In The Moment: A 1917 Video Essay

There is in fact an ONSCREEN CORRECTION that says 3rd person shooter. I meant 3rd person, I said 1st, but the correction is there ONSCREEN.

My favorite thing is that you call them "boys" because that's who fights in wars, boys and very young men.

Three details I love: 1.) As Tom dies, you can hear the soundtrack continue to drone on. Once he dies in the middle of Schofield’s sentence, the music immediately cuts, and we’re left with the sudden shock that he died just like that. 2.) The Sikh soldier has a darker Lee-Enfield rifle with a stock disk instead of the regular version because that was the one issued by the British Indian Army. 3.) Those “small roles” played by big actors are there for a reason. The main characters and side soldiers are all relatively unknown in their careers. But what do the recognizable actors play? The commanders. The generals. The lieutenants. The people in charge. As the audience, we see them and say “Holy crap, this actor is huge, I need to focus on what they’re saying.” In the mind of the characters, they think “I need to listen to my commanding officer.” It’s this amazing and extremely subtle way of showing the presence of the high ranking officers in comparison to the main characters.

"Casting well-known actors as the officers who have small roles throughout the film was a brilliant idea, it makes them seem "important", while all the "regular" soldiers like our two main characters are relatively unknown actors. "

Something that never gets mentioned in this video is that the year is 1917. There is still another year left in the war. A year where Schofield could have died fighting

As an Indian, i am proud that you actually included the whole Sikhism part. Most people that i have talked to say that it just does not make sense for Indian or Sikh soldiers to have fought in WW1. But The British ruled India from 1858 to 1947, and so many Indians were forced to join the military and serve for the British forces. So yea, the Sikh soldiers showing up makes perfect sense. Also a little known fact is that Sikhs soldiers were considered to be very ferocious and kind hearted. Anyway, Thank you for including that. Sending Love from Thailand.

'There's something to be said for the media you find at the right time... when you stumble upon something right when you need it.' Me with this channel

The whole "And then ill find your brother, just like you, a little older" line always breaks my heart

I never even noticed that the wound that Frodo has is a metaphor for PTSD

I'm glad to know I'm not the only person who immediately looks up the AO3 fandom upon exiting the movie theatre.

I always wanted someone to cover this movie that doesn’t always look at its ‘one-shot’ gimmick.

your videos could be about literally anything and I'd find them comforting - just good vibes all around!

On the subject of war movies. I often think our constant focus of World War 2 and its easy good guys vs bad guys narrative has damaged people's overall view of war. World War 2 was an exception not the rule. War is rarely good guys vs bad guys and more just people fighting each other for often justifiable but arbitrary reasons with fault happening on both sides. World War 1 is the perfect example of this. All these countries went to war not because Germany or Serbia were evil. But because 1 important person got assassinated and then interconnected political alliances forced all these other countries to fight each other.

Thank you for specifically talking about the inclusion of the few Sikh characters we see in the film, and talking about that part of history that gets so very overlooked. And also thank you for the clown emoji on the clown's face

haven’t seen 1917 but this is my comfort video essayist so we move ✈️✈️

47:00 On the observation that Schofield and Blake were 'blank' characters. Growing up in the UK, our school system spends a lot of time focusing on the World Wars and on the lives of those who were lost during them. At around the age of 16, many young people are given the chance to take a trip to the French/Belgium border to learn about the war on the front lines in the places where those battles were fought, which includes days at the cemeteries and gravesites of genuinely countless bodies, including a large portion of whom were never identified. There are walls covered in names of people who died but whose bodies were never recovered and rows upon rows of bodies without names. The sight of it has stuck with me still, just over a decade later. I think what these characters represent, whether this was by choice or subconsciously, is that beyond a certain number of high-ranking individuals (or those who lived long enough to be dubbed 'The Last Tommies') so many thousands of people were reduced to a name and a list of battles. It becomes hard at a certain magnitude to comprehend the hundreds of thousands of individuals who were killed, the millions of personalities and behaviours and memories and loves and fears that were lost on the battlefields. I don't think these characters are blank because they're badly written, I think they're left blank because they represent every single soldier whose story was never told.

The scene where Schofield finally meets Blakes brother kills me. Every. Single. Time. Just the sheer hurt and desperation shown by Richard Madden, it is almost as if he is about to collapse onto his knees and cry like Schofield did when exiting the river. But he can't. He's in front of all the men he has just led into battle and, in the chaos and death has to stay strong and compartmentalise everything, even something as shocking as hearing the death of his own brother...and can only go as far as to shake Schofields hand... I just want to give Richard Madden a big sad hug in that scene and the fact they only shake hands just hurts me so much lol

LK: "and the rest, well... the rest is just blood and poetry." Me: "Wait... the rest is NOT confetti???"

My life is just explaining to people that calling something "like a video game" is not the insult they think it is and they need to expand their ideas of art. I love this movie and I loved this video.

"The movie is about PREVENTING a battle. A 'war film' about saving lives." That's a beautiful observation! One that completely flew over my head on my first viewing. The cinematography must have absolutely hypnotized me. Lmao Tysm for this analysis!!