Right, here we go.
First off, this is an incredible disc. Reference images, reference audio. Absolutely no arguments from me there, though for me LFE was a little overused. I've no objections to huge, chest-punching LFE when things go bang, but for some reason there is a constant LFE rumble through some scenes (not distant shells exploding, just constant low growl). I get that it's designed to add to the power and texture of the experience, but for people like me who, outside of movie theatres, actually listen to the soundscape, it was just a bit jarring.
I have very mixed feelings about the film. On the one hand it is a visual masterpiece. But on the other, I found much of it rather contrived. Several years ago I attempted to write a novel set during WW1. It never got published as I was still learning how to do it, but the research process took about two years. To get all the details right, I read more than 50 books on the period and events of the conflict, countless first-hand accounts and of course soaked up every visual aid I could. This knowledge was a bit of a double-edged sword when watching 1917.
Because much of the mise en scène here is pulled directly from some of the most famous WWI photography. There was a sense of things shoehorned into the images and dialogue not through narrative necessity but because it came from some giant list of 'stuff' that researchers felt should be included to evoke the period. Anyway, that's quite subjective, but I'd be intersted to know if anyone else watching it also had that sense even without a load of WW1 books behind them.
The whole 'one shot' thing is clever, and it definitely keeps you in the action. It works. What didn't work for me was the conspicuous exposition of character background (extraneous information about cherry orchards and so on), or the passivity of the soldiers we follow, always doing their damnedest not to kill or hurt anyone. Since any attempt to do so can only be conspicuous in what is essentially a non-stop action movie, I genuinely think the film would have been much improved by not attempting to give the characters a past through their dialogue.
Clearly both of these things exist so we can empathise by the time we get to one or two scenes at the end of the film designed to deliver an emotional gutpunch. But for me, because the character background exposition is both conspicuous and ineffectual, and because the passivity of the main players makes no real sense given their situation, the 'you're gonna cry now' moments at the end fall flat.
There were also one or two shots (the running shot near the end with all the soldiers running perpendicular behind and around our main character) where the fact that it's a CG/composite shot is a bit too obvious. I couldn't enjoy some of these shots because the visual effects hit the uncanny valley and became too distracting.
Overall an excellent disc, but one that contains a film that could have been amazing, but somehow just isn't. It's a 6/10 from me for the film, and I of course agree with Cas's 10/10s for visuals and audio (maybe a 9.5 out of 10 for the obtuse usage of LFE).