Movie Review: Sisu
By Jason T. Smith
Creative Editor
We’ve all seen John Wick: Chapter 4 by now, excellent film, but who remembers the trailer about a gold miner destroying Nazis? I sure the hell do! That movie is Sisu, and if you are an action flick buff or just a movie lover, then your not going to want to miss this. If badass were a movie, it would be this.
Sisu, directed by Jalmari Helander, takes place towards the end of World War 2 with our main character Aatami, a Finnish gold miner played by Jorma Tommila, traveling away from the war he had left to find gold along with his loyal dog and horse. Things are going great when he strikes it rich, finding a massive vein of the precious metal. But that joyous moment is short-lived as he travels along a lonely road with his newfound treasure only to encounter a Nazi death squad immediately followed by another Nazi death squad. While the first, larger squad allows him to pass with the squad general Bruno Helldorf, played by Askel Hennie, making the smug comment that the gold miner is walking to his death, indicating that the second squad won’t be as nice, which they absolutely are not. That squad of seven pieces of grade-A Nazi trash is quick to attack Aatami and rummage through his saddle packs to find the gold. They attempt to finish our Finnish hero, but he signals for his dog to run away, and as the squad leader turns his attention to trying to shoot his canine companion unsuccessfully, he takes a bowie knife to the head from Aatami that pretty much goes in one ear and out the other…literally! He quickly makes short work of the Germans using their own guns against them. That scene alone, just wow, I mean, who doesn’t like seeing a nazi getting the top of his head blown off, right.
Without spoiling it for those of you who haven’t seen it, you can guess that that first death squad catches wind of their comrades getting shredded to sauerkraut, and that’s where the real fun begins. Sisu is like if John Wick was a Finnish gold miner slaughtering the worst people history has ever known in some of the most satisfying death scenes I’ve ever seen in a war movie. The gore is off the charts good and portrays Nazis as they should be remembered…with pick axes through their skulls!
Sisu is one of those movies you watch and say, “Damn, what did I just watch?” In a good way. This film checked all the boxes for me and is easily one of the best films I’ve seen this year.
Rating: FIVE Pastrami Nations out of FIVE
