Given today’s political climate and the resurgence of white nationalism in countries that once fought and prevailed in the Second World War against the Third Reich, Amazon’s ‘Hunters’ (2020) feels painfully appropriate. Others might say perhaps too appropriate, but the overall darkly comic approach takes the edge off this genre-bending saga. Not that long ago, people were debating about whether it was cool to punch Nazis or not after Richard Spencer got himself a shiner during a televised interview.

Many agreed that we’d best go high when they go low—but many more pointed out that being a Nazi is the epitome of evil. And in the face of evil, one fights. ‘Hunters’ satisfies the latter group of people by providing a violent ensemble of ‘hunters’ who take karma into their own hands and not only punch Nazis but kill them, acting as judge, jury, and executioners.

‘HUNTERS’ (2020), ©MONKEYPAW PRODUCTIONS/AMAZON STUDIOS

The series is based on a true and little-known fact: not long after the Second World War ended, and Germany was falling apart at the seams, the American government brought over and secured new identities for a throng of Nazi scientists. People who had served Hitler and his dreams of an Aryan empire were hired by NASA and other government branches to help push the United States into a new era. This was Operation Paperclip, and it eventually sent the Americans to the Moon. ‘Hunters’, however, does much more with this inspiration source. Its story involves an incredibly elaborate plan of the aforementioned secret Nazi immigrants to bring about the Fourth Reich as they pretend to be God-loving American citizens, and it is up to Meyer Offerman (Al Pacino) and his comic-bookish band of vigilantes to stop them.

At first sight, ‘Hunters’ might give off a sensationalist impression. The Memorial and Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau accused the production of ‘dangerous foolishness and caricature’ over some of its scenes—particularly the Auschwitz prisoners’ deadly chess game, where SS officers forced them onto a life-size chessboard field, using them as pieces and pushing them to kill each other with every conquering move. But newcomer creator David Weil defended the scene, which was likely inspired from Dan Simmons’ ‘Carrion Comfort’ sci-fi novel of 1989: ‘After all, it is true that Nazis perpetrated widespread and extreme acts of sadism […] against their victims. I simply did not want to depict those specific, real acts of trauma.’

‘HUNTERS’ (2020), ©MONKEYPAW PRODUCTIONS/AMAZON STUDIOS

The show is, in fact, respectful of the Jewish people and their immense suffering at the hands of the Nazis. Its characters do a fantastic job of conveying their emotions, their anger and their desire for justice on behalf of the millions of people who died in atrocious conditions—friends, families, loved ones. ‘Hunters’ is, by all intents and purposes, a revenge fantasy that crosses several genres and has no mercy for the villains in its story. Some might find the violence glorifying, but the overall formula works if one focuses less on the historical accuracy and more on the characters’ journey. It is surprisingly unpredictable, and we don’t know exactly what’s going to happen until it happens. And the outlook is often grim, but Weil’s hunters keep fighting because… well, what else are they going to do, when the Nazis have infiltrated the American government to the highest level?

‘Hunters’ is David Weil’s first foray as a showrunner, and he has put together an impressive team of writers and directors to convey his vision onto Amazon’s Prime streaming platform. Cumulated credits of this crew include gritty and compelling productions such as ‘Watchmen’ (2019), ‘Prison Break’ (2007-2017), ‘American Horror Story’ (2011-2016), ‘Legion’ (2017), ‘Happy!’ (2017-2019) and ‘Preacher’ (2017-2019), to name but a few. The writing is rife with dark humour and sprinkled with Yiddish snark of the highest calibre. The Nazi characters have a slightly over-the-top allure, yet they manage to be realistically terrifying when they pounce on their victims. The hunters are a rat-pack of sorts, a diverse group of men and women gathered under Offerman’s tutelage to exact revenge upon people with the means and resources to practically destroy the world. The stakes become painfully obvious as the story unfolds.

