Sisu is a Finnish action/war movie with an inspired Tarantino grindhouse riff: Inglorious Basterds, all killer edition
From Finland, Sisu is a glorious World War II action/western delivering unburdened cinematic thrills through terrific cinematography, production design, and a stand-out lead performance
Sisu, Finland, 2022, 91 mins | Action, War, Western, Grindhouse | Starring: Jorma Tommila, Aksel Hennie, Jack Doolan, Mimosa Willamo | Written and Directed by: Jalmari Helander | Prod. Company: Stage 6 films | Distributed by Lionsgate
From Finnish writer/director Jalmari Helander comes a well-executed war/action/western genre concoction with a perfect run time of 91 mins. Others may have been tempted to pad this out with another 10 minutes, but that would only dilute this precision build Nazi killing machine. In the style of Rambo, Aatami (Jorma Tommila) is an invincible one-man, lone wolf warrior who defies death with his sheer will never to give up. “He’s not immortal,” a character in the film informs us. “He just refuses to die.” Thereby he personifies the spirit of “sisu,” an untranslatable Finnish word that suggests an indefatigable spirit that simply will not give up.
The film is a simple case of setup and execution, appealingly delivered with chapter headings such as The Gold, The Nazis, The Scorched Earth, and Kill ‘Em All. The setup presents us with Aatami, a Finnish retired general with 300 battle kills, prospecting for gold alone in the northern Finnish countryside when he encounters a retreating Nazi squadron nearing the end of World War II. Aatami is hounded by this troop of beleaguered soldiers and their commandant Bruno (Aksel Hennie), who rob him of his bounty and attempt to mindless dispatch him when they find themselves outmatched by his cunning and his never-give-up spirit of “sisu.”
The execution of this simple premise is convincing, thanks largely to actor Jorma Tommila's cunning turn as an invincible soldier. A story trope made into an 80s blockbuster genre by Stallone embodying Rambo and Schwarzenegger in Commando and Predator. Moreover, making the character older and “retired” nicely morphs the film into Liam Neeson’s older man with a particular set of skills territory, adding a fresh dimension to the “kill ‘em all” solo warriors in war movies cliché. Aatami, it turns out, still has a hell of a lot of fight left in him, epitomizing the spirit of “sisu.”
The execution on a film craft level is expertly delivered. The cinematography features lengthy location set storytelling in the barren, lichen-covered landscape of Northern Finland. The production design likewise delivers period-specific munitions of war from a tank to a plane, with the last chapter elevating thrills to the airborne. CGI blood splatters and glorious deaths deliver visceral kills that deliciously satisfy R-rated viewers’ thirst for gore and blood. Aatami is put through one impossible circumstance after another, besting the overstacked odds of his demise at each turn. The escalation mounts the thrills, and instead of creating an eye-roll of indifference from implausibility, I found myself leaning in with amazement.
The escalation mounts the thrills, and instead of creating an eye-roll of indifference from implausibility, I found myself leaning in with amazement.
To this day, a safe space to carve your baddies from is the Nazi regime of World War II infamy. A refreshing take here is to see them weary with toil and on the retreat during the waning years of the war in 1944. Head commandant Bruno is fully characterized by the script and in performance by Aksel Hennie. He brings a likeable charm to his role, refreshingly not presenting a cliché but a real soldier out for his own fortune with an uncertain future ahead. Aware their days are numbered, Bruno and his squad are equally motivated to plan for their own retirement. Thereby Aatami’s loot of golden booty becomes just the right MacGuffin.
Your mileage with Sisu will depend on your satiation levels with pure, unmitigated genre action thrills. If that satisfies your viewing hunger, you will be more than sated. However, suppose, like me, you are looking for some added significance, a modern update, or perhaps deeper creative or artistic reasons for revisiting this particular moment in history, other than simply exploiting it for a 90-minute action thrill ride, in that case, you may leave the experience feeling a tad empty.
Although there is no greater purpose to this film other than to entertain with a tight, feature-length bit of distraction, fulfilling this simple motive to a level above most others—especially given the quality dilution of feature films due to streaming—this stands as a commendable feat in contemporary cinema.
It accomplishes this singular task with aplomb through a great soundtrack, those delightful chapter titles, and its deliciously gory dismemberment and lacerations, including digging out shrapnel from behind the skin and its copious, most excellent kills. At one point, our anti-hero Aatami even finds himself left to hang by the neck as we ponder how he will maintain his spirit of sisu through this ordeal.
The opening sequences are gripping with their build and tension, nicely setting the tone for the action as it ramps up to a high-flying feat that, only in the finale, despite surviving against all possible odds, starts to push the film into the hyperbolic heights of Brosnan’s final Bond Die Another Day territory, with implausible but nonetheless delicious aerial theatrics.
Throughout the film, Aatami and, thereby the actor, Jorma Tommila, is relentlessly punished at every turn. For aspiring screenwriters in the audience, the film provides the perfect example of the extremes to which you must punish your hero to continue building the audience’s empathy. Here, this narrative feat is accomplished to an exceptionally high level.
A nice subplot is how the caravan of women prisoners, led by Mimosa Willamo as Aino, enters into the fray of the action in the latter half of the film, finally lending some support to our one-man army. The film plays up this added wish fulfillment with cinematic verve, a la Reservoir Dogs’ slow-mo walk fetishizing in the latter half.
Sisu is not destined to be a cult classic, as it is too on the nose for that. However, it is destined to be a crowd-pleasing watch and, more importantly, a bonding evening between men who can sit back and revel in the well-constructed warrior/soldier lore this film dig’s a sharpened hunting knife squarely into the cranium of, right through the temples in fact. It’s a recommended watch for anyone in the mood for a good time, unconcerned for anything beyond that.
The one lasting impact this film had on me, besides its well-accomplished genre thrills that elevate it above other hackneyed iterations of war/action fare, is its dramatization of the “sisu” metaphor. The lone wolf triumphing over formidable base degenerates through the concept of never giving up is a message I continue to have patience for hearing repeatedly. No matter our endeavours, be they stealing our gold back from one horrid battalion of Nazis or figuring out how to earn a living as a film reviewer in 2023, the saying still applies: never give up. Refreshingly re-packaged through a Finnish word and narrative, this was essentially Churchill’s message to the Allied troops. And look what they accomplished.
Rating
3.5/5
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