Ticket 2 Ride

I enjoy a good World War II film, so I took a chance on Sisu (2023), a film I’d never heard of. It was the film poster that intrigued me, which means that marketing can be very effective. The film was originally called Immortal, which is certainly easier to pronounce.

Most of us hate Nazis, and this film is about one man, with an assist from some women prisoners, who battle a group of Nazis fleeing Lapland, Finland near the end of the war. The Nazis are destroying everything as they retreat, and run across Aatami, who is headed the other way. Aatami is a former Finnish army officer, who left the army to live in peace and mine for gold, after years of killing invading Russians. He is a legend, a feared and respected fighter, who even the Finnish army feared. Aatam’s legend included over 300 Russian kills.

Aatami is a cross between Rambo and John Wick, a man you don’t want to piss off. The Nazis disregard this advice and attempt to take the gold away from him. Big mistake.

Jorma Tommila portrays Aatami, who is equally good with a large killing knife or a piece of wire and string to sew up his own wounds. Tommila, a Finnish actor in his early 60’s, could certainly take over parts played by Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Neeson, Ford, Willis, Gibson or other aging action stars. He has only two lines of dialogue in the film, which means he must act his character. Action films aren’t generally where one finds fine acting performances, but Tommila does here, even if the film often gets a bit campy at times with the violence.

Sisu could easily have been made by Robert Rodriguez or Quentin Tarantino, the styles are similar, even down to the chapter title cards, and the grisly humor and sense of absurdity.

I know you must be wondering…What does Sisu mean? Here is the meaning.

Sisu is a unique Finnish concept. It is a Finnish term that can be roughly translated into English as strength of will, determination, perseverance, and acting rationally in the face of adversity. Sisu is not momentary courage, but the ability to sustain that courage.

At first, I thought this film was a bit dark and violent and I might not stick with it. Strangely, I was drawn in and rather enjoyed it. The film doesn’t take itself too seriously and is absurd at times. Aatami is a one-man killing machine, though he seems to miraculously survive the exploding mines, hanging, setting himself on fire, a plane crash, knife and bullet wounds he collects along the way. He’s not superhero as the film’s director, Jalmari Helander, says in the commentary. Aatami just refuses to die. That’s an understatement.

The film’s look is bleak, the colors are muted in the burnt and destroyed landscape, yet the picture is crisp and very high definition. The production was filmed in Lapland for the brief explosion of autumn colors; yes, I did say explosion. There are yellows, oranges and reds, but they are subtle and nearly in the hidden in background. For a relatively low budget film, the CGI effects that provide the fires, explosions and smoky look, blend into the pixels of the location photography. Filming in Lapland carries some big challenges. Helander’s team had to secure landowner permission to do explosions, of which there are a few. The production had to truck in their own ash and a different kind of soil material for the explosions. In addition, the production team had to seek permission to film in areas where reindeer are kept.

Finnish writer/director Helander does not have a lengthy resume on imdb.com, mainly short writing and directing short films and television. His last theatrical film, Big Game, starred Samuel L. Jackson in an action/adventure film about rescuing the president of the United States (Jackson), when he must evacuate Air Force One. Sisu is a smaller scope film, but no less enthralling.

On rottentomatoes.com, the audience score is 88 percent, while the critics score is 94 percent. Those are very good scores, I’m glad they agree with me. Enjoy.