Sam Mendes is one of my favorite directors. Yet, 1917 is very amateur in every aspect. Movie is an unsuccessful duplication of Saving Private Ryne ( SePR ) . It animates the very unforgettable scenes of SPR. The mission, the adventure two soldiers face, even the knife fight scene, raiding the house with wooden srairs in which German sniper was hiding ..Everything is copied from the benchmark movie SPR. Besides, there are unconvincing plot fallacies. When two soldiers gotten the mission to deliver the message to not that remote division, first they rush then they slow down. Plus if there were British soldiers majority alongside the road why on earth one of these planes, division etc..hasn't been given that mission.. Colin Firth's apperance even seem not to spare the movie from being a big dissapointment. If the director was a youngster from Z generation it could be accaptable . But seeing Sam Mendes' name in the movie shaked me very badly !