Cliffs of Freedom

As a HS world history teacher I would highly recommend this user-friendly supplement exemplar for a unit on the rise of a nationalist movement against imperialist oppression. The rarely told story of the 19th C Greek revolt against the Ottoman Empire is beautifully rendered here, replete with all the various points of view of the various levels of participant in both sides of the struggle. Feminists will love the female hero leader. It is rarely simplistic and satisfyingly complex. The characters are refreshingly multi-dimensional and motives are well developed. Costumes and battle scenes are appropriately juicy for a period piece of modest origins. Great story based on a novel. I was pleasantly surprised at how engaging it is! Great stand-out performances by the cast in general but especially from the notables Christopher Plummer, Patti Lupone, Billy Zane et al. A fun 2'15" film.

I expected a sily movie. It was not.

There was conflict, there was goodness there was betrayal. It wasn't perfect. Obviously a low budget movie. But you will like it.

The movie has some major problems regarding the way the Orthodox Faith and Church is presented:

1) The actors don't do their cross in the Orthodox way. 2) The Orthodox priests are presented as supporters of the Ottoman Empire and totally against Greek independence, which is historically VERY WRONG! As we know from History, the Orthodox priests not only supported the Greek revolution against the Turks but also took part in the battles.

The Greek War for Independence is not covered much (or at all) in the US. While this is not a strict telling of history, this historical "Romeo & Juliet"-esque romance/drama is set against a backdrop of this war in the early 1800s when Greece finally moved to open rebellion after 400 years of occupation by the Ottoman Empire. Overall enjoyable if you can forgive some of the heavy-handed tropes from historical romances that creep in.

Where to start? From the unrealistic story of a greek woman falling in love for a Turkish officer during the rebelion? From the horrible CGI? From the Bollywood style of the whole movie? That is written by someone that knows nothing about the actual history and tries to make money from the lack of movies based on that period? Or that it was only made so the leading woman can have a movie? Terrible terrible terrible if not an insult to the Greek Independence!