Tonight Jim and I went to see Sam Mendes’ WW1 film, 1917. It was a truly harrowing experience, and a strangely intimate piece despite the grand scale of the theater and war itself. George MacKay and Dean-Charles Chapman do incredible work forging an emotional connection with the audience in a very short amount of screen time. The movie is paced flawlessly, shot beautifully, whether it’s the pitiless hell of no-man’s land or a burning French town illuminated chiefly by the harsh flat light of flares as the British and German troops play a deadly game of cat and mouse. It’s an extremely tough watch in places, but an effective reminder of the horrors and pointless futility of war.