2023's Sisu brings creative exploitation thrills to a WWII setting.
Listen at the podcast providers of your choice.
2023's Sisu is one of my favorite underrated action gems from the past five years. I mean you put together a movie where a wordless Finnish bad-ass mercilessly kills a bunch of Nazis in increasingly brutal ways? And he's got a fluffy dog? Sign me the hell up. What I never expected is that the movie would somehow...get a sequel. Then again if you make a banger like this for $6 million, why not come back for more? So before the equally high-rated sequel arrives, I thought I'd revisit this bloody beast and see what stands out.
The Setup
Set during the end of WWII during the Lapland War between Finnish and Nazi forces, the movie follows a former Finnish soldier Aatami Korpi as he lives a quiet life mining for gold. But when he strikes it rich and bumps into a bunch of Nazis fresh from their scorched earth campaign, Korpi will tap into his lethal skill set to survive and take revenge on the Nazi platoon.
There's a lot of reasons to enjoy this movie, but the biggest one is that...we don't make movies like this nowadays. With a handful of recent exceptions like Overlord, the majority of films about the World Wars are high end dramas that make the human costs of the conflict impossible to ignore often with scale and spectacle that's meant to horrify, not inspire or fist pump.
But Sisu is going the exploitation movie route, which means the point here isn't for accuracy and solemnity or greater themes about sacrifice. We're here to watch a bad-ass old man kill a bunch of Nazis in increasingly comical and over-the-top ways. A comedic undercurrent that lets the audience know this is not history, nor that serious, now watch this unkillable old man stab some more Nazis with a pick-axe.
With that main gimmick in place, we can essentially stack a bunch of fun set pieces and other gimmicks on top of one another for a brisk 90 minute violent romp of a movie. Added gimmick number one? Our protagonist.
Gimmick #1: Korpi
Aatami Korpi is one of my favorite screen creations within recent memory because he is basically a silent video game protagonist...by choice.
Within the context of the film this makes sense, since he's initially trying to avoid the Nazis he encounters and once they start trying to kill him and his dog for gold, what is there to talk about? Let the pile of stabbed bodies speak for you and your intentions.
From a filmmaking standpoint, this is a fun gimmick because you'll lean on other characters to fill in the blanks about who Korpi is and what he's capable of, while also living by the "show, don't tell" rule for Korpi to convey what he cares about or what his intentions are.
Case in point, this is a guy who would much rather set himself on fire for 10 seconds than hurt a dog.
From a storytelling perspective, this means that the Nazis and the audience get to guess about what Korpi will do when faced with each new challenge. It seems absolutely insane that a solitary man would stare down a platoon of Nazis with a tank and heavy machine guns...but he's also not backing down...and then he makes his move and it's wild and seemingly brilliant at the same time.
It's a fun game the movie plays with early on, before letting Korpi embrace his inner Indiana Jones/one man army approach.
Gimmick #2: Revel in Offing Nazis...in Absurd Ways
The exploitation movie angle of, let's have this guy kill Nazis for 90 minutes, is an easy fish in a barrel sell. It's the same hook Quentin Tarantino used for Inglourious Basterds except we're more in the John Wick territory of "you have no idea who you just pissed off." So regardless of how Korpi mows through these assholes, it was going to be a lot of fun.
But Sisu revels in its over-the-top violence committed against this squad of Nazis in a way few modern movies have.
Care for an example? Well I've got a perfect one.
At one point Korpi has accidentally wandered onto a minefield and quickly makes his escape from the platoon. Which means if the Nazis want to pursue him, they're going to have to go over a minefield...that they made.
So our commander sends some of his soldiers to navigate the minefield. One of whom is blown into a bunch of flying limbs almost immediately....and we watch his limbs fly through the air...and then those limbs land on mines. Just a double deuce to these shitheads for even existing.
It's a gleeful approach to violence that can feel very juvenile, but hits really really well when the targets are deserving like say...a platoon of Nazis who are in the midst of scorched earth campaign and have kidnapped a bunch of women they refer to as "bitches" for the entire movie.
Conclusion: Nazi Killing Bonanza
The fun of Sisu is the fun of most exploitation movies. All of the same thrills of an action movie with all the pretense sanded down. Now let's watch this unkillable man stab more Nazis in the face.
No comments:
Post a Comment