I remember when I was a kid that my school had these readers full of short stories that were, theoretically I suppose, meant to interest kids in reading. I don’t remember many of them, but one that did stick out involved a young girl on a ship moving to America with her family. She was talking to her father about learning English, but he wanted to her to retain a couple Finnish words. One was sisu, loosely translated to mean “courage,” but only loosely. I remember it because the girl related how her father and older relatives argued over his decision to move to America, with the elders saying a Finn should have sisu and not be too afraid to stay in Finland when things are bad, to which her father replied that a Finn should have sisu and not be afraid to move somewhere new and challenging.
Anyway, I remembered all that when I saw the trailer for this Finnish action movie about an old man who takes on some really awful Nazis.
After some onscreen text explains a bit about what the untranslatable Finnish word “sisu” means, the movie cuts to an old man (Jorma Tommila) who cut himself off from the rest of humanity for reasons that are explained later. He’s a gold prospector whose only company is a horse and a small dog. However, it’s 1944, and the Nazis are in full retreat, but they’re also going on full scorched earth as they go. Sure, the old timer can just ignore the Nazi bombers as they fly overhead, but his efforts bear fruit as he finds a whole lot of gold. On his way back to cash in his gold, he comes across a Nazi patrol headed in the opposite direction with a handful of young women captured in the nearest village. One German thinks to gun the old timer down, but his commanding officer (Aksel Hennie) stops him, figuring the old man will be dead soon anyway.
Or not. A handful of Germans lagging behind the others discover the old man has a lot of gold and opt to kill him and keep his find. And that makes the old man angry. It seems the old guy is a Finnish commando, a guy who during a recent war with the Soviet Union killed maybe 300 Russians all by himself. He’s a man who just refuses to die, and he wants his gold back. However, the head German knows Germany is losing the war, and that gold may be the one thing that keeps him alive and free since these guys are Nazis and none of them seem to have any redeeming qualifications. So, it comes down to about two dozen well-armed Nazis soldiers with multiple vehicles and one tank up against one old timer who spends most of the movie silent and on foot. Best to pity the Nazis.
I remember seeing the trailer for his one and basically deciding I was going to see this movie. It promised me, basically, one badass old man taking on all kinds of Nazis, and that’s pretty much what I got. This isn’t a deep movie. It’s a pulpy movie with chapter headings showing an old man taking down Nazis, often while getting wounded himself, and showing only real concern to get his gold back and protect his dog. The women the Nazis took know who he is, and he does end up helping them too, but it really is all about getting his gold back. It might not make him the most sympathetic protagonist, but it really doesn’t matter since his enemies are Nazis, and they aren’t even remotely sympathetic. Besides, there is an explanation given about why the gold matter so much to the guy.
As it is, this is a movie with a lot of creative action sequences, despicable villains, and an old commando who just won’t stay down no matter what happens to him. This is the sort of movie where some of the things that happen probably shouldn’t be thought about too hard, but at roughly 90 minutes, it doesn’t waste time and jumps right into the action. It’s a movie that delivers exactly what it promises, and that was what I wanted. It’s just the right kind of gonzo crazy action.
Grade: B+
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