Top five of 2019 for me (between Lighthouse and Uncut Gems)
I had to rewatch Dunkirk after seeing this. I'd say Dunkirk maintains a better sense of intensity, if only because it's able to cut between the three stories and thus something intense or foreboding is always happening. Also the way the three stories build to the in-sync finale feels like great payoff. A survival thriller in the midst of a war
By contrast, 1917 strips the war film to its essentials to deliver suffocating wartime survival. Where Dunkirk kept its characters at arms length to focus, 1917 is harrowingly intimate and human, as we're unable to look away from these two men, their war-tested foibles, their fear and caution and affability among tension. It's telling that these two soldiers are played by relatively unknowns while the big actors pop in for single scenes as higher-ups, feels like Schofield and Blake could have been any two soldiers seen in a trench bunk or truck bed. After remembering how engrossing yet hollow Dunkirk was, I was surprised by how the fates and human actions of 1917's protagonist's lingered in my mind after the credits. That 1917 is able to emphasize the personalities of the two within the film's always-forward mission-driven pace makes those moments when the pressure eases really hit hard.
There were a few moments where I was starting to itch for a cut, but overall the one-shot approach made the film so oppressive. The camerawork makes 1917 a journey where every minute counts and progress is distinctly felt. When darkness or mud is blanketing the screen, the film feels claustrophobic; when the frame opens into light and space after being trapped for so long, the freedom for the camera to roam is sharply noticed. Trapped down in the muck, the decay and ruin, the flames and death, having to travel along inch-by-inch makes the trenches and war torn landscapes that much more suffocating