‘HUNTERS’ (2020), ©MONKEYPAW PRODUCTIONS/AMAZON STUDIOS

The cinematography is exquisite, as ‘Hunters’ is seen through a cinematic retro lens. Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, the pilot’s director and an alumnus of Ryan Murphy’s ‘AHS’ and ‘Glee’ productions, said that he wanted to make Weil’s series as cinematic as possible, which is, in part, accomplished through its feature length, but fully established through the camera work. ‘I want everything to be screened at the Cinerama Dome, so I’m always approaching everything asking, “Is it worthy of the big screen?”’ Gomez-Rejon told Variety.

William Rexer of ‘The Loudest Voice’ (2019), Emmy Award winner Frederick Elmes of ‘The Night Of’ (2016), and Tim Norman are the cinematographers that Weil chose for this project, and the end result, combined with Curt Beech’s sterling production design, is an enthralling immersion in 1970s New York. There is something about the lighting, in particular, that further adds to the show’s vintage vibe and its already dark story.

Worldbuilding and screenplay aside, however, it is the actors’ performances that deserve a round of heartfelt applause. ‘Hunters’ is propelled by a strong cast and an even stronger sense of justice. It’s Al Pacino’s first role as a television series regular, and his portrayal of Meyer Offerman is absolutely spectacular. If anyone can get us to believe that the end justifies the means, it is the Jewish millionaire who survived the horrors of Auschwitz and uses his fortune to track down and kill as many Nazis on American soil as he can.

‘HUNTERS’ (2020), ©MONKEYPAW PRODUCTIONS/AMAZON STUDIOS

Logan Lerman has grown a lot since ‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower’ (2012), ‘Fury’ (2014), and the ‘Percy Jackson’ films. The slow-burning pilot brings him into focus as the Jewish teenager who gave up on college and resorted to dealing weed to support his grandmother, whom he lovingly refers to as his Safta. His world is turned upside down when she’s gunned down in their own home, and he discovers that she was an integral part of a band of Nazi hunters led by Meyer Offerman, who immediately becomes a sort of twisted grandfather figure.

Lerman’s Jonah Heidelbaum is full of emotions—his pain transcends the fantasy of the screen as he tries to cope with this ugly reality that he’s been plunged into. As the plot thickens, and he starts losing more of the people he loves, Jonah becomes determined to stop the Nazis from achieving their goals, following Offerman’s questionable path. There is a clear evolution of Jonah as a character, from a shy weed-dealing Jewish boy who loves his grandmother but isn’t truly connected to his legacy, to the furious young man who feels the pain of all the Jewish people as he digs deeper into his grandmother’s history and the horrors perpetrated by the Nazis.

‘HUNTERS’ (2020), ©MONKEYPAW PRODUCTIONS/AMAZON STUDIOS

An exquisite part of the ‘Hunters’ ensemble are Saul Rubinek and Carol Kane as Murray and Mindy Markowitz, survivors of a death camp themselves. Mr Rubinek was born in a refugee camp in Germany in 1948, where his father ran a Yiddish Repertory Theatre company, so aside from his thespian talent—easily demonstrated by ‘Unforgiven’ (1992) and ‘True Romance’ (1993), among others, he also draws from his own life and upbringing to add that essential dose of realism which makes Murray Markowitz authentic and much-beloved.

Known best for her role as Valerie in ‘The Princess Bride’ (1987), Lillian Kaushtupper in ‘Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’ (2015-2019), and Mrs Sisters in ‘The Sisters Brothers’ (2018), respectively, Carol Kane is truly arresting as Mindy Markowitz. She survived the Holocaust, even though she watched her son, a mere child, gunned down by an SS officer during the family separation process. She survived the camp in part thanks to Murray, who left her a dandelion on the fence each day, so she’d know that ‘it’s gonna be okay’, eventually. The Markowitzes are Offerman’s chief technical ‘officers’, and they’re quite adept at balancing their religious lives with their Nazi hunting endeavours. They love each other deeply, and they share the kind of trauma that would normally break people into bits and pieces—through everything they have endured, however, Murray and Mindy Markowitz have managed to push through.

