Comments on: The Problem with the WWI Movie 1917 Explained

By: D and D

D and D — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 06:26:12 +0000

What about that bad head wound with a large pool of blood on the floor? It wasn’t sewn up or actually bandaged. Head wounds are very vascular.
Also in the cellar, the baby who needs milk, isn’t hungry or fussy.

By: deKev

deKev — Tue, 17 Mar 2020 11:46:27 +0000

Agreed, an insightful take, once again, Taylor! The technical achievements alone in cinematography and sets would have more than sufficed for me. As for the minutiae of war like the size of a WWI bomb crater, I’ll defer to the experts to judge their historical accuracy. But even I, whose sole experience of WWI was from playing Iron Storm, an FPS that I played from a time when I could still play FPS games without getting nauseous, ahem, could spot a glaring plot crater when I saw one……. like Tom said: ‘WHY DIDN’T THEY JUST DROP A MESSAGE FROM A PLANE’, instead of sending 2 soldiers off across no man’s land to hand deliver the message?

Still, the rest of the movie is just so good that I’ll happily overlook that plot hole. As for the ending, somehow it reminds me of the ending of Ad Astra, as in an arduous and testing journey taken for seemingly very little reward, or is it?

By: Richard Gilligan

Richard Gilligan — Wed, 11 Mar 2020 08:18:04 +0000

Thank you Taylor. Great article and comment from Tom.

I’m a nobody – but my 16 year old son (surprisingly) asked me for my view on 2017 for his English class. And this amazing this article summed it all up. I loved the movie like you .. but as you say.. it has some problems – I kinda expected more of a match for the hype.

Firstly, I’ll be picky (so I might not get posted) and add that the troops were a bit portly for 1917 – but not everyone can do what Tom Hanks did for Castaway I guess.

But mainly, I have a seriously major issue with the portrayal of the German pilots actions. It was just so ridiculous for so so many reasons. but lets just assume the pilot was delirious and decided to stab a trooper and assumed he would not get shot but the other trooper – totally out of his mind. Yeah – and lets make the way we eliminate “what was” the main actor the crazy stabby German Pilot – who normally carries a pistol – but on this day he has his good old 12″ knife! And yes, 12″ knives are very sensible on your body when flying planes that crash a lot.

It’s the great war and maybe, just maybe, there are other ways to kill off the initial main character that might make more sense – even with a death dialogue. I suspect the director did not make this poor call. Well I hope so.

By: Tom Farrell

Tom Farrell — Tue, 04 Feb 2020 19:16:49 +0000

1. Too many leaves on the trees. It’s April 6th. The trees wouldn’t have full leaves yet.
2. The ground behind the line was not cratered or chewed up enough. Artillery shells fell everywhere for days at a time. Not just in front of the trenches. In reality, everything was torn up and there were no live trees.
3. The trench systems were hundreds of meters deep. By 1917, both sides had discovered the need to keep the front trenches thinly manned while other trenches behind the lines are manned by more troops. For depth in defense and it gave units a rest from being on the front lines.
4. The trip wire in the German sleeping quarters was…….not true? Mines and booby traps were considered murderous and ungentlemanly in WWI.
5. What was a doddering old officer doing out in a touring car between the lines? Complaining about a tree in the road? Totally misplaced AND stupid. That old fool wouldn’t have left the villa 20 miles back.
6. Schofield got a ride in a truck with some other soldiers that were advancing into the void left by the retreating Germans. Weren’t they at risk of the trap and the counterattack as well?
7. When Schofield was crossing the collapsed bridge over the canal, the shooting by the German sniper was atrocious. A really poor shot. And if the sniper was the one in the building that he eventually killed, the bullets were coming from the wrong direction.
8. Schofield never reloaded after shooting the German pilot and only had 3 shots in his yet he ripped off 5? Shots at the German sniper in the window.
9. The German sniper was set up in a window and had all of the time in the world to take aim while Schofield would snap a shot off at the window and somehow, miraculously, hit the sniper.
10. Who sneaks up to a door that has a German on the other side that was shooting at you, and just pushed the door open? Why not take a couple of shots thru the door? And why not stand off to the side when you push the door open?
11. Why were there flares going off over the town? Made for great footage and images, but if the British weren’t moving in, what a waste of flares and effort. And the adage in WWI was, if a side shot off flares, the other side new you didn’t have patrols out.
12. In town, running from the German stragglers, Schofield escapes by jumping into a river, and floating downstream. Don’t know if the direction was correct. But when he climbs over the dead bloated bodies and up onto the bank, it appears that the former German front line was BEHIND the British front line.
13. No sentries or military personnel behind the line that would have stopped or at least been seen by Schofield. The back area would have been filled with litter carriers, ammo bearers, runners, officers etc.
14. Again, the lack of many, many trenches BEHIND the front line trench. And the ground had a very nice grassy area look to it.
15. And since this trench was literally chiseled out of limestone, where did the black chunks of rock come from during the explosions.
16. When the Devonshires go over the top, if it was a trap, why would the Germans immediately start shelling them? Wouldn’t they wait until most of the troops were out in the open and far away from the safety of their trenches?
17. And finally, WHY DIDN’T THEY JUST DROP A MESSAGE FROM A PLANE? OR SEVERAL MESSAGES ORDERING THE HALTING OF THE ATTACK? It would have been much faster and safer. They could have even landed a plane on that nice grassy area.