Back in 2019, Sir Sam Mendes and Krysty Wilson-Cairns co-wrote what would go on to be considered one of the greatest war films of all time.
1917 is an Oscar-winning modern classic that follows two British soldiers in the trenches of World War 1.
Their mission is to deliver a message to call off an attack that the Germans are prepared for.
Featuring cameos from stars like Mark Strong, Andrew Scott, Richard Madden, Colin Firth, and Benedict Cumberbatch, the movie was shot in a distinctly unique way.
Acclaimed cinematographer Sir Roger Deakins filmed it in long takes to make the entire two-hour spectacle appear as one continuous shot.
Understandably, to capture the footage, actors had to make sure they didn’t make a single mistake or they’d have to start again. On the challenging shoot, Mendes previously said: “You can have seven minutes of magic and then if someone trips or a lighter doesn’t work or they just do something normal like they forget half a line, you’ve got to start again and none of it is usable. We did seesaw between thinking, ‘why are we doing this to ourselves?’ and thinking ‘this is the only way to work’. It was all the first until it was the second and the feeling…was so great when we got it that we wanted to do it again. There were some really tough days.”
1917 is streaming now on Amazon Prime Video.