Let Sisu be a forever lesson for all the screenwriters out there. If you’re ever struggling with choosing a villain for your film. Just pick the Nazis. It frees you up to just make gory cathartic happiness for your audience as the most evil regime in the world gets repeatedly murdered. Sisu is a fun bloody revenge thriller, but because Sisu’s enemies are the Nazis? His revenge makes him a superhero and not a crazy unkillable Michael Myers like psychopath. I take that back: Michael Myers couldn’t have an adorable dog companion.
Aatami Korpi (Jorma Tommila) lives in isolation with his dog during the 1944 Lapland War between the Nazis and Finnish people in northern Finland. A miner by trade, Korpi finds a stockpile of gold that will make him filthy rich, eager to take it to the first town he finds. Only problem is, platoon leader Bruno Helldorf (Aksel Hennie) and a small battalion of Nazis stand in the way of Aatami getting the payout he wants.
Sisu is less a war movie, and more a very violent Finnish Western. Aatami spends the first 20 minutes or so riding a horse over sprawling vistas and hills in the desolate northern Finnish Lapland. Director Jalmari Helander makes each confrontation between Korpi and the Nazis a very slow build; you can almost feel the Enrico Morricone score (like a Spaghetti western from the 1970s) during the stand off as the silent Sisu just listens as Bruno and other Nazis cackle with false self confidence. As we go further into these standoffs, we learn more about Aatami Korpi’s backstory, told in tales across various Finnish people. Westerns are built off of legend, reputation, stoic warriors, deplorable bad guys, etc. Each new piece we learn makes the hero seem more and more incredible, further enhancing his legend, and the fear in the eyes of the Nazis as they slowly realize what they’re up against. No cowboy hats though.
Sisu traded his in for a pickaxe and shield a long time ago. After about 15 minutes of setup, we get one pickaxe through a head and never look back. I mean, Jalmari Helander guessed right. We’ve all seen Nazi’s killed, but we’ve never seen them completely blown to pieces in every satisfying way possible. A minefield, for example, means we get many mines to watch many Nazi body parts just fly into a red sprayed sky as we cackle with glee at their demise. Helander moves Sisu to different types of locations in the Lapland for more types of creative kills/escapes. I found Sisu best when it had at least one foot tethered to reality but also some sequence I’ve never seen before, a rare special combo. There are two in Sisu: one insane underwater sequence and one really horrifying but clever way to avoid being hung. For the big finale, we just go right for the most satisfying ending as possible with multiple Finnish takes on Indiana jones movies but with a seemingly immortal Finnish miner.
Sisu is an untranslatable Finnish word, describing something of stoic determination and tenacity. Perfect, no notes! Everyone in the audience smiles as Nazis hear what Sisu means and they start to cower in fear over what’s coming to them. Me? I just like shouting SISU! like in the trailer.