Headscratchers / 1917

• It goes unmentioned in the film, but what practical reasons would have prevented Army Command from sending the critical message to the unit by having one or more airplanes dropping the message to them (aside from depriving the critical drama of the film's story)? There were planes available in the area, and it's understandable if carrier pigeons couldn't be used for this critical message.
  • Firstly, the pilots would be at risk of being shot down by German aircraft. Secondly, if the message was dropped by itself from a high enough altitude, the wind could blow it miles away, potentially even into German territory, which would mean someone would have to risk their lives getting a message when they have no idea where it could have landed, and hope to get back in time before the waves were sent out (although this is a moot point because they had no way of knowing a message was even coming from Army Command at all). Sending messages with experienced runners is risky in its own right, but when orders are needed to reach the frontline quickly, they’re the least risky option.
• As they're leaving, they mention they've been given grenades. That seems like the right weapon for Schofield to use on the sniper. He never does.
  • There isn't really a good time to use them. When he's in the stairway, he has limited cover and the sniper's got the drop on him, so obviously he doesn't want to expose himself for a long throw that might just bounce off the roof. When he's crossing the street, he's out in the open and needs to keep the sniper pinned. When he's in the house, the sniper's upstairs behind a door and a balcony; Scho might be able to toss one through the door, but then he doesn't know exactly how it'll play out... might as well charge in and shoot the guy.
    • Decent answers. To me it seemed the writers needed a way to knock him out for a few hours, so that several hours could pass in an otherwise real-time movie. That was a fairly convoluted way to accomplish that, I thought.
  • This, of course, is assuming that Scho remembers that he has grenades to begin with.

• Why didn't Army Command send the message with the reinforcement convoy Schofield meets? They aren't going all the way to the Devonshire Regiment, but surely it would be faster to have the message driven as far as the village and then carried on foot from there, rather than sending troops from another unit further back?
  • The convoy were from another division, whereas the Eighth were the ones who had that piece of intelligence. Presumably General Erinmore didn't know they were in the area. Even if he did, he also mentions that when they retreated, the Germans cut the phone lines, so they wouldn't have been able to contact them anyway.

• If the Germans are based in the city and posted a sniper to guard the outskirts, why doesn’t anyone come up to check on him after they heard several shots fired?
  • All the Germans Schofield meets in Ecoust-Saint-Mein are stragglers. They've gotten lost or deserted their units. If they did hear the shooting, they would probably have said "better them than me" and avoided the area. This is all foreshadowed by Captain Smith, who warns Schofield to watch out for German stragglers. They'd been shooting at his men earlier that day.

• Why is British soldier singing an American spiritual song, The Wayfaring Stranger?
  • It's not really unusual for people to enjoy music from other nations.
    • Especially if it's already in the same language and appeals to a shared faith.
    • It would be unusual for a British kid in the 1910s to even know a regional American folk song, however. The odds of it being recorded on a phonograph record that got any distribution to speak of overseas seem very slim.
    • The odds of him hearing a recording may have been slim, sure, but it was the 1910s. It was the Golden Age of the music-hall, and a golden age for sheet music and songbook sales too. There were also any number of travelling preachers and speakers and the like doing trans-Atlantic tours. The song had also been in print for sixty years at that point.

• The Devonshire regiment is in fairly deep trench with some dugouts already prepared. How did they build that in what was at most 2 days?
  • Fifteen hundred men can accomplish a lot in two days.

• Why does the pilot of the downed German plane aim it for the only building for miles? Wouldn't it make more sense to try to crash land in an open field instead? Considering how far away he was from the building when his plane caught fire, the only way he could end up crashing into it is if he deliberately aimed his plane there.
  • He might have seen Blake and Schofield and decided to try to take them down with him.
  • The plane's more or less moving in a straight line from flameout to crash. It's likely that the engine, ailerons and/or rudder is crippled and the pilot is simply trying to reach the ground in one piece - not much time to look around for a clear landing space if that ever happens.
  • Another possibility: he was intentionally trying to use the building to slow the plane down, smashing through the opening with the fuselage specifically in order to tear off the wings and give him a shot at jumping out. Similar to how a driver in a runaway car might try to side-swipe something on the passenger's side to slow the vehicle enough to jump out.

• When Schofield awakes, German flares fly over Écoust. Why are the Germans firing flares? Are they looking for Schofield (after hearing the sniper fire earlier), do they want to let the moving British troops know that they're still in the town, or are they all drunk and just firing (and thus wasting) flares for the heck of it?
  • Probably a combination of A, C, and trying to flush out any other survivors. Also, if any of them are lost (as mentioned above, "Why doesn't anyone check up on the sniper"), they'd probably want to signal other Germans to come pick them up.

• When Schofield is with the French civilian and the orphaned baby, he hears a bell tolling. Where is that bell (the only church in Écoust is on fire), and who is ringing that bell? The Germans? Why? A civilian? Again: why?
  • The script here says it's the church bell. As for who's ringing it or why... well, out of universe, we need to know that Schofield needs to get a move on. In-universe, your guess is as good as mine.

• Who milked the cow? The milk would probably be good for hours, since it's still early enough that the day would be cool. But it doesn't look like the owners evacuated that morning. And even if they did, why didn't they take the milk?
  • The place is trashed when Schofield and Blake find it, and Schofield comes upon a doll with cigarette burns on its eyes. It's possible the German soldiers were the ones who milked the cow before moving on.

• Why did Blake and Schofield help the German pilot out instead of shooting him?
  • Because they aren't murderers.
  • There are lots of stories about human instinct to help one another taking over in situations where there isn't anyone telling you to kill enemy combatants. It's just as likely the German pilot reacted the way he did because he was disoriented and scared from the crash and saw that the people trying to help him weren't Germans. Had there been no communication barrier, it's just as likely they would've seen to his wounds and then taken him into custody.
    • What custody? They're on an urgent mission; what are they going to do with him? It was probably instinctive that they pulled him out of the plane rather than letting him burn to death but they obviously hadn't thought about what would happen next.
  • I took it that they misidentified the plane and didn't realize it was German till they pulled the pilot out.
  • My question with that scene is how Blake was stabbed in the first place. The camera's not on them, but we hear him say "No, no, stop!" And then there's still several seconds before he screams out in pain at being stabbed. But he wasn't being held onto, so presuming he saw the pilot reach for his knife, hence the 'stop!', why did he not just take even a few steps further back?

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