Talvisota

Saw Talvisota. It was a war movie, a genre I feel I have already thoroughly explored. It follows the usual story arc: fresh-faced recruits become grim warriors, discover war is serious business, have a meaningless and disappointing visit home, witness complete breakdown of rhyme and reason on the front before ending in a victory that maybe (bear with me here) but just maybe wasn't even worth it to begin with? This film does nothing new and a lot that is old. Perhaps it was groundbreaking when it debuted? I've had books and films spoiled for me before by too-frequent homages and thefts by later works (The Hobbit, Citizen Kane, and The Maltese Falcon come to mind in this regard.)

As it stands, this film is about three brothers who go to war. Once shit begins seriously hitting the fan, they all become permanently coated with a shifting layer of dust, grime, and beard. Unfortunately at this point I am no longer able to tell them apart, or even distinguish them from their non-sibling comrades. I believe they die one by one with possibly one last brother surviving. I have no idea really, because apart from one bald character, I couldn't tell them apart at all. I'm only slightly embarrassed about this because (in my arrogance) I feel I already know everything a relatively honest war film has to say. War is a senseless waste which is abhorrent to human nature, there is absolutely nothing ennobling or moral about it, and the combatants ultimately become so dehumanized that by the end they are merely cringing mammals, reacting arbitrarily to stimuli. Being subjected to the same thesis, told in a variety of doleful ways, could be viewed as a metaphor for war itself. It is repetitive, numbing, and unending. I have yet to begin sawing through a list of war movies.

Hopefully I'll look back at the above someday and cringe at how badly I missed the point. I really hope there's more to be said about war by someone, someday. I hate to relegate an entire genre to irrelevance (especially as we are in fact currently in a war, as we have been somewhere or other, continually, for the past 13 years.) I hope the above is just sophomoric reaction to the raw horror of war, and that I'm wrong about war films. I guess I'll see what the future holds.