Matt Versus 1917

Between the time the guns of August roared in 1914 until the signing of the Armistice in November, 1918, nations rose, empires fell, millions died, & the course of the 20^th Century was forever altered. World War I or the Great War is often called the forgotten war as it gets overshadowed by the subsequent World War II in American history and in popular culture. However the Academy Award nominated film ‘1917’ seeks to remind us all of this terrible conflict. While retellings of World War I can get entangled in the tales of kings, emperors, & statesmen, war must always be remembered as the story of ordinary soldiers. ‘1917’ focuses on two ordinary British soldiers who are tasked with a straightforward but crucial mission in the Western Front in northern France but through short conversations these two soldiers reveal quite intriguing conflicting on the so-called ‘War to End all Wars’ and war in general.

In ‘1917’ William Schofield and Tom Blake are two soldiers and friends who are given a mission to deliver orders to the British front lines to call off an impending attack with would lead to certain slaughter. Communications to the front lines are cut so the message has to be delivered manually through a treacherous series of bunkers, trenches, and burnt out towns. Blake’s older brother is among the soldiers that are due to attack in a day’s time which provides this mission personal imperative.

Early in the film a key exchange between Blake and Schofield show their divergent views on the war which mirror shifts in societal popular option from 1914 to 1917. Schofield who had been awarded a medal for a prior battle, subsequently traded it for a bottle of wine to Blake’s shock and horror. Blake claimed, ‘If I got a medal, I’d take it back home. Why didn’t you just take it home with you?” Schofield replied, “Look, it’s just a bit of bloody tin. It doesn’t make you special. It doesn’t make any difference to anyone.” From this exchange one can see that Blake viewed the war from a more nationalistic ‘For God, and Country’ perspective while Schofield finds no glory in battle and found more use in wine to cope with the stress and trauma war inevitably brings. There is a greater historical context to this. At the onset of the First World War, millions of British, French, & German men volunteered for fight for their countries with many of them harboring two crucial ideas about the war. One, that the war was some sort of modern righteous Crusade, and two, that the war would be quick and decisive. With the exception of the Franco-Prussian War, there had been no war between the European Great Powers since Napoleon. Unfortunately for the people of Europe, Napoleon fell at Waterloo long ago and the intervening century did much to dilute their memories of total war. The battles of the Somme, Ypres, & Gallipoli brought such horrors to the forefront and laid the seeds of discontent, nihilism, and revolution.

By 1917 the Russian Tsar was deposed in the first of two revolutions that would ultimately bring Bolsheviks to power, Germany was starving, France was ravaged, England was bankrupt, and a generation of young men were lost to the trenches. Across the stalemated Western Front, Thousands of young men perished in charges to capture mere yards of charred earth. The war furor that was so apparent just three years prior was replaced by resignation, unrest, and hopelessness. Blake clung to a romantic view of war and humanity to his own detriment while Schofield held a more realistic view of the conflict, prioritizing his self-preservation but not abandoning his mission or his promises.

The promotional trailers for '1917' portrayed the film as featuring two main protagonists, giving the assumption that the film is a tale of two men and brothers in arms on a journey. One could compare it to Frodo and Sam journeying to Mordor. However, the film subverts expectations by killing Blake fairly early on.  The pair encounter a downed German plane whose pilot is about to be consumed by fire. Blake saves the pilot and is fatally stabbed for his troubles. Blake’s act of kindness and humanity was rewarded with a mortal blow. Where Blake saw a man in need, his German counterpart saw an enemy soldier whose charity and idealistic view of war presented an opportunity. As he lay dying, Blake entrusts their mission to Schofield and requests that he write his mother about the ordeal. From there Schofield is forced to overcomes miles of treacherous battlefields and hails of bullets alone. Schofield could not save Blake's life but can save Blake's brother, giving this inherited mission greater stakes. Despite being given an opportunity to hide away from the war and ignore his orders, being told that his mission is suicide, Schofield carries on. 

At the end of the film, Schofield arrives at the front line with the orders to abort the British offensive and alert the generals of the trap. However by this time, the attack had already begun. Dashing across the front lines, Schofield delivers his orders to the British high command and the offensive is called off. After receiving Schofield’s orders, a war weary general remarks that there will always be another charge and another battle another day. The resignation and inevitability in his voice underscored that even Schofields ‘great efforts may have been in vain. Later, he finds Blake’s older brother alive and informs him of the younger Blake’s fate. In a small moment of piece afterward, Schofield sits by a tree and brings out a locket containing a picture of his family. While Blake and his familial ties are mentioned throughout the film while Schofield’s family is only noted here. This serves as a reminder that while the war is a soldier’s life now, wars do end, and at that end glory or spoils of war are not always the fruit of victory. The fruit of victory is the ability to carry on and to return to your loved ones and family.

'1917' is no tale of glorious victory or a patriotic tour du force. It is the story of a man that risks his own life to save as many lives as he can due ultimately to a promise to a friend. War does much to subvert one’s expectations as history can tell us and its impact causes changes for good and ill in the hearts and minds of all that it touches. Teaching war and history as a tale of kings and dates does a disservice to the very lessons that the past and struggles of dark times provide. While war can be a told as a tale of royalty, generals, and locations, for millions in 1917, it is a tale of ordinary men answering a call and overcoming unimaginable hardship and inhumanity to achieve their own personal victories. For 1917’s Schofield, while there would be more charges, battles, and losses, there are victories and these victories can be as much about striving to preserving life rather than taking it.