‘HUNTERS’ (2020), ©MONKEYPAW PRODUCTIONS/AMAZON STUDIOS

Some have wondered what Josh Radnor of ‘How I Met Your Mother’ (2005-2014) fame was doing in ‘Hunters’. To my surprise, he offers a hilarious rendition of Lonny Flash, the washed-up Jewish actor turned Nazi hunter. Richard Dreyfuss keeps ‘stealing’ the spotlight from him, but Flash is not easily defeated. Though he comes across as a skeevy womanizer and perhaps not the brightest fruit in the basket, he certainly delivers when it’s time to get serious, without skimping on the much-needed comic relief.

Tiffany Boone of ‘Beautiful Creatures’ (2013) and ‘The Following’ (2014) plays Roxy Jones, a badass single mother with a glorious afro that uses the paid work she does for Offerman to fund her ex’s civil rights protests. Louis Ozawa of ‘The Bourne Legacy’ (2012) is Joe Mizushima, a war veteran who’s still plagued by harrowing memories of combat that include an attempt to carry a napalm-stricken girl off to safety. Kate Mulvany is remembered as Mrs McKee in ‘The Great Gatsby’ (2013), but as Sister Harriet, the gun-slinging and ass-kicking vigilante nun in ‘Hunters’, she is easily one of the show’s undeniable superstars.

‘HUNTERS’ (2020), ©MONKEYPAW PRODUCTIONS/AMAZON STUDIOS

Dylan Baker as Biff Simpson, Undersecretary of State to President Jimmy Carter by day and secret Nazi better known as ‘the Butcher of Arlav’ by night, is exactly what one of the key villains in this series is supposed to be—equal parts scary and over the top, and with the morals of a mollusc. Greg Austin of ‘Mr Selfridge’ (2014-2016) is quite the surprise as Travis Leich, a psychopathic Nazi assassin with dreams of becoming the American Hitler. Lena Olin makes a brilliant return to television as The General, a deviant Nazi mastermind and Offerman’s ultimate antagonist.

If historical accuracy or lack thereof may put viewers off, ‘Hunters’ certainly rises above the other mixed genre shows with its exceptional performances and brutally honest pieces of American history disguised as mock TV commercials and game show snippets—because if there is one thing that the United States may never escape, it’s this complicated relationship with white supremacy, which dates back long before the Second World War. ‘Hunters’ is not for everyone, but for those who wish to revel in a full-blown revenge-against-the-Nazis bonanza, it is the gift that will likely keep on giving.

War is an unpleasant but defining trait of our species. It has shaped entire civilizations and broken up empires. It has been a king maker and a destroyer of nations. We’ve gone to war for different reasons, most of them fuelled either by greed or by a passionate desire for freedom. Billions have lost their lives over the centuries, but billions more lived to tell the tale of the conflicts that built their countries and to make sure such fighting never happens again. Even today, parts of the world are embroiled in violent campaigns of land ownership or religious ideology. War, as horrific and as heart-breaking as it may be, has also been the source of some truly compelling stories.

It is a complicated thing to write about, considering the complexity and the insane amount of logistics that goes into creating a realistic rendition of its undertaking. War itself is equally difficult to engage in, so why would a story about it be any easier?

DENNIS HOPPER IN ‘APOCALYPSE NOW’ (1979), ©ZOETROPE

Accounts of almost superhuman strength and bravery, of camaraderie and resilience, have made history in the cinematic universe—even today, Francis Ford Coppola’s ‘Apocalypse Now’ (1979) is a staple of its genre. Walter Murch spent over a year to edit the film to perfection. Steven Spielberg’s ‘Saving Private Ryan’ (1998) gave us stellar performances from Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, and Tom Sizemore, to name but a few. And the list continues with silver screen gems such as ‘Platoon’ (1986), ‘Full Metal Jacket’ (1987), ‘The Dirty Dozen’ (1967), or ‘The Thin Red Line’ (1998), among many others. They all portray humans at their worst and best, stuck in the heart of violence and death.

But ‘1917’ (2019), ten-time Academy Award nominee and winner of the Golden Globe and seven BAFTAs, manages to bring the war film genre to a whole new standard. Two major conflicts defined the 20th century. The First and the Second World Wars managed to redraw the global political map, whilst embedding some of the worst crimes against humanity in the annals of history. Directed by Sam Mendes of ‘American Beauty’ (1999), ‘Jarhead’ (2005) and ‘Skyfall’ (2012) fame, ‘1917’ goes deep into the reality of WWI—so deep, in fact, that we’re thrown right into the trenches with the main protagonists.

‘1917’ (2019), ©AMBLIN PARTNERS/DREAMWORKS

Every single aspect of this film points to a painstaking attention to detail, without which it wouldn’t have reached such levels of excellence, in the first place. Sam Mendes and Krysty Wilson-Cairns, the latter known for her work on ‘Penny Dreadful’ (2016), wrote ‘1917’ as the story of two soldiers and comrades who are sent behind enemy lines to deliver a message to their fellow British troops, a message that would ultimately stop the massacre of over 1,600 men. It is loosely based on a tale told to Mendes by his grandfather, Alfred, who fought in the First World War. While mostly fictional, the film’s execution is so magnificent that it ends up feeling all too real.

The overall appeal of ‘1917’ is its impression of a single continuous shot turned into feature length. Mendes has dabbled with the single shot technique before—see the opening scene of ‘Skyfall’, for example. But taking that and making an entire movie with it was a whole new challenge altogether. Enter Roger Deakins, Academy Award winning cinematographer better known for his work on ‘Blade Runner 2049’ (2017), ‘No Country for Old Men’ (2007), ‘Fargo’ (1996), and his previous collaboration with Mendes on ‘Skyfall’. Mr Deakins manages to turn the camera into an extraordinary element, taking us from ravaged and corpse-filled trenches and puddles to aerial shots that leave us breathless.

GEORGE MACKAY IN ‘1917) (2019), ©FRANÇOIS DUHAMEL/AP

We glide across the water as we follow lance corporals Schofield and Blake, who have embarked on the most dangerous quest of their lives, slipping through the enemy lines and across no man’s land in order to save their comrades from marching into a deadly trap. These long continuous shots become incredibly personal, forcing us to hold on to our breaths as we root for the young lads to prevail. We’re shot at. We watch a dogfight in the sky, only to see a German plane hurtling towards us mere seconds later. It is all too real and harrowing, often intensely emotional and at times so exciting that it is difficult to sit still.

The second production element worthy of all praise is the design. Dennis Gassner, who’s worked with both Roger Deakins and Sam Mendes on ‘Skyfall’ and ‘Blade Runner 2049’, brought his meticulousness on board for ‘1917’.

GEORGE MACKAY IN ‘1917’ (2019), ©AMBLIN PARTNERS/DREAMWORKS

Absolutely everything used in terms of set and costume design is the result of painstakingly hard work provided by him and his team of costume and set designers—the soldiers’ uniforms and weaponry; the barbed wire forests; the mud and filthy puddles in which fallen men rot; the underground shelters with girlfriends’ names scrawled over the support beams, rats and abandoned cans of food; the sinister abandoned farms of northern France; the magnificent views of a war-ravaged town with its ruins and piles of rubble, while the yellow phosphorescent haze illuminates the sky and highlights the ongoing battle… it all adds up to a hyperrealism of cinematography that further sinks us into the story.

DEAN CHARLES CHAPMAN AND GEORGE MACKAY IN ‘1917’ (2019), ©AMBLIN PARTNERS/DREAMWORKS

Lee Smith, previously known for his stellar editing of ‘Inception’ (2010), ‘Dunkirk’ (2017), and ‘The Dark Knight’ (2008), was tasked with bringing the long and exquisitely complex single shots and occasional ellipses together in order to meet Mendes’s vision all the way through. The result is a fluid tale, told mostly by the two main protagonists as they move and fight and struggle to survive behind enemy lines. ‘1917’ follows a sinuous voyage into the heart of the First World War with an agility that is downright astonishing.

BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH IN ‘1917’ (2019), ©AMBLIN PARTNERS/DREAMWORKS

But perhaps the greatest performance is offered by the actors themselves. From a marketing point of view, ‘1917’ deserves praise. By casting titanic names such as Benedict Cumberbatch, Colin Firth and Mark Strong in supporting roles, Mendes drew attention. But by the time we’re submerged into the story, we realize that their contribution, while poignant and heartfelt, is merely meant to uplift the main heroes, vividly and viscerally portrayed by George MacKay and Dean Charles Chapman—the lance corporals with an impossible mission.

The two young men were arduously trained and prepared to undertake their roles as British soldiers. Credit here goes to Paul Bidiss, former paratrooper and senior military advisor, who worked with the actors for weeks so they could look and act the part as realistically as possible. That included running across long distances and tough terrains whilst fully equipped in that epoch’s military gear. With previous experience on ‘Jason Bourne’ (2016), ‘Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation’ (2015), and ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ (2020), to name but a few, Mr Bidiss’s contribution is worth commending as an integral factor that amplifies the aforementioned hyperrealism of ‘1917’.

DEAN CHARLES CHAPMAN AND GEORGE MACKAY IN ‘1917’ (2019), ©AMBLIN PARTNERS/DREAMWORKS

As characters, MacKay’s Schonfield and Chapman’s Blake are remarkably different. They’re both young, clearly too young to be in a war—alas, that’s just one of the harsh truths of combat; boys are given weapons and sent to kill or be killed. Blake has fun stories to tell and a certain ingenuity that shows he’s not been in the trenches for too long. Schonfield, on the other hand, carries himself with heavy silence and few but equally heavy words. He’s already won a medal for his bravery, which he traded for a bottle of wine. It’s just a piece of tin, he tells a baffled Blake. There is innocence in his eyes, too, but it’s already been marred by everything he’s seen so far. Schonfield understands the toll that war demands of its participants, yet he keeps moving, he keeps going and fighting in service of his country. There is no happy ending for soldiers in a war, because they either die or come back haunted by what they have witnessed.

GEORGE MACKAY IN ‘1917’ (2019), ©AMBLIN PARTNERS/DREAMWORKS

Our hearts either jump or break, in a repeated and sometimes combined fashion, as we follow them on April 6th 1917, jumping from one hostile environment to another, without a chance to breathe and rest. Schonfield and Blake must reach the Second Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment before they launch a doomed-to-fail assault on the Hindenburg Line. By the time Schonfield escapes the Germans and jumps into the rapids for some kind of salvation, we experience a sense of hopelessness—but in our hearts we know that in these odysseys, it always gets worse before it gets better.

GEORGE MACKAY IN ‘1917’ (2019), ©AMBLIN PARTNERS/DREAMWORKS

Schonfield’s scene as he floats on the river, trying to stay awake while flower petals fall onto the water, faintly reminds me of John Everett Millais’ Ophelia painting. Like her, Schonfield seems to have been suspended in time, slowly drifting into the arms of death. But unlike Ophelia, Schonfield manages to find the strength to live.

GEORGE MACKAY IN ‘1917’ (2019), ©AMBLIN PARTNERS/DREAMWORKS

Thomas Newman has penned a terrific score for this film. It completes the film, seamlessly leading to its culminating point alongside Schonfield as he decides to run across the battlefield in order to find Benedict Cumberbatch’s Colonel MacKenzie and deliver General Erinmore’s message. It’s his last chance to stop ‘Sixteen Hundred Men’ from dying. That scene is the triumph of ‘1917’ as a cinematic masterpiece and immersive war drama—Schonfield runs and stumbles and falls and runs again while the Second Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment begin their attack on the Hindenburg Line. 

The end brings us full circle, in a way, with Schonfield settling by the trunk of an old tree, significantly wearier and more broken in so many ways, as opposed to the opening scene. A stark reminder of the true horrors and overall ridiculousness of war, ‘1917’ is a punch to the collective solar plexus, so beautifully made that it has certainly earned its place among the giants of its genre.