rt-90461

This is a masterclass in how to make a movie. The subject is difficult; most people are turned off by the horror of the First World War. But this film captures the realism with superbly portrayed characters whilst maintaining a fast moving storyline. The choice of the German retreat at the end of the First Somme was inspired (I was expecting 1917 to mean Passchendaele - it usually does). The particular incidents accord with accounts which I have read.

This is the first film in a long time which I would have wanted to go back and see again.

Excellent.

This is a truly terrible film made worse by the appalling theft of time; had the actors cut back on the utterly pointless "dramatic" pauses we could have been spared about an hour of pain. But neither the cast nor the Director were merciful. If the object was to make a martyr-movie then it succeeded - but the martyrs were the long suffering audience not Mary. Just for the record though, Mary spoke with a. French accent not Scottish, Elizabeth was a strong and ruthless Queen who never met Mary and there were no black, Asian or openly gay members of Mary's or Elizabeth's court. I appreciate that diversity is essential to have a chance of an Oscar, but the paying public just finds this patronising; Elizabethan England and even more so Scotland was very white and very Christian (whether you like it or not). To say otherwise is not clever positional-play it is lying; lying with propaganda at its dark heart. (By-the-way, whatever happened to cultural appropriation?) Also, if they really want accolades then pandering to the BBC and its love of diversity is no substitute for decent acting or a supposedly historical movie bearing some resemblance to history. All in all, a truly awful film. Warn anybody you care about not to go and see this shambles of a film.