To think 1917 is beyond unrealistic?

[GinTonicOnIt]

Spoilers alert...

I'm watching it for the first time now. How can it possibly be that to save 1600 men they would send a message by just TWO soldiers, on foot through a really deadly mission where they are certain to die?

If you can get passed that, once the two men joined up with another set of English soldiers why didn't any of those join to help?

Why couldn't radio just be used to contact these 1600 men?

No it is all left to these TWO men? In saving private Ryan (fiction I know) but about ten men were sent to save one. But here, two for 1600?!??

I just can't get past it?

Thats a simplified trench map from 1917. So if the germans got hold of it they would just come across in the dark and run straight down the trenches knowing where they're going to the back areas. You can also notice how crap british trenches (blue) were compared to German ones.

The part I found most unrealistic was the pilot killing Blake after they had saved him. WW1 pilots were considered a breed apart and men of honour, it felt really unecessary and lazy of the writer to use that to move the plot along.
For anyone interested in WW1 history from a German perspective, Storm of Steel is a very good book.

Just to add I accept IABU for the notion that two men on foot to deliver the message was unrealistic. Thanks to those who have given informative replies I will read through all the links provided, thank you.

Thanks also to the replies that weren't filled with a rather puzzling level of rage and sarcasm.

Apologies though to those of you whose WW1 relatives memories I have offended through my ignorance. I do understand the upset here and am sorry.

I bloody love Storm of Steel

People are just being angry as fuck on here atm, I wouldnt even take it personally.

@GenderApostate19

I found that unrealistic too. I had a sneaky suspicion near the beginning of the film that one of the two men would die somehow but I didn't think it would happen that early on or under those circumstances.

It's the biggest pile of unrealistic shit since Saving Private Ryan, and that takes some beating.
Me and my husband were both sat shaking our heads in amazement and muttering 'wtf?' at various scenes in it. ( Both of us ex forces, him British forces, myself German Forces ).

Funny, because my ex forces partner loved it.

Whats so unrealistic about saving private Ryan? The tiger 1 it the last battle was unrealistic, but when the film was made, there was no running tiger 1 in the world, about 2 years later tiger 131 was restored and has been used in fury!

The beach scene at the start was as realistic as thsy could gwt it, said by d-day vetrans!

I was deeply moved by the film, the scene were he's in the river and has to climb over all the bloated bodies of German and British soldiers to get out was so grotesque which I think was the point. The soldiers called life in the trenches 'Hell on Earth' and you can see why.

I thought it was brilliant and it stuck with me for weeks after.

@LadyTiredWinterBottom2

I haven't it.

My great grandfather was a runner. He had to crawl across part of no man's land to get a message that a French battalion were going into a trap. He did it, saved a 1000 lives and was awarded the Croix de Guerre for it.

I'm sure he would be glad to know you think it's unrealistic.

Your great grandfather was a hero.

Saving Private Ryan was actually full of people in the forces as well, the extras were nearly all army. The 'unrealistic' storyline is for the purpose of raising moral questions about war and the value of human life and all that, same as when they let that steamboat willie german go who later shoots captain Miller (Tom Hanks)

I know I'm pedantic about geography but that scene in the gorges at the end puzzled me, given it's set in northern France. Where was that supposed to be? It looked too rugged.

I enjoyed it, though.

I thought it was great , very moving and cinematography was stunning. George MacKay and Dean Charles Champman as the two leads were both excellent.

Its all chalk in northern France so they sheltered in big dug out quarries and tunnels often, is that what you mean? you can still go deep underground and see canadians carvings in the chalk

If it is told from the perspective of the British who are fighting the enemy the Germans then of course the Germans are the 'baddies' as you put it..... they were trying to kill us and take over Europe!

@user1471565182

Its all chalk in northern France so they sheltered in big dug out quarries and tunnels often, is that what you mean? you can still go deep underground and see canadians carvings in the chalk

I meant the scenes towards the end when he jumps into the river. It looks like it’s very steep-banked or a ravine.

gin re the map and compass. Many of the runners were not officer class and had limited education (conscription introduced in 1916) meant many soldiers were now farm labourers and factory hands many of whom would have finished education at 14 (girls at 12...I think and likely to have been patchy education up to that age). Very few would have had the luxury of a compass, or known how to use them unless an officer, and most officer's wouldn't have been runners. As others have said maps would have to be memorised, and not readily available.
Re the baby, gripe water contained alcohol (and possibly laudanum...although I'd need to check this as icr when it was banned) this was used to help them sleep/ quieten them.

Maybe the baby was so hungry it hadn't the energy to cry any more.

This thread is actually like re-watching the film with my 14 yr old who questions the accuracy and realism of every single scene in every single thing we watch

@GinTonicOnIt Babies dont always cry in those situations. I think in stressful environments they will often be very quiet because they pick up on the stress around them. (I actually know a really horrible true story about this I wont go into because its depressing and grim. But basically a few weeks old baby survived because of this). Plus I imagine (even subconciously) the parents would be very focused on the child and his needs to keep them as quiet as possible. eg reacting to even the slightest murmer before it becomes a cry.

I have read of real-life incidents where mothers have made the choice (hardly a choice though really), to smother a crying baby in order to protect their other children when in hiding/war/conflict scenarios. I can’t even begin to imagine how fucked up that would leave you. Horrific.

Northern France and Belgium the farmers built a huge drainage system with ravines, dykes and whatnot. Thats one of the reasons it got so muddy, shelling completely destroyed the drainage system that had been there for 100s of years. It was actually filmed on the Tees though.

My annoyance with 1917 was how incredibly healthy that baby in the basement looked. We were supposed to believe they were starving, and yet baby was lovely and chubby.

I thought this too and my only other beef was that all the men in the trenches had AMAZINGLY CLEAN UNIFORMS (after being in the trenches for weeks or months). Otherwise, I thought it was a very good film and, to my mind, pretty true to how it was, from what I was told by my grandfathers - I also have quite a lot of photos from the trenches as one grandfather smuggled his camera to France under his hat. Both my grandfathers were in WW1 - one on the frontline in Northern France - the other was also in WW2 and at one time had the job of crawling into no-man's land to find out why the radio line was not working - he found it was caught up, so he pulled it and it came free, along with a detached leg. They both survived but both got bravery decorations for particularly courageous achievements in very dangerous conditions (not for the radio wire incident).

@user1471565182

Bagelsandbrie find your son the Mud, Blood and Poppycock book is he hant got it already. Brilliant book on the practicalitiesof the great war

Thank you, I will have a google.

I've read an account of a british soldier stealing some cows milk to give to a baby which was in that state- I think thats what thats bit based on.

Watch the Great war interviews if they're still on Iplayer theyre bloody fascinating.