War epic 1917 (PG13, 119 minutes/opens today/ 5 stars) not only tackles a subject few film-makers want to touch, but does so with an approach that fills the viewer's senses: one leaves the cinema feeling the story in the gut.

In too many films, World War I is mentioned in shorthand with the use of tragedy tableaus showing corpse-strewn landscapes, vermin-ridden mud, the slaughter of the infantry charge.