As a genre piece, I think it's really interesting -- well made and immersive. But as a kind of emotional movie that really pulled me in, I don't know if it did that.

It's an immersive, visceral and meticulously crafted film that has the emotional stakes to match.

The film dazzles at each step, one encounter and adventure after another shot like a set piece, complete in itself with MacKay's stoic presence adding to the pathos and poignancy.

...whatever its flaws, and the roll-call of big-name British actors sometimes works against the realism of the film rather than for it, 1917 does emerge as a great war movie on the scale of All Quiet on the Western Front or The Longest Day...