3 Short Paragraphs (Or Not): Sisu

2022, Jalmari Helander (Rare Exports: A Christmas Story) -- cinema

"It's _____ meets _____ ," is how I expect many of the reviews of this movie to go. John Wick will be in there, Quentin Tarantino will be in there. Anyone else? I am not very fond of that trend of breaking something new down into the components that are already familiar in the pop culture eye. This movie is an ultra-violent flick set in WWII, in Finland, about a lone figure who goes up against a platoon of soldiers when they try to fuck with him. And he fucks them up. Into chunks.

OK, let's look at the Rotten Tomatoes posts and see if my previous ascertainment holds. Let's see, I have a "if Sergio Leone had been alive to direct Crank," and a review that calls the main character a "Mad Max maniac," and, "Liam Neeson-esque 'arse-whupping senior' and Inglourious Basterds terrain." And that's just from the Top Critics list. I think my thoughts stand.

The movie begins in the empty beauty of Lapland, vast mostly-flat rolling hills of small scrub and lichen, after a brief history lesson of Finland in WWII: they started the war fighting against the Soviet Union in a horrific "winter war" which ended in an armistice that demanded they drive the Nazis out of Finland. In retribution, the Germans pulled out with a scorched earth method, leaving only the dead behind. Our main character has walked away from all this, but the scars on his body show he was once very very much part of it.

Aatami Korpi is called "The Immortal" by other Finns who have heard of him, a soldier who has constantly survived when the odds were against him. The Germans know his name as well, seeing him as a Wick-ian boogeyman (yeah I had too as well), a name to strike fear in the hearts of evil men (of note, that idiom doesn't seem to have a defined source, where as I had always assumed it as a quote that just kept on constantly getting misquoted). He exemplifies "sisu" an almost indescribable term for Finns implying fortitude, perseverance, grit, an inner strength to continue even when all hope is lost.

First the Germans try to take his gold from him, then they drive him into a minefield, then they chase him down with a tank and many many soldiers, then they hang him, and then... well, you get the point. This retreating (some would say fleeing) company of German soldiers just want to leave the bleak country with something to show for their troubles, but Korpi is not giving up his gold.

It's ridiculous what he survives, almost Looney Tunes blunderbuss-in-the-face-your-bill-pointing-backwards level of unreality. The violence is ultra, the evil is capital E and the hero's grit is something that will never wash out. Not sure if Kent found it as much fun as I did, but it sure was ... an experience.