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Reviews
The Promise (2011)
Strange view of the situation.
I have lived for a longish time in the Israel, but I am not Jewish or arab. Even though the reason I was in the area was actually that I'm so interested in history.
There are so many points in this mini-series that I ponder about. The biggest one before watching the series was if this was yet another pro- zionist or pro-jihadist series.
Well. I got my answer. The other questions I came up while and after watching it.
1. Why do they comment the wall on west bank as "disgusting" but fail to mention how much bombings & suicide attacks against Israel have decreased after it was built?
2. I do agree that Irgun and Jewish attacks against British government were acts of terrorism, but still the series brings the happenings out of proportions: "Oh my, the Irgun did a few bombings, so they're more evil than jihad terrorists that have made hundreds of such attacks, and not just against military but in fact mostly civilian targets". If you're military, you might be a target. But if you're civilian, any civilized soldier will leave you alone.
3. Lots of small things. Blackpainting of Jewish civilians (the counter- protest part), IDF soldiers who seem like Nazis (contrary to my own personal experiences), taking comments about forcing arabs to move contrary to the reality, arabs were told and encouraged to stay in their homes, etc.
I have been personally to / close the locations where the modern day events take place. This did bring me back a lot of memories. I've seen conflicts similar to what the series described, but both sides were throwing rocks, palestines threw even bottles and molotov coctails until IDF came in and the ran away. It ain't as black & white as the series shows. It tries to show Jewish and IDF as evil Nazis. Unfortunately.
The series had its potential, lost by a very one-sided view.
Tuntematon sotilas (1985)
I find the 1985 version superior over 1955 version.
I find the 1985 version of "Tuntematon sotilas" far superior over the older version. The new version is much more realistic in its description of the war. The actors are of real age instead of the original movie. Also all the battle scenes really give the feeling of chaos when defensive lines are shattered and despair takes over the men.
The film describes continuation war with good accuracy. Also I like how the characters develop over the film. At start the green men who are panicking easily and so afraid of the enemy who they don't even see... To the heroic defensive battles against Russian tank hordes at the end.
Many of the since-unknown actors have now become main pillars of Finnish movies and entertainment. Mollberg's idea of using less famous people than Laine did in his version works. When movie was released the faces weren't familiar - and so the characters are much more neutral.
All-in-all I consider the 1985 Tuntematon sotilas as one of the best and realistic war movies ever made, close to second is "Winter War" - another Finnish war movie.