1917 Parent Guide

Young Lance Corporals William Schofield (George MacKay) and Tom Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman) have been sent on an urgent and unbelievably dangerous mission. The German army has feigned a retreat, and a British regiment is planning to move into the trap they have set. Carrying orders from General Erinmore (Colin Firth), the young men must reach Colonel Mackenzie (Benedict Cumberbatch) by the next morning in order to call off the attack and prevent the bloodshed. And, as if the stakes aren’t high enough with 1600 lives on the line, one of them is Blake’s brother, Lieutenant Joseph Blake (Richard Madden).

On a technical level, 1917 is an amazing achievement. Although it obviously hasn’t been filmed in one take, the long shots are miraculously stitched together in a way that hides almost all of the cuts. That may not sound terribly impressive, but you must remember that this is a war film with massive, sweeping scenes: getting a twenty minute shot to go off without a hitch requires dozens or hundreds of extras, technicians, and props to function perfectly and on time. It’s incredible choreography and it makes the film almost unbearably immersive.

That immersion amplifies the film’s ability to project characters’ emotions. The sheer proximity to the action and the horrors the soldiers endure fosters a level of empathy and understanding that negates the need for lengthy dialogue or narration. When Schofield collapses against a tree to listen to a young soldier sing, you can’t help but feel his fatigue and sorrow. There isn’t some huge moral lesson here - merely an illustration of the abject horrors of war, and the redemptive kindness of humanity in the darkest times.

That said, there is still a great deal of gore (although surprisingly little on-screen violence for a war movie) which makes 1917 unsuitable for squeamish viewers of any age. Seeing rats crawl out of the hole in a corpse’s abdomen is enough to put anyone off their popcorn. The bloody and gory scenes are not gratuitous in the wartime context, but they are gruesome and you will definitely want to consider your tolerance for this kind of imagery. In addition, fifteen uses of sexual expletives, while not unexpected on the battlefield, definitely push this movie into the Restricted category.

Though it isn’t suitable for family viewing, I would argue that 1917 qualifies as a superb educational tool with the power to humanize a century-old conflict for contemporary students. Although more fictionalized and less immediately personal than the stellar documentary They Shall Not Grow Old, the stronger narrative focus makes the characters’ struggle even more relatable. And hopefully modern viewers will take seriously the failed hope of those soldiers: that theirs would be the “war to end all wars”.