A One Mann’s Movies review of “Sisu” (2023).
“Sisu”, claims an opening title, is an untranslatable Finnish word meaning having “courage, resilience, determination and inner strength”. This article states that it comes from the Finnish word for guts, and there are plenty of those on display here. Since this is an extremely gory film that Quentin Tarantino’s fake-blood supplier would approve of!
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
Plot Summary:
It’s 1944 and ex-Finnish SAS legend Aatami (Jorma Tommila) has had enough of World War 2. He is prospecting in the wilds when he discovers a huge vein of gold. Unfortunately his return to the bank to cash in his find is hampered when he runs into a rogue German column with a commander looking to end his war in profit. But the wild force of nature that is Aatami is not going to give up his gold without a fight.
Certification:
UK: 15; US: R. (From the BBFC: “Strong bloody violence, gore, language”).
Talent:
Starring: Jorma Tommila, Jack Doolan, Aksel Hennie, Mimosa Willamo.
Directed by: Jalmari Helander.
Written by: Jalmari Helander.
Twitter Handle: #SISUmovie.
“I thought these things smelt bad on the outside”. Aatami’s horse before ‘an incident’. (Source: Stage 6 Films).
“Sisu” Review:
Positives:
- Fans of gory war-based fiction will love this one. If you liked “Inglorious Basterds” then this will be your cup of tea. The kills are ludicrously gory from the get-go and just ramp up from then on. The film at one point gives a whole new meaning to the term ‘aqualung’!
- Film fans will also enjoy this one for the obvious nods to classic scenes from other movies: there’s the ‘under the truck’ bit from “Raiders of the Lost Ark”; the ‘bomb-riding’ from “Dr Strangelove”; and the Somme-shield scene from “Wonder Woman“. Possibly there are more. Overall, the action smells of “John Wick” and particularly “Nobody” in tone.
- There are some memorable visual moments in this movie that are well done, cinematographically-speaking (Kjell Lagerroos is behind the camera). The sight of two of the “bitches” (captured Finnish sex-slaves) walking in front of the tank and the triumphant woman in a line at the finale are visual highpoints.
- Jorma Tommila and Jack Doolan do a great job as the two lead protagonists.
- At 91 minutes, it doesn’t outstay its welcome.
Negatives:
- My negative view of “unrealism” in action movies seems to be a personal thing that doesn’t seem to be a major hang-up of others. But this film is a strong case in point for me. There are some ludicrous moments in this movie where Aatami should be well and truly dead (see the “Spoiler” section below the trailer). And the fact that they went there rather ruined the film for me. There were two options here, neither of which the filmmakers took:
- Option a) make the threat scenarios vaguely realistic, putting our hero in danger but realistic danger that he subsequently gets out of;
- Option b) Make our hero some sort of mythical ‘good’ energy force against the Nazis (“I hate these guys”)… a shimmering cloud of energy (or something) that coallesces into the form of the man. So you KNOW he is the equivalent of a Marvel superhero and not supposed to be an ‘ordinary man’.
- I felt the director rather aped Tarantino a bit too much, right down to the chapter titles slotted in.
Triggers?
I know animal lovers react very negatively to films that feature animals being killed or put in danger. In this film, there are two aspects: a dog that is shot at and put in danger and a horse that gets away significantly less well!
Summary Thoughts on “Sisu”
I came out of this film annoyed and rather negative about it, just based on the “unrealism” aspects of the plot as discussed above. I thought this had the potential to be a really good, grittier and gorier version of “Raiders of the Lost Ark”.
But, in retrospect, and with the benefit of distance, this was a really entertaining romp that I should lighten up on! I was going to give it 3-stars, but based on my obvious prejudice I’ve upped it to 3.5 stars.
[fblike]
Trailer for “Sisu”:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2k4QAItiSA.
Spoiler Section:
Don’t read past this point if you’ve not seen the movie.
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NO, SERIOUSLY!
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Some of the ridiculously unrealistic elements of this movie for me were:
- Aatami takes a barrage of machine gun fire from about 20 soldiers by hiding behind the casing of a mine. Not one bullet hits his legs or feet which are surely exposed! (I know Diana did this in 2018’s “Wonder Woman“, but she was a superhero where bullets bounced off her anyway!
- After numerous attempts by Nazis to walk along the mine-strewn road ends in disaster, they make two of the captured women walk in front of the tank. Not a single mine goes off!
- Aatami is hung by the neck from a rope. For minutes on end. Yet he is somehow able to survive that, for reasons that are not explained.
- Aatami is on a motorbike speeding towards a plane taking off. The take off speed of a plane of that size is, what, 200mph? Aatami’s bike might be doing 60mph? So a relative speed of 260mph. So what do you think him sticking his pickaxe into the bottom of the plane will do? a) rip his arm off at the shoulder, or b) allow him to hang off the bottom of the plane? If you chose option b)…ding… ding… ding… Yahtzee!!
- Aatami is inside a plane that crashes at full speed into the ground. AND HE SURVIVES. I know, the ground is a bog. But COME ON!!!!!!!
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