Significance of the cut on the hand in 1917

What is the significance of Schofield getting his hand cut on the barbed wire in the movie 1917?

That hand pops up many times.

First the hand gets cut on wire.
The hand gets shoved into a decaying body
He visually grabs a rifle with his cut hand, subtle scene but front center.
He then wraps it.
At the last scene there is a handshake where the wrapped hand is still quite visible.

I don't think these scenes were done out of coincidence. What did the story teller intend with the wounded hand?

analysis 1917

Best Answer

While not directly answering your question, Sam Mendes mentions in an interview with CTV that when filming the shots surrounding the hand being cut in the barbed wire, he wanted to viewer to be immersed as possible in the experiences of the characters.

This can be interpreted to mean in this context, that Schofield crossing into no man's land was a very real and dangerous act and so his hand being cut is symbolic of the danger of the quest and the border he had just crossed.

It further adds a lens of authenticity as these characters we are watching experience realistic consequences that any of us would experience if we were in their shoes. It is muddy, it is dirty, people do get hurt.

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What happens to his hand in 1917?

When Schofield and Blake first cross into no man's land, Schofield cuts his hand open on a barbed wire fence. The pair joke about it \u2013 "You'll be wanking again in no time" \u2013 but Schofield soon accidentally puts that same hand into the corpse of a German soldier.

What happened schofields hand?

Schofield cuts his hand on a tangle of barbed wire in No Man's Land, and then moments later accidentally splashes his wound into the rotting torso of a dead German. That, my friends, is a zombie bite, a narrative device for which horror has trained its fans to always be on the lookout.

Does Schofield lose his hand in 1917?

Schofield and Blake cross into German territory through a field of barbed wire. Schofield injures his hand on the barbed wire. Soon afterwards they fall into a pit of death and decay, rats and dead bodies all over the place and Schofield's hand slips into the gut of a rotting body.

Does schofields hand get infected?

His cut is deep and bloody and he tries his best to bandage it up. He then manages to put the same hand into a dead body. The problem is, therefore, that the cut could become extremely infected from this and perhaps could spell the end of Schofield.

George MacKay Reveals His Most Dramatic Scene in 1917 Was a Mistake

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