A parable as told in three simultaneous soliloquies? Anti-war mini drama that succeeds in what must be used to combat such aggression, forcing the enemy to see each other as actual people. Well at least as archetypes.
Comedy is introduced via the fact that the three leads share no tongue, and in fact, oft times the exact wrong message is misunderstood amongst them. Again, this amplifies the mistakes that masters of war can make. In more typical comedies, we get the wink in a scene before the scene, i.e. we know a dog is already dead before something peculiar happens...but in this the humor is left to the subtitles, unless you've got polyglot potential.
Still the film by and large worked even for this ugly American, the strangeness of the languages and the scenario (I knew vaguely of Laplander life, and had no idea how they would be affected by WWII). In some ways, this film is really quite simple and had Hollywood made it, I'm not sure if I would grade it as favorably to be honest.
For example, the Prometheus reference was enough without having Veiko actually utter it. Also how would one accept the near-death journey across the Finnish finish line. And in the US, would we have been as charmed by Renee Zellweger in the female lead? Hopefully we'll never know, this film is perfectly enjoyable as it is. The story/locale is not our nest, and we should respect that.
I found the two male leads quite well-spoken on the extra portion of the DVD, as befits their roles. We are led to believe that these two warriors are really more sensitive literal souls, a reader and a poet. I did like the former's attempt to use book titles, "War and Peace", "The Idiot" in his fruitless attempts to communicate to "Ivan." On the extras, the female lead seemed miles away from her "salt of the earth" (ironically without any salt) character in the film.
Spoiler coming...again I think this film is worth watching. Stop reading here if you have not yet, please.
So the ending, I guess is needed to really play up the parable in this...we are all brothers, or all our children are brothers. Interesting that the film was made by a Russian director, and the Russian character in the film is the more misguided missile. Of course, hinging his hatred upon the Germans and the SS band does make for a more complicated film, but the tale here really is quite simple.
Yet not so simply heeded...sadly.
7/10
Comedy is introduced via the fact that the three leads share no tongue, and in fact, oft times the exact wrong message is misunderstood amongst them. Again, this amplifies the mistakes that masters of war can make. In more typical comedies, we get the wink in a scene before the scene, i.e. we know a dog is already dead before something peculiar happens...but in this the humor is left to the subtitles, unless you've got polyglot potential.
Still the film by and large worked even for this ugly American, the strangeness of the languages and the scenario (I knew vaguely of Laplander life, and had no idea how they would be affected by WWII). In some ways, this film is really quite simple and had Hollywood made it, I'm not sure if I would grade it as favorably to be honest.
For example, the Prometheus reference was enough without having Veiko actually utter it. Also how would one accept the near-death journey across the Finnish finish line. And in the US, would we have been as charmed by Renee Zellweger in the female lead? Hopefully we'll never know, this film is perfectly enjoyable as it is. The story/locale is not our nest, and we should respect that.
I found the two male leads quite well-spoken on the extra portion of the DVD, as befits their roles. We are led to believe that these two warriors are really more sensitive literal souls, a reader and a poet. I did like the former's attempt to use book titles, "War and Peace", "The Idiot" in his fruitless attempts to communicate to "Ivan." On the extras, the female lead seemed miles away from her "salt of the earth" (ironically without any salt) character in the film.
Spoiler coming...again I think this film is worth watching. Stop reading here if you have not yet, please.
So the ending, I guess is needed to really play up the parable in this...we are all brothers, or all our children are brothers. Interesting that the film was made by a Russian director, and the Russian character in the film is the more misguided missile. Of course, hinging his hatred upon the Germans and the SS band does make for a more complicated film, but the tale here really is quite simple.
Yet not so simply heeded...sadly.
7/10