Sisu (Prime Video)
Rating: **
If you like limbs being chopped, foreheads being impaled, bones being crunched and animals being harmed, then Sisu is your poison.
Toxic and traumatic and utterly devoid of any moral equilibrium, this generic action film about the protagonist versus the antagonist could have been set in any era. This Finnish product chooses Nazi Finland during World war 2 and casts the veteran 64-year old Finnish actor Jorma Tomilla as Aatami .
Aatami is the Lone Ranger from the Wild West on a homerun to salvation like Sylvester Stallone in the Rambo series. Aatami has a huge cache of gold with which he must cross a Nazi infested wasteland where battle tanks roll like waterless thunder.
The Nazis could be replaced by wolves or crocodiles, it would make no difference to the narrative . This is a generic action film where the stunts are played by numbers, like item songs in Bollywood films. You can pick your favourite bloodbath sequence and play it repeatedly until you are satiated.
Yes, lights camera and…action, action and more action. Admittedly the Finnish leading man makes mayhem look aesthetic. He has a way of nipping his enemy’s body parts off, like an artistic butcher . Vendetta is a byword in Sisu. Violence a given. So if you have a weak stomach do not waste your time and energy watching Aatami play hide and shriek with the Nazi villain Aksel Hennie whose lipsmacking savagery will please fans of bloodshed.
The film is frenetic in pace. It doesn’t want to let go of our attention for even a second. To ensure our uninterrupted attention the head count is massively maximized. After a while the violence gets oppressive, and grandly gratuitous.
It is disturbing to know kids love Sisu and its comicstrip brutality.This is an adult comic book take where the violence is rationalized by the theme of vendetta. But what exactly is the hero protecting, besides his precious gold, and for whom?
Watch at your own risk, if you haven’t already. And don’t look for any cinematic quality. The performances are nerve-grating. Even the canine combining with the hero in his combat over-acts.