This is a lot.

Director and co-writer Sam Mendes’ heart wrenching, anxiety inducing and expertly crafted “1917” is one of those films that sticks to your bones well after the credits have rolled.

The seemingly standard war movie has evolved into something much more meaningful when it follows two young soldiers in the British Army fighting in France in April of 1917. The war has been waging on for three years and still has another 19 months of battles before it’s all over. We join Lance Corporal Schofield (George MacKay) and Lance Corporal Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman) as they are resting under a tree just outside the trenches. We follow them to their commanding officer General Erinmore (Colin Firth), where Blake receives orders to travel behind enemy lines about 7 miles to deliver an order to another unit, calling off an attack that has turned out to be a trap set by the Germans. Blake’s brother is among the unit that they fear will be massacred should the stand down message not be received.

And we’re off.

The two begin winding their way through the trenches to No-Man’s Land, and beyond, to deliver the vital order before it’s too late.

While it is based around stories recounted to Mendes from his grandfather, Alfred Mendes (to whom the film is lovingly dedicated), these are not real people or completely true events. It’s still a hell of a ride to see.

Cinematographer Roger Deakins (who deserves the Oscar this year) flawlessly moves the camera with our two soldiers seemingly without breaking, making it look as if the film is shot in one single take (or two, there is a break about two-thirds of the way through). We feel the claustrophobia of the trenches, the moonscape between the fronts, the death, the rot and the atrocities right alongside them.

The thing that sets “1917” apart from other war films is not only how it’s shot, which is a marvel in itself, but the story it tells. This isn’t glorifying the war, or the conquering heroes that come out victorious.

It is viscerally showing the horror and futility of war in real time with these low-ranking enlisted men as our way through.

The casting of George MacKay was great, too. Though he’s been in several films including 2008’s “Defiance” and 2016’s “Captain Fantastic,” he isn’t on the same level of celebrity as the film’s featured actors like Colin Firth, Andrew Scott, Mark Strong and Benedict Cumberbatch, making it much easier to find yourself immersed in the story and his journey. Despite that, the guy can hold his own. He literally carries the entire film on his back as the camera moves with him. We see the war on his face, subtly showing every emotion. Because of the way the film is shot, we are also able to sit with him after monumental events, and we see more of the toll it takes on him physically and emotionally.

Yes, there are some standard war movie tropes that rear their heads and some of the dialogue is forced, but it all seems to fade away when your heart gets to racing, and before you know it, you’re ugly crying in the theater.

“1917”

119 minutes

Rating: R for violence, some disturbing images and language

4 stars