1917 – How Immersive Cinema is not about Fancy Tech

Gripping, intensely gripping, was the only description that ran through my mind as I walked out the theatre last night. I felt intimately close to the main characters, having followed closely along on a two hour journey, one-shot with no breathers, through the trenches and bunkers, bleeding and burning, loss and pain.

Being busy and not following up on the latest film releases, I chanced upon this film’s trailer as a YouTube ad. It was a technical behind-the-scenes featurette, showcasing the difficulties faced by the film crew in trying to achieve this continuous one-shot gem of a film. Cinematographer Roger Deakins’ name popped up midway and I knew instantly that this would be one hell of an awesome film. Dang, I was not disappointed. It was pure cinematic art, and halfway through the movie, I was gratified with scenes reminiscent of Blade Runner 2049, complete with a soundtrack of dystopian grandeur.

What made this different from the only other one-shot feature I watched, Birdman, was that it wasn’t done just for technical achievements. I was transported into the film along with the two soldiers on their mission, feeling each second of their urgency in time, breathing in each stench of decomposing corpses, crouching each stealthy step to avoid enemy detection on German occupied territory. I was deeply absorbed.

Such was the fineness of storytelling that director Sam Mendes brought to the screen, brutally realistic, yet hauntingly beautiful. He boldly holds on to a shot for that moment longer, lingering on the character’s face, drawing us ever closer to their thoughts and emotions. This brought me back to his first feature film, American Beauty, a simple scene where we were left to watch a plastic bag, blown about in the wind, for one whole minute. Mundane, yet beautiful.

I felt intensely emotional as each scene played out towards the ending. Gradually, I left the comforts of my seat backrest. And as the ending credits started rolling, I blinked a few times before the lights lit up, trying to clear up the emotions that have been built up through this journey.

In retrospect, the cinema was quite empty. Albeit it being a Sunday night and the movie barely released for a mere number of days. And I’m left wondering how many moviegoers would give themselves a chance, to miss Ip Mans and Terminators for a fine piece of cinematic storytelling.