In our increasingly connected — and, by extension, overly discursive — world, where limitless information can be collated and accessed with a few taps of our fingers, it’s easy to forget that not everything needs to mean more than what it presents itself to be, particularly when it comes to cinema. This isn’t to say that critically analyzing film isn’t without its merits — this article (and this industry) wouldn’t exist without it. Nor does this mean films that challenge us (intellectually, philosophically, socially, etc.) are trying too hard, but, at its foundation, movies are meant to entertain.
When all you want is to shut off your brain at the end of a long work week, the last thing you’ll likely turn on is a movie that requires optimum mental capacity. Between one work day and the next, the average viewer has a finite amount of time during which they can actually sit back and relax. Indeed, most of us turn to movies to be entertained, thrilled, and transported, passive audiences looking for a couple of hours of escape. There’s no problem with this; further, there’s no problem with movies that seek to provide this.
SISU is precisely this movie: it takes itself seriously enough to string together a blood-drenched action thrill ride that is immediately engrossing, but doesn’t necessarily burden itself too much with matters of realism, probability, or even, when it comes to certain ballistic patterns, physics. What’s more, if you settle into the film, you’ll find that you, too, don’t care much about all of that fluff either.
SISU Merges Hollywood Action with Finnish Mythology
Written and directed by Jalmari Helander (Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale, Big Game), SISU stars Jorma Tommila as Aatami Korpi, a war veteran who comes across an abundance of gold in the wilderness of Lapland (the largest region in Finland’s north). It’s the end of World War II, and the Nazis have adopted a “scorched-earth” tactic as they leave the country, decimating every town in their path and taking a handful of captives with them. A platoon of a few dozen Nazi soldiers crosses Aatami’s path, and though they initially take no interest in him, it all changes when they discover his gold. Little do they know that Aatami was nicknamed “The Immortal” during the Winter War for his combat skills and brutality.
Per his interview with Rogert Ebert, Helander drew inspiration from Rambo: First Blood and the titular idea of “sisu,” which is a Finnish term denoting ineffable strength of will. This merging of high-octane Hollywood action (that stretches the notions of what’s realistic) with a sort of Finnish mythology is immediately evident in SISU. Cinematographer Kjell Lagerroos’ lens sweeps across the desolate plains, almost drone-like, but also finds moments for stillness, closing in on Tommila’s face. Against the vastness of the Finnish wilderness, there’s a god-like (or, at the very least, more-than-human) quality to Aatami.
Related: Exclusive SISU Clip Details the One Man Death Squad of Explosive New Action Drama
Of course, it helps that, for 99% of the movie, Tommila only grunts or growls, and that Juri Seppä and Tuomas Wäinölä’s heraldic score bursts through the screen. Helander is also wise to break up the film into several chapters — whose title cards are reminiscent of 80s action movies — and, more importantly, spare us some time alone with Aatami at the beginning. We don’t know much about him when we first meet him, but Tommila’s ability to track all of his character’s fleeting emotions with a flick of an eye or a snarl is all we need to lean in.
A One-Man-Army Against the Nazis
Lionsgate
Once the action in SISU starts, it becomes an all-out gore fest. Between knives to the head and Aatami using Nazi soldiers as human shields, it almost seems like each action sequence strives to outdo the one that precedes it. Naturally, any action film that soars this close to the sun will ask of its audiences a considerable suspension of disbelief, but there’s something satisfying about all of it — he’s killing Nazis after all. Indeed, there’s a sleekness to the way Helander captures Aatami’s movements, following him as he weaves through the Nazi platoon, making quick work of the soldiers. It is, at once, brutal and balletic, not unlike the currently reigning one-man-army champion, John Wick.
Related: SISU Trailer: Vengeance Is Golden in Highly-Acclaimed Action Flick
Sure, one could argue that SISU doesn’t really go anywhere beyond gory action, nor does it offer anything new to the genre, but it doesn’t need to do any of that to be an incredibly fun 91 minutes of white supremacy’s ass being kicked — which is particularly welcome in the current U.S. political climate. No, SISU is ultimately a finely-crafted film that harkens to action movies of the past, while simultaneously bringing a modern touch to our world history. It may color within the lines established by other wartime action movies that have come before it, but does so successfully.
Lionsgate will be handling SISU’s North American distribution. The film opens in over 1000 theaters nationwide on April 28, 2023.
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