Deleting Nazis is always a good thing. I think what draws so many of us to movies like
Sisu is that we get to cheer on grotesque over-the-top violence because Nazis are on the receiving end of it. That was certainly one of the reasons I watched it. Violence against murderous racist nationalists wasn’t the
only reason but it was certainly
thee biggest selling point. As “gritty” and violent as this movie is, it’s still very cartoonish and intentionally silly. It isn’t rooted in reality. Outside of the basic plot involving a retired mercenary/gold prospector murdering Nazis that are trying to steal his gold, this movie owes a lot to the western genre which is also rooted in fantasy.
If you aren't a fan of movies with lots of references & homages then this may not be for you. The references aren't as obvious as a Tarantino or Robert Rodriguez movie, but there are still plenty...
The biggest influences style-wise were a lot of old Western movies - Jalmari Helander, loudandclearreviews.com
While
There will Be Blood isn’t a gun-slinging cowboy movie, it is technically a western that’s about striking it rich much like
Sisu... |
There Will be Blood / Sisu
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Even western-influenced films like the
Mad Max saga seems to have rubbed off on
Sisu. This could, and probably is, coincidental but the similarities are still there...
You could argue Mad Max is a western with wheels - George Miller, cinemadaily
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Mad Max: Fury Road / Sisu
Mad Max: Fury Road / Sisu
Mad Max: Fury Road / Sisu
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| Mad Max: Fury Road / Sisu |
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This is a movie that many have jumped to compare to
Inglorious Basterds. I get it. On the most surface of levels these are two movies set during World War II that use the same loophole where we’re allowed to cheer on violence & murder because it’s against Nazis. Again - I’m totally ok with that. The problem is
Inglorious Basterds goes too far and misses the mark because they try to rewrite history by murdering Adolf Hitler with machine guns. It sort of cheapens history and makes it cartoonish when it wasn’t. This is nothing new and I wouldn’t put this entire criticism on
Inglorious Basterds. For decades the media has made Hitler out to be this cartoonish villain when in reality he was a very real person that was very very evil. Again - this is bigger than Quentin Tarantino. Movies have been doing this with Nazis and Hitler for a very long time. One minute they're fumbling idiots and the next minute they're evil masterminds (
JoJo Rabbit is good example of this).
Tarantino does the same thing with
Django Unchained and slavery. And folks ate it up. Especially Black folks. Jaimie Foxx whips a white plantation owner so somehow that makes everything even (I'm obviously joking but the way people cheered that movie on you would have thought that was the case). Making chattel slavery out to be a blaxploitation story just cheapens and almost lightens the atrocity that was American chattel slavery. Again -
Django Unchained is hardly the first movie to do this with, but its existence certainly doesn’t help. I just don’t like revenge fan-fiction with real life events (that’s why I took issue with ending of
Once Upon A Time In Hollywood)
There are some super obvious visual comparisons that can be made between
Inglorious and
Sisu but what I find most interesting are things like both directors using chapters/title cards the break up their respective stories...
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| Inglorious Basterds / Sisu |
Tarantino's potential influence/connections aside, this is a fun movie with some fun scenes and good movie references/homages. Fans of all the movies I mentioned in this post will get a kick out of it.
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Dr Strangelove / Sisu
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