiful war film, a technical feat that turns a somber mission into
