‘1917’: Masterfully crafted, immersive, harrowing war drama

‘That Deakins fellow is quite clever. I can’t tell if it’s a giant coil of barbed wire behind you, or a regular-sized tangle of it right in front of us.’

As grandfather stories go, 1917 is one powerfully evocative tale, at once an unflinching look at how hellish war can get, while offering ample evidence of the indomitability of the human will.

Rather than pound home its point about wartime horrors with Dolby-fied decibels, pyrotechnics and gore, it achieves its objectives by disturbingly recreating the aftermath of pitched battle.