An American tourist in Russia
Today I reluctantly watched this movie so I could write a review, and I completely regret it. Sisu is, and I’m not exaggerating, one of the worst movies I have ever seen in my life. And no, I don’t think it is a coincidence that we saw a suspiciously well-funded theatrical release of a Finnish war movie right around the same time as they joined NATO.
On 5 April, 1241, Alexander Nevsky of Novgorod crushed invading crusader knights atop the frozen Lake Peipus. In 1939, Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein immortalized the day in film. Let’s reflect on the cinematic and political importance of the Eisenstein movie and the centuries-old conflict it portrays.
Recently Maria and I watched the 1934 Soviet film Chapaev, a biopic of Vasily Chapaev, a Russian folk hero from the Civil War. 88 years later, this movie aged well and is still as relevant as ever. Movies tend to grow stale over time and become unwatchable (who wants to watch a typical film from the 1930s, for the love of God), but this isn’t one of them. Chapaev is just as watchable and exciting as any contemporary war movie, and the lessons are just as important now as they were when it first hit the silver screen.
