[Lee Jong-gil's Film Reading] The Belief That Salvation Is Possible Through Sacrifice

Director Sam Mendes' Film '1917'

Two messengers delivering orders to other units... changing through simple plot and character composition

Scenes pieced together like a split shot... war denunciation through 'one continuous shot'

Stanley Kubrick's milk in 'Paths of Glory' symbolizes life-giving water instead of weakness

Belief in salvation through sacrifice like Andrei Tarkovsky

The battlefield where corpses rot. It is a playground for mud-covered rats. They squeak, intoxicated by the smell of decaying bodies. Then they quiet down at the sound of footsteps. The footsteps belong to British soldiers Schofield (George MacKay) and Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman). They are on their way to deliver an order to stop the attack to Lieutenant Colonel Mackenzie (Benedict Cumberbatch), who is trapped in a pitfall. Not a moment can be wasted. The lives of about 1,600 allied soldiers depend on it.

Directed by Sam Mendes (55), the film '1917' deals with war but focuses on the journey to save lives. The setting is World War I. It depicts the Battle of Passchendaele, where British forces attacked a German salient in Flanders, Belgium. The British struggled against enemy resistance using trenches and severe weather with heavy rain. They lost about 300,000 soldiers and advanced only 8 km. The city they reached was nothing but a pile of rubble.

The story of '1917' is simple. Two messengers break through a thorny path to deliver orders to another unit. Director Mendes offset the weakness of the simple plot with a 'one continuous shot.' Unlike 'one take,' where all filming is done at once, the scenes were shot separately and cleverly stitched together to appear as one continuous scene.

The camera accompanies the two messengers from the moment they receive the order. It closely captures their faces, scattered as they overcome various crises. It gracefully crosses the land of death and witnesses the horrors of war. Puddles formed by bombings, shattered buildings and artillery positions, ditches filled with floating corpses, blood-stained barbed wire... all appear in real time through the 'one continuous shot.'

Director Mendes made changes in character composition to enhance audience immersion. Blake is friendly and relaxed. He shows a special sense of mission for the given task. It is set that his older brother Joseph (Richard Madden) serves in Lieutenant Colonel Mackenzie's unit.

Unlike Blake, Schofield reveals almost no personal history. This even gives a sense of lack of dimensionality. This was actually intended by Mendes. It was designed so that the audience fully accepts Schofield's emotions and breathes with him. Schofield's sensitivity to even the slightest sound is for this reason. The audience experiences the tension flowing from the 'one continuous shot' and faces the horrors directly.

Schofield narrowly escapes death several times but shows little change in thought or behavior. The narrative relies heavily on chance, making it difficult to point to the essence of war. Although it pays homage to long take scenes like those in 'Paths of Glory' (1957), the essence becomes faint.

'Paths of Glory' unfolds grand battle scenes but focuses on probing the root of the horrors. Its setting is also World War I. French General Mireau (George Macready) recklessly attempts to recapture Ant Hill to gain honor. His plan causes terrible sacrifices. When soldiers refuse to charge, he orders artillery fire on his own trenches.

General Mireau does not admit fault. Instead, he tries to identify and execute even the soldiers who refused the charge. At this time, Colonel Dax (Kirk Douglas), who led the soldiers at the forefront, steps in to defend them.

Director Stanley Kubrick (1928?1999) reveals human distorted desires and cowardice through the conflict between two characters. He highlights distorted desires and cowardice as causes of war and denounces innocent sacrifices.

Before even identifying the soldiers, General Mireau mentions execution. The military trial is conducted terribly. There is no chance to bring evidence or witnesses. The procedure of issuing an indictment is even skipped.

"Don't judge by just a part, Colonel. It is a fact that half of your unit did not leave the trenches. I will bring ten men from each company to court-martial and have them executed for lack of courage. They must have milk flowing instead of blood."

The theme of '1917' differs from 'Paths of Glory.' It is often replaced by symbols rather than story. The milk Schofield gives to a French woman raising a child in a destroyed village is a representative example. Unlike 'Paths of Glory,' where milk symbolized weakness, here it stands out as life-giving water.

The most noteworthy symbol is the tree. Trees appear so frequently that they decorate the beginning and end of '1917.' Most of the trees the two messengers see during their mission are damaged. The German army cut them down during their tactical retreat, fearing they would be used as enemy supplies or resources.

Blake, who has experience working in an orchard, is unconcerned. To Schofield's question, "Are all these trees dead?" he answers, "They will grow again. They will grow more than before."

The representative film that decorates its beginning and end with trees is the Soviet director Andrei Tarkovsky's 'The Sacrifice' (1986). Alexander (Erland Josephson) stands a fallen tree up in front of his son Gosen (Tommy Zelkvist) and says,

"A long time ago, there was an old monk living in a monastery. He planted a dead tree on the mountain. And he told his disciple to water it every day until the tree came back to life. (...) After watering it for three years, one day he found the tree covered in blossoms. Endless effort leads to fruition."

Alexander pledges sacrifice. It is to save the world on the brink of World War III. When his earnest prayer is fulfilled, he sets fire to his house as promised. His devotion leads to faith that opens the speech of Gosen, who had aphasia.

The hope '1917' speaks of lies here. Schofield witnesses great despair but finds new hope by looking at the tree. It is the belief that salvation through sacrifice is still possible.