I'm a self-confessed history addict, the son of a WWII veteran who unexpectedly saw combat in the Pacific, seeing a close friend die and lucky to survive, and the nephew of a veteran of WWII who moved from the Army to the Marines to make a career of it, and ended up a young Lieutenant fighting for his life in the battle of the Chosin Reservoir during the Korean War, when the Chinese surprised MacArthur by sending hundreds of thousands of troops across the Yalu River during a brutal winter. He was part of the 30,000 UN troops, including the Marines, surrounded by 120,000 men of the Chinese Army at Chosin. My neighborhood in Southeast Houston was made up of small homes built for vets using the GI Bill, so when you met another kid, one of the first things you were asked was, "What did your Dad do during the war?" I thought he was a young radar expert who served on the Saratoga for a while and met Tyrone Power at the Naval Air Station at Corpus earlier, where the actor was training to be a Marine pilot. He didn't tell me what happened to him in the Pacific until I was 30. My uncle never told me the details of what happened at Chosin, either. I knew he was in it, and lucky to be alive, but that was all. So I've had a thirst for military history, sort of weird for a hippie in the '60's who protested the Vietnam War, but there you are. When I heard about 1917, a film directed by Sam Mendes, a terrific director who quit making the Bond films (Skyfall ) in order to do it, I've been waiting to find out what the film is about, and when it will come out. This is the trailer, finally, and it's supposed to come out just before Christmas of this year, in time for the Oscars, and in wide release in early January. Enjoy. I've spoilered a short read about it from Military.com below the trailer. Spoiler Will '1917' Make Americans Care About the Great War? Spoiler 2 Aug 2019 Military.com | By James Barber Sam Mendes quit directing James Bond films to make "1917," an old-fashioned war movie about a life-or-death mission to prevent a battlefield massacre. The first trailer is now online for everyone to see. The centennial of World War I's armistice passed almost without notice last year, especially when compared to the commemorations of the 75th anniversary of D-Day that we experienced earlier this summer. Is it because no one now living knows a World War I veteran or because the United States played a much larger role in the second World War? Mendes aims to bring the war down to a human scale by focusing on two soldiers -- Schofield (George MacKay) and Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman) -- assigned to cross enemy territory to deliver a message that can prevent the battlefield slaughter of hundreds of men. In a "Saving Private Ryan" twist, one of the soldiers whose life is in danger happens to be Blake's own brother. Mendes co-wrote the screenplay with Krysty Wilson-Cairns. And even though his two leads are relative unknowns, the cast is rounded out with a strong team of well-known British actors including Mark Strong ("Zero Dark Thirty," the Kingsman movies), Andrew Scott ("Fleabag," "Spectre," "Sherlock"), Richard Madden ("Game of Thrones," "Bodyguard"), Colin Firth ("The King's Speech," the Kingsman movies) and Benedict Cumberbatch ("Sherlock," "Doctor Strange"). The studio must be aiming for Oscars because the film is getting a limited release on Christmas Day and will open around the rest of the country on Jan. 10, 2020, a strategy that worked well for "American Sniper" a few years back. We'll have more details on "1917" as they come available.
I'll watch anything with Eva Mendes in it. I'm very interested in this flick. I was a history minor in college and took a course on WWI, where I wrote a 35 page paper on the weapons and which had the most impact in the outcome of the war.
How does that guy know all that stuff is going to happen? Sounds more like a fictitious scifi movie based in the ww1 era. I'm interested though.
I'll assume they had radio or at least morse code over pidgeons. So it does make you wonder why this guy is so critical to send in.
@Deckard if you haven't yet, listen to the Hardcore History podcast about WW1 called, "Blueprint to Armageddon." It's really good!
World War I history is fascinating. I have absorbed so much over the years and each new thing that I read offers a new perspective or fact that I had not heard or considered before. Last year I was very upset by the lack of attention given to the 100 year anniversary of the end of that event that shaped the globe so dramatically that we are still feeling the effects to this day. I hope that this gets people's attention.
They actually actually still used runners for almost all communications on maneuver. Pidgeons were unidirectional - they fly back to HQ, but they wouldn't follow military units around in the field. Wired telephones and to a lesser degree wireless existed, but were big and bulky and not portable. They were built into trench command points, but you wouldn't carry them around while manuvering.
Just as a comparison, The WWI monument vs. the WWII monument in DC isn't event close. WWI is small, almost unnoticeable, unfindable. no bigger than a tree, and you rarely even see one person near it. It isn't even marked on the maps. The WWII monument is enormous, sitting between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial, has a huge water feature, and draws tens of thousands by comparison. Interesting to think about. WWI WWII
I listened to this a few years back. I can't remember the exact premise but I think it takes the paradigm of 'WWI and WWII were just the same long conflict' HH is a GREAT podcast.
I've got tickets around lunch time for this Friday to see 1917 here in Austin. Can't wait! It's received incredible reviews and won the Golden Globe for both Best Picture and Best Director. Pretty amazing! I have an old photo of my great-uncle in his WWI army uniform sitting on a bookshelf in my study. I'm going to move it to my desk for the occasion.
I just returned from seeing 1917 at the local Alamo Draft House. The direction, the screenplay, the music and, most importantly, the acting by the principals, George MacKay and Dean-Charles Chapman, is nothing short of superb. There are well deserved Oscars in it's future, both for the acting and the direction, and possibly the screenplay and the music, in my opinion. I won't say anything more because I don't want to ruin a thrilling, edge of your seat, ultimately moving film for anyone else. Go see it.
You won't leave your seat for 2 hours, so be prepared. That, and you'll love it. Now my significant other wants to see the film. I have to catch my breath for a few days before I watch it again, though.
