---
title: "The new trailer for ‘1917’ shows World War I like you’ve never seen before"
date: "2019-08-01"
modified: "2019-08-01"
authors:
  - name: "James Clark"
    job_title: "Editor-in-Chief"
    link: "https://taskandpurpose.com/authors/james-clark/"
url: "https://taskandpurpose.com/culture/1917-wwi-trailer/"
categories:
  - "Culture"
  - "Entertainment"
  - "History"
  - "Past Conflicts"
  - "World War I"
tags:
  - "video"
---

# The new trailer for ‘1917’ shows World War I like you’ve never seen before

![](<https://taskandpurpose.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/20516000-1.jpg>)

It looks like World War I is finally getting the major motion picture treatment it deserves, and it's about damn time.

The new trailer for *1917* [just dropped](<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcmZN0Mbl04>), and it's two minutes of chaos, fear, and confusion as we follow soldiers on the Western Front through trenches, underground tunnels, and across barren stretches of no-man's land — which is exactly what you expect from a drama about the first world war.

Directed by Sam Mendes (*Jarhead, Skyfall, Spectre, Road to Perdition*), the film takes place, not surprisingly, in 1917, and follows a pair of British soldiers played by [George MacKay](<https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1126657/?ref_=tt_cl_t7>) and [Dean-Charles Chapman](<https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2835616/?ref_=tt_cl_t8>), who are ordered to make their way through contested territory to deliver a message that could save 1,600 of their fellow soldiers from a deadly trap.

Should they fail, "it will be a massacre," [Collin Firth](<https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000147/?ref_=tt_cl_t5>) in the role of a beleaguered British officer, says in the clip. In addition to stars like Firth, the cast includes [Benedict Cumberbatch](<https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1212722/?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm>), [Mark Strong](<https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0835016/?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm>), and [Richard Madden](<https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0534635/?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm>).

Given Mendes' ability to share a character's complex internal struggles — he somehow managed to make James Bond seem sympathetic in *Skyfall*, and with *Jarhead,* captured the moral complexity of what it's like to be an infantryman at war who never fired a shot in anger — we might get a film that renders a distant conflict like World War I relatable, and immediately recognizable.

*1917* is set to hit theaters on Dec. 25, 2019.

## Author
James Clark is the editor-in-chief of Task & Purpose. He is a former Marine and a veteran of the War in Afghanistan.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://twitter.com/JamesWClark>)  
[LinkedIn](<https://www.linkedin.com/in/jclarkjournalism/>)