Sam Mendes on Taking World War I Out of the Trenches and Into the Theater in 1917

The problem with World War I on the screen is exactly the problem of World War I in reality: It may have been a linchpin of modern history, the fissure dividing the 19th Century from the 20th, profoundly transformative and utterly destructive, but it was also a static affair, fought from fortified trench lines out of which hundreds of thousands of young men emerged just long enough to be killed.