This cinematic movie is a WWI movie that focuses on two brothers.

Directed by Sam Mendes, and writer, Krysty Wilson-Cairns, they crafted the movie with the average WWI soldier in mind. With a budget of $90 million, many were surprised that the movie was shot to seem like it was filmed in one shot, with virtually no cuts whatsoever.  Various techniques were used to give off the effect that it is one continuous shot, such as filming non-stop for long periods of time and only having cuts in scenes were the audience wouldn’t notice.

The film starts with the two soldiers Lance Corporal Schofield and Lance Corporal Blake being sent on a timed mission to stop an allied attack on the German front, because a leading general believes its a trap set up by the Germans. Throughout the first quarter of the movie both Lance Corporals go wade through the trenches until they eventually find the deadly “No Man’s Land,” an area of land known where anyone who enters dies. Both Lance Corporals make an impossible run and realize that the Germans have abandoned their stations, they are stunned by the stench of the dead bodies and the amount of corpses scattered all over the land. After reaching German trenches they set off a booby trap which almost got Lance Cpl. Schofield killed. Luckily, Lance Cpl. Blake was quick enough to react and rescued themselves. Lance Corporal Blake sadly dies shortly after escaping while trying to save a German pilot, Schofield has to continue the long journey alone leaving his lad’s body behind. Schofield reaches a city only to be knocked out for a few hours after engaging in a gunfight with a sniper. He wakes up the next day in the morning and runs through enemy territory just jump in a river, after being tossed and turned and almost drowned by the currents he makes it to a forest where he finds the squadron he was meant to stop. Schofield finds them bunched up listening to another soldier sing, and after a rough encounter with the rest of the squadron not wanting to listen he reached the general and successfully stops the attack. The general order is that every soldier is brought back which is when Schofield finds Blake’s older brother and gives him Blake’s belongings after he died. The movie ends with Schofield resting next to a tree just like how the movie started.

I believe the movie was incredible and did a great job at executing the whole idea of being filmed in “One Shot.” Unlike other movies you can’t tell that there were other scenes and that it was all edited together. The only “technical” cut the audience was able to notice was when Schofield was knocked out by the sniper, which was needed to have the movie progress closer to the end of the mission. Having the movie follow the story of only two soldiers was interesting as most movies tend to jump around characters, as the movie progressed both Lance Corporals seemed to get closer with each. Also as the movie progressed I loved that I could tell that both soldiers were progressively getting more and more frustrated as they ran out of time.  After Lance Corporal Blake died I could feel how Lance Cpl. Schofield felt the need to finish the mission for his fallen lad. Over all the movie now has a special place in my heart as it is something unique and new when compared all other World War movies.