Jalmari Helander | Finland | 2022 | 91 minutes
With the action film Sisu, Jalmari Helander values narrative momentum packed into a 90-minute running time over the bloat of current two-hour Hollywood action films. Helander’s commitment to succinct and progressively adventurous action sequences makes you want to stand up and cheer, until you stop for a moment to think about almost anything the film has to say.
Lean and Mean
The surface level simplicity of Sisu‘s plot obscures the complex historical context of the story. During the Lapland War, the Soviet Union agreed to end hostilities with Finland if Finland expelled all German soldiers within its borders. An animated map in the opening sequence illustrates the presence of the Germans in northern Finland. Maps of Nazi military movement have been war film trope since at least the Why We Fight series. (See examples in The Nazi’s Strike, including 34 minute mark). But in Sisu the trope glosses over the fact that the Germans were already there. Finland had formed an alliance with Nazi Germany against the Soviet Union after the Winter War in 1939.
A prospector, Aatami Korpi (Jorma Tommila), appears to live outside of this history, outside the conflict that surrounds him. Warplanes fly over him and bombs explode in the distance. None of that commotion matters when Aatami discovers gold. Stylized color grading makes the rustic landscapes pop. No lush greens here, just oversaturated yellows and browns and magic hour highlights. Atmospheric haze and smoke from detonated landmines quickly replace the depth of those landscapes. Long lenses replace the wide angle views in depth, flattening the space, allowing Helander to stitch together violence and gore in nearly abstract continuity.
On his way to town with his gold, Aatami encounters German soldiers led by SS Obersturmführer Bruno Helldorf (Aksel Hennie). Outnumbered and outgunned, Aatami creatively kills the soldiers who try to rob him. He temporarily escapes into a minefield. Here begins the spectacle that propels Sisu more than the bare-bones plot. The central enigma is whether Aatami will make it to town with his gold. The more important question appears to be “How many ways can I blow up thee?”. Helander answers, “Let me count the ways.”
Hero or Zero-sum Game?
Helander makes a few nods to Quentin Tarantino, including not-so-subtle chapter headings and cartoonish violence. Bruno discovers Aatami’s past as a Finnish commando who fought against the Red Army during the Winter War. Aatami earned the nickname Koschei, the “Immortal,” by killing hundreds of Soviet troops, recalling the intimidating nicknames Aldo “The Apache” Raine and Donny “The Bear Jew” Donowitz in Inglourious Basterds.
There are two significant differences between Aatami and the Basterds. First, before Aatami started killing Nazis in Sisu, he would have been an ally of the Nazis. Earned his nickname when fighting and killing their mutual enemy, the Soviets. This brands the film with a particularly unpleasant flavor of nihilism. Superficially “sisu,” the word without a direct correlation in English, is supposed to evoke the steadfast perseverance of die-hard nationalism.
Second, when it comes down to it, Aatami’s fight is just about getting to town with his gold. This undermines the more admirable message that Aatami would repel any invader to protect his homeland. While Aatami sees plenty of evidence of the Nazi “scorched earth” policy as they withdraw from Finland, his fight begins and ends with the gold.
Ross Bonaime at Collider exemplifies a common response from popular film critics, concluding that “sometimes it’s just fun to watch an obscene amount of Nazis get what’s coming to them.” But Aatami is not Rick from Casablanca rejoining the resistance after a period of neutrality. The plot structure suggests that it almost doesn’t matter who he’s fighting. Sure, I’m all for rooting against Nazis. But that does not mean that I want to root for a hyperviolent, omnipotent, and masochistic libertarian.
Two factors carry us past these issues, if we’re willing to play the game that the film sets in motion for us. First, Helander escalates not only violence but also his bold visual audacity across the film. Sisu completely disregards what bullets do, despite Helander’s abundant affection for firing off infinite rounds of of them. Aatami frequently uses human bodies as shields, as if 50-caliber turret gun rounds would stop their trajectory after ripping through just one body. Bodies are to Sisu what kevlar suits are to John Wick 4. Aatami’s “Immortal” qualities eventually take a turn toward the superhuman and supernatural. This is either frustratingly silly or wildly amusing, depending on your sensibility.
Second, Jorma Tommila has abundant screen charisma in his nearly wordless performance as Aatami. Perhaps it is for the best that Aatami is silent, because his words likely would be ideologically problematic.
Then again, it might be ideologically problematic that I admired Sisu as much as I did. I’m not sure whether Helander’s admirable fight against Hollywood action bloat actually gets us to a better place than we were before.
Originally viewed at Marcus Point Cinema, May 9, 2023. Now available to rent or purchase on home video.