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This film is a phenomenon, and possibly one of the best (if not the best) films I have ever seen. People had said to me before I had watched it ‘apparently it’s the next ‘Saving Private Ryan’’ and I was worried it wasn’t going to live up to the hype, but I needn’t have been concerned at all. There aren’t many films that have you gripped 2 minutes into the first scene, but this film had my undivided attention from beginning to end. I couldn’t precisely describe what it is that makes this film so outstanding, I would say that it’s a collective of the small things, like the condensed narrative, or just the compendious way the film presents itself from the outset. I loved the fact that there were very few characters, and I think George Mackay did a fantastic job in his presentation of the main protagonist. Another thing I really loved was the way in which Mendes has included some big names in this film, people like; Mark Strong, Benedict Cumberbatch, Colin Firth, but (and I mean this in the most respectful way) they had absolutely no significance to the film. The film isn’t about the big names, their characters are so fleeting and frankly could have been played by anyone, they are completely flat, but I think that’s the beauty of it. It’s fantastic because if anything it just highlights the importance of the message I suppose Mendes presents, and increases our relationship with the main character more. In my opinion this film portrays the War itself so brilliantly, and I don’t mean in terms of accuracy or historical fact, but in the sense that we don’t get lost in a world of special effects and CGI and the likes, which we have seen in so many other films like this, and frankly it was something I had expected to see in this one, so I was so enthralled and surprised when I saw this film and there weren’t constant explosions every couple of minutes. I must say however, this film isn’t for the faint hearted, the suspense is imminent and frankly extremely nerve racking, but spectacular. I honestly recommend everyone to go and see this film, it truly is a stunning representation of such a disastrous and destructive period in history.