1917

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 I remember my days at school, when we were forced to watch ‘The World at War’, a 1970s documentary series that our teacher believed would help seven-year olds not to forget about the Nazis and the second world war. School also taught us about the first world war, about the trenches, the mustard gas, the gas masks, the mines, the tanks, and the German ‘Hun’. It also made sure we knew that millions of soldiers died a horrible death to save us. 

Writer/Director Sam Mendez (Skyfall/Spectre amongst many) has managed an astonishing feat with his latest cinematic offering. By adding to the annuals of war movie history, his film ‘1917’ brings those 70s child-hood classroom horror stories agonisingly to life for the 21^st century. 

We know that war is hell there’s no argument, and our fascination with it, endless. Mendez knows this too, as he drags us like a warped holiday-ride attraction, through the battle lines of no-man’s land. 

On the surface, the story is a simple one, Lance Corporal Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman) and Lance Corporal Schofield (George MacKay) have been set a goal by their commanding officer (Colin Firth in low-lit perfection). It could be medals or death. They have no idea what they are about to face, no one does, but they are not the architects of their fate, war will dictate that for them. Mirroring a sort of Odyssey quest, they seemingly overcome hurdles through sheer naivety.

It’s a war ravaged 1917 springtime landscape, where the cherry blossoms shed their petals onto the decomposing corpses of men littering the French countryside, as rats scamper about and peril lurks in the shadows. This film wasn’t conceptualized on a Dorset rifle range where CEOs spend weekends shooting paintballs for teambuilding. It’s edge-of-your-seat action-drama stuff, and then some.

 

What appears outstandingly like a continuous tracking shot, the action seems to have been filmed in one take. Often, you’ll feel as if you’re sitting on the shoulders of the protagonists as they splash their way through the muddied alleyways of the trenches, attempting to reach the front line and not knowing what they will encounter around the next corner. 

Outside of its ‘war’ genre, 1917 is an exceptional film, particularly for its technical production.  With sound, music, and editing, fuelling an experience of ‘being there’, it’s the Cinematographer Roger Deakins who should bag one of the ten Oscars it’s been nominated for. The film hasn’t been forgotten this awards season and is full throttle for bagging the main gong; ‘Best Film’. It might just get it. 

1917 is a stunning visual masterpiece of film making that is more than a war film. Keep an eye out for some of your favourite actors too, (Bodyguard anyone?) putting in their cameos, because that's what they are. The main feature IS the visual spectacle of the film - the entity itself! Highly recommended, especially for those who love drama and war movies but still understand the futility of it. Remember to pack plenty of water, and maybe a tissue. 


Writer / Director: Sam Mendez

Co. Writer: Krysty Wilson-Cairns

Cinematographer: Roger Deakins

Music: Thomas Newman

Editing: Lee Smith

Production Design: Dennis Gassner

The Fantastic Mr Fox!

Actor, singer-songwriter, and critical thinker Laurence Fox

It's awards season, and anyone that knows what I'm like around this time of year, knows that all I talk about is movies. However, 2020 is turning out to be a very different year.

My latest flame goes by the name of Laurence Fox. I apologise for my 'gushing' all over this British (mostly tv) icon, but he's really got people red faced, if not hot under the collar, with his latest TV appearances.

He's becoming quite the talking-point with his 'un-woke' comments on BBCs recent 'Question Time' (political chat) programme, and his subsequent interviews grabbing most of the headlines (let's not mention the Duchess of Deception Megs right now) and riding on the tail of controversy for click-bait and print coverage.

What I've liked the most about the recent talking points on his comments about racism and 'white privilege' is that there is someone in the Arts that still appears to have his own mind, no brain-transplanted... yet! He says what he thinks and makes no apologies. You gotta hand it to him, that's very risky behaviour in this climate of 'woke' aka 'brain washing of the masses'. Straying from the accepted narrative of 'all normal people think...', gets you into serious shit these days. The powers-that-be don't want you rocking boats and really waking them up! 

The Fantastic Mr Fox's Wiki page goes someway to explain why I like him:

Fox is the third of the five children of actor James Fox and Mary Elizabeth Piper. His father James was the son of Robin Fox, a theatrical agent, who married Angela Muriel Darita Worthington, daughter of the playwright Frederick Lonsdale. Laurence Fox was born in 1978 in Yorkshire. At the age of 13 he was enrolled at Harrow School at which point he was, as he later recalled, "shy around women, sensitive and a bit naïve".

Although he made friends and liked the drama teacher, he hated the school's strict regimen and felt despised and out of place among pupils with titles and wealth. 
Constantly in trouble for smoking, fighting, going into town and seeing girls, he was expelled a few weeks before his A-levels. According to him, "It was something to do with a girl at a dance. I went back to take the exams, but I wasn't allowed to speak to anyone." With hindsight, Fox has said that his experience at Harrow enabled him to portray "toffs" – the upper-class boys looking down on him and whom he disliked – with much insight and cynicism.

He later told an interviewer that despite doing well in his A-level examinations he was unable to obtain a place at any university, because of a report about him from Harrow. After working as a gardener for two years, and a stint as an office worker which he loathed, he discovered that he preferred acting and enrolled at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). During his time there he appeared in numerous theatre productions, including the lead roles of Gregers Werle in Ibsen's The Wild Duck, Marcus Andronicus in Titus Andronicus, and Stephen Daedalus in an adaptation of James Joyce's novel Ulysses. 

However, he was disappointed to find that, as an "Old Harrovian", he was treated "like a nonce". He made himself more unpopular by being outspoken and taking on stage and movie roles in his second and third years despite this practice being banned by the academy. One of these was his first break into film – the horror-thriller The Hole (2001). Fox feels that in landing the role his name "probably helped – it's a combination of timing, luck and contacts". Nonetheless, "the name opens some doors, but then you have to show you can do the job".

Someone said he'd make a nice James Bond, I agree, but then I would!

If you'd like to know more there's plenty here: https://metro.co.uk/2020/01/22/laurence-fox-receives-death-threats-battling-insomnia-controversial-race-row-question-time-children-12100572/

That other Mr Fox, less cuddly